Way Off Topic

This has nothing to do with Social Security and is way off topic, but it does involve the intersection of two subjects that interest me -- the law and college sports. Take a look at this article about Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Is it conceivable that Justice Thomas was involved in an NCAA recruiting violation unknowingly -- or worse, intentionally? If any of you are in the same category as myself -- a contributor to a college athletic fund -- you have been told firmly not to do anything like what Justice Thomas did.

Things Not Looking So Good For ABT

From a September 2008 report of the Government Accountability Office:

Over the last decade, SSA has initiated 14 demonstration projects under its authority to test possible DI [Disability Insurance] and SSI [Supplemental Security Income] policy and program changes; however, these projects have yielded limited information for influencing program and policy decisions. Of the 14 projects, SSA has completed 4, cancelled 5, and had 5 projects in progress as of June 2008. In total, SSA spent about $155 million on its projects as of April 2008, and officials anticipate spending another $220 million in the coming years on those projects currently under way. Yet, these projects have yielded limited information on the impacts of the program and policy changes they were testing. ...

From a Presolicitation notice just posted by Social Security on FedBizOpps:

As part of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999, Congress mandated the SSA conduct a demonstration project testing a program under which Title II disability benefits are reduced, or offset, $1 for $2 above a specific amount of earnings. SSA moved forward with this Congressional mandate by competitively awarding design contract number SS00-04-60110 in 2004. This contract stated that upon successful completion of a design, SSA would award an Implementation and Evaluation contract to the design contractor on a sole source basis. Contract #SS00-04-60110 ended in September 2008 and SSA is ready to implement and evaluate the $1 for $2 demonstration project.

We have now concluded that “successful completion of the previous contract” does not meet any of the exceptions in the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA). Additionally, the President issued a Memorandum on March 4, 2009 directing Executive Agencies to make every effort to use a competitive process for contract awards. We have thus determined that a sole source contract award based upon previous contract performance is no longer appropriate. For all of these reasons, we will award the Implementation and Evaluation contract through a competitive procurement process.

ABT Associates had the BOND contract. Social Security's Inspector General has been critical of ABT's performance on this contract.

Instructions On Those $250 Payments

You might think that by now all of the $250 economic stimulus payments to Social Security beneficiaries have been paid. Wrong. Claimants are still becoming newly eligible for those payments as they are retroactively approved for benefits during the appropriate time period. The vast majority of these are disabled individuals who delayed in filing claims or had to wait for Social Security to adjudicate their cases. Those claimants can become eligible for $250 payments through the end of next year. Social Security has issued staff instructions saying that these payments will not be made at the same time as the back benefit payments to the claimants. They will be batched and paid every three months as separate payments.

Also, some recipients just do not want their $250 economic recovery payments. Social Security has also issued staff instructions for dealing with those folks. Basically, they say to tell the claimant to please take the money and then make a gift to the federal government but there are also instructions for claimants who return their checks.

Oregonian Wins Award

The Oregonian newspaper has won an award for the series of articles it ran last year on the terrible backlogs at Social Security.

Furloughs At Hawaii DDS

Hawaii is yet another state furloughing its state employees. This is described as a near 14% cut. The newspaper article does not say so, but I am told that state Disability Determination Services employees are included in the furloughs.

Overdraft Fees And Social Security

From the Los Angeles Times:

The California Supreme Court unanimously overturned a billion-dollar class-action award against Bank of America Corp. on Monday, ruling that banks can collect overdraft fees from accounts in which government benefits intended for subsistence are directly deposited.

What Does This Have To Do With The DOT?

Social Security's Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel is having a meeting on June 10 and 11. Here are a couple of items on the agenda:

• Clinical Inference in the Assessment of Mental Residual Functional Capacity -- Panel Discussion and Deliberation
• Subcommittee Chair Report – Mental/Cognitive Panel Discussion and Deliberation

I thought this panel was supposed to work on a replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), which has been used to determine whether alternative work exists that an impaired individual can perform when he or she is unable to perform past relevant work. What do these topics have to do with replacing the DOT? Do we have mission creep here? Do we have a panel working towards an entirely new method of determining disability?

Blind Man Has Trouble With Social Security

From WSPA in Greenville, SC:

When I first met 61-year-old James Beck it was easy to tell just how difficult it was for him to get around.
“I have to ask somebody whether it’s daylight or dark,“ Beck said.

Beck is legally blind and he says he has the paperwork from his doctors to prove it.

“It’s bad just living in the dark all the time you miss so many things, the sunset and the sunrise and all and you can’t see television but I enjoy listening to it,“ said Beck.

The Social Security Administration says he can work denying him disability benefits for more than two years.

“That man at Social Security said blind people works,“ said Beck. “Well I haven’t been able to find a job.“ ...

SSA’s spokesperson, Patti Patterson, talked with us by phone from Atlanta. She told us a senior attorney denied Beck’s claim in January but a judge approved it after we called, without any new evidence.