Hearing Backlog Reduction Update Booklets

The Social Security Administration has produced a series of booklets, one for just about every state, showing the state of the backlog of requests for hearing for each state. The booklets discuss efforts to reduce the backlog, both nationally and at the state level.

Social Security Seeks OMB Approval For Three Final Rules

All federal agencies must obtain the approval of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House, before posting either proposed or final regulations in the Federal Register. Social Security has just submitted three final regulations to OMB for approval. One would update the Malignant Neoplastic disease -- or cancer -- listings, another would allow benefit payments to people living in Viet Nam and Cambodia and the third would:

... revise our rules regarding payment of representative fees to allow representatives, in certain cases, to charge and receive a fee for their services from certain third parties without requiring our approval. We also plan to eliminate the requirement that we approve fees for legal guardians or court-appointed representatives providing representational services in claims before us if a court has already authorized their fees. Lastly, we plan to define "legal guardians or court-appointed representatives."

These are the first regulations of any substance that Social Security has submitted to OMB since the inauguration.

How Many Of You Knew About This?

From the Lufkin Daily News:

People who use social networking websites know that it can be exciting to reconnect with long lost friends and relatives over the Internet. Such surprise connections can be fun and conjure up memories of times forgotten. But what if you have a more serious situation and you need to locate a particular person? Perhaps Social Security can help.

Social Security is in the business of paying benefits, not reconnecting people. But, in some cases, we will do what we can to help.

We will attempt to forward a letter to a missing person under circumstances involving a matter of great importance, such as a death or serious illness in the missing person's immediate family, or a sizeable amount of money that is due the missing person. Also, the circumstances must concern a matter about which the missing person is unaware and would undoubtedly want to be informed.

In less dire cases, such as when a son, daughter, brother or sister want to establish contact, we will write to the missing person, rather than forwarding a letter.

Because this service is not related in any way to a Social Security program, its use must be limited so that it does not interfere with our regular program activities.

There is no charge for forwarding letters that have a humanitarian purpose. However, we must charge a $25 fee to cover our costs when the letter is to inform the missing person of money or property due. This fee is not refundable. The fee should be paid by a check made payable to the Social Security Administration.

We must read each letter we forward to ensure that it contains nothing that could prove embarrassing to the missing person if read by a third party. Letters should be in plain, unstamped, unsealed envelopes showing only the missing person's name. Nothing of value should be enclosed.

To try to locate an address in our records, we'll need the missing person's Social Security number or identifying information such as date and place of birth, father's name, and the mother's full birth name.

Unless a missing person is receiving benefits under a program Social Security administers, we would not have a home address for them. Usually, we forward a letter in care of the employer who most recently reported earnings for the person.

Requests for letter forwarding should be sent to: Social Security Administration, Letter Forwarding, P.O. Box 33022, Baltimore, MD 21290-3022.

Learn more about this service at www.socialsecurity.gov/foia/html/ltrfwding.htm.

Daniel Bowline is district manager for the Social Security Administration in Lufkin.

FICA Receipts Down

The Associated Press is reporting that FICA tax receipts are down so far this year. The decrease is small, less than 1%, but an increase had been projected. This moves up the date upon which Social Security will start paying out more than it takes in, perhaps to 2013.

Social Security Had It All Planned For The Occupational Information Panel

Social Security's Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel has been meeting since February working on the issue of what Social Security should do about the obsolete Dictionary of Occupational Titles, a key component in determining disability at Social Security.

The minutes of the first meeting of the Panel held in February have been released. They demonstrate that Social Security already had a good idea of what it wanted. Indeed, you have to wonder whether the Panel was set up merely to validate what Social Security already planned to do.

Here are some excerpts (emphasis added):

Richard Balkus, Associate Commissioner, Office of Program Development and Research, Social Security Administration

Associate Commissioner Balkus described updating occupational data as a long-recognized need for our Social Security Disability Insurance program and our Supplemental Security Income Program and the goal of developing the parameters for the content model for the Occupational Information System. He reiterated the expectation that by the end of September, the Panel would provide direction in terms of how we approach the development of a classification system for a new occupational information system designed specifically for use in SSA’s disability programs. ...

