Notices About $250 Payments Already Causing Confusion

The notices that Social Security has sent out about the $250 economic stimulus payments are already causing confusion. See the short piece in the Miami Herald. Telling people about the SSI consequences of holding onto the $250 payment for more than nine months may have been TMI (Too Much Information).

Results Of Last Week's Unscientific Poll

What Brings About Your Interest In Social Security News

I work at Social Security Central Offices (33)	16%
I Work In Social Security Field Operations (35)	17%
I Work In Some Other Part Of Social Security (36)	18%
I Am Involved In Representing Social Security Claimants (71)	35%
I Work At A Non-Profit Interested In Social Security (1)	0%
I Am Involved In Lobbying (0)	0%
I Work In A Congressional Office (2)	1%
I Work For Some Government Agency Other Than Social Security (5)	2%
I Work At A DDS (8)	4%
I Am A Social Security Claimant Or Recipient (14)	7%

Total Votes: 205

Social Security Subcommittee Hearing

The House Social Security Subcommittee has announced an oversight hearing to be held on April 28 to review Social Security's progress in implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that gave the agency new funding to work down its backlogs and build a new national computer center and gave the agency new responsibilities in implementing a special $250 payment to most beneficiaries.

Is This Worth The Money?

Today's Federal Register contains an announcement that Social Security is planning to form a Financial Literacy Research Consortium (FLRC) with the idea of encouraging saving for retirement. According to the announcement:

The Financial Literacy Research Consortium (FLRC) will be an innovative, non-partisan multidisciplinary research and development (R&D)initiative to develop products to better inform the public about key financial literacy topics related to retirement savings and planning. We are interested in developing products--such as Internet tools as well as print materials--that help foster retirement and other savings strategies at all stages of the life cycle.

Encouraging people to save for retirement is certainly a good thing. However, I see little hope that the Social Security Administration can do anything to significantly encourage saving. This seems like a waste of money at a time when Social Security's budget is so tight that the agency has enormous backlogs and cannot answer its telephones. It is also a distraction from Social Security's core mission. This sounds like a Congressional earmark. Is it?

How To Spend $250?

The Social Security Administration now has a webpage that asks recipients of the $250 economic stimulus payments how they plan to spend the money. The agency plans to post some of the responses.

What Can I Say?

From the Greenwood (MS) Commonwealth(emphasis added):

Joseph Simpson Jr. walks with the pained shuffle of a man much older than his 53 years.

The lifelong McCarley resident has diabetes, anemia, high blood pressure, bad sinus problems and an unknown ailment that causes him pain both when he sits and stands.

What Simpson doesn’t have is health insurance or Social Security disability, even though he is qualified based on his 33 years of uninterrupted work.

The problem, according to his uncle, James Dukes of Carroll County, is Simpson didn’t pursue applying for disability like he should have when he quit being able to work in May 2007.

“He should have followed up, and he didn’t follow up,” Dukes said. “Social Security disability didn’t drop the ball. Junior dropped the ball.” ...

Simpson applied for disability before getting a diagnosis, though. When he was turned down, he hired a lawyer whose commercial he had seen on television.

That decision has been the source of most of his troubles, according to Dukes. They have never been able to speak with the attorney personally, and his secretary tells them the lawyer will do nothing until 20 days before a disability hearing date. Social Security has yet to schedule Simpson. ...

Last week, he let his attorney go and gave Dukes the ability to represent him.

Lockheed Martin And Social Security

From the Baltimore Sun:

Lockheed Martin, one of Baltimore County's larger employers, officially opened its sixth facility Monday in Woodlawn and announced plans to add 160 information technology jobs to a work force that exceeds 1,500.

The company's Information Systems & Global Services division has refurbished and rewired a nearly 42,000-square-foot brick building on Woodlawn Drive near the Social Security Administration complex. In the past year, the company has hired about 200 employees in its efforts to provide a wide variety of services to SSA, which is continuing modernization efforts.

The proximity of the service provider to its federal customer reflects a partnership fostered during the past two decades, William S. Gray, deputy commissioner for systems at SSA, said at Monday's ribbon-cutting ceremony. ...

"We have to have the best Web site in government and a seamless serving architect that makes sure the system is up and available continually," he told the crowd of about 100 officials and company employees. "Lockheed Martin has provided sound expertise and counseled us on how to improve."

Biden On Social Security

From the Pittsburg Tribune-Review:

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced last month that Social Security beneficiaries will get one-time $250 stimulus bonus payments beginning in May.

He didn't mention that he will be one of the recipients.

The annual tax returns for Biden and his wife, Jill, released last week, show he began collecting Social Security benefits in 2008. He became eligible for full benefits in November when he reached age 66. ...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who is a year older than Biden, did not list any Social Security income on his final financial disclosure statement filed a year ago.