Associate Commissioner Richard Balkus informed the Panel that SSA will undertake a research project of a national sample using electronic folders to examine cases decided at the initial and hearings levels. SSA will capture the DOT title and identify how that job was identified by the applicant. SSA will also evaluate the RFC [Residual Functional Capacity] and MRFC [Mental RFC] process used in the decision. ...

Sylvia Karman, Panel Member and Project Director, Occupational Information Development Project, Office of Program Development, Social Security Administration

Sylvia Karman discussed short term and long term plans for replacing the DOT. The short term efforts consist of two projects--one for a contract that involves a private sector DOT formatted occupational software and a second contract for an independent evaluation of the software product to determine if it can be used in SSA’s disability program. The long-term project involves developing an integrated Occupational Information System. "System," really means a classification. This will include an ongoing process to update occupational information and keep SSA’s policy current. SSA will use an integrated approach which means it will not rely on just one approach in data collection or one approach in terms of measurement. SSA will use outreach with the Occupation Information System Development (OISD) workgroup; private sector professional associations that are stakeholders; and the OIDAP FACA panel. Plans for the long-term include development of a content model and the initial classification of job demands. SSA will also test the data collection instruments used in the new system. SSA will also conduct a study to evaluate occupations that SSA claimants are currently performing. SSA will then formulate policy to incorporate the new system into SSA’s processes. ...

After much discussion, the Panel identified six broad categories for the content model that could apply to the work and person side: Physical; Cognitive; Behavioral; Environmental/Contextual/Work Site; Perceptual/Sensory; and, Skills.

Social Security is only giving the Panel seven months? Social Security had already planned two major projects for replacing the DOT before the Panel ever started meeting? What impact can this Panel have on what Social Security does? This is not how I thought Advisory Committees worked, but maybe I was just naive.

Half A Million Using Treasury Direct

From what is labeled as a Department of the Treasury press release, but which sounds like it comes from Comerica Bank:

One year after introducing a low-cost prepaid debit card option for Social Security check recipients, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service (FMS) reports that more than half a million Americans have signed up for the Direct Express® Debit MasterCard®. According to a new survey of cardholders, 95 percent say they are satisfied with the card and 86 percent say they would recommend it to family members or friends who receive a federal benefit payment. ...

Treasury's financial agent - Dallas-based Comerica Bank - issues this nationally available card exclusively for payment of federal Social Security benefits. Americans currently receiving Social Security or SSI checks may sign up for the card by calling toll-free 1-877-212-9991, visiting www.USDirectExpress.com or talking to their local Social Security office.

AFGE Wins On Transit Subsidies

A press release from the American Federation of Government Employees, the labor union that represents most Social Security employees:

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has achieved an impressive victory in the fight for Social Security employees’ rights to increased transit subsidies. AFGE Local 3615 filed a grievance against the SSA for failing to follow Presidential Executive Order 13150, in which qualified Social Security employees be provided with an increased transit subsidy to cover commuting costs.

Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue had once claimed that there was no money available to subsidize an increase in transit benefits. Yet in the past month he has faced intense public scrutiny after sending SSA executive officials to an extravagant three-day “Management Tango” at the Arizona Biltmore. The controversy surrounding SSA employee transit benefits was another misstep he couldn’t afford.

“AFGE is pleased to see Asture made one right decision by choosing to grant SSA employees the transit subsidy they deserve,” said AFGE National President John Gage. “However, his perpetual disregard for SSA employees while he has been commissioner continues to be inexcusable.”

AFGE along with AFL-CIO and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) stand together for Commissioner Astrue’s removal from the SSA office. “Commissioner Astrue has worn out his welcome at the Social Security Administration. It is time he make another good decision and step down from office,” concluded Gage.

PTSD Predictor?

From VA Watchdog. org:

The wellness company Allostatix has struggled to find a foothold selling Corporate America on the idea that its blood test can act as an early warning system for employee health problems.

Now, it’s hoping to make a deal with the military to show that the same test can predict which soldiers will struggle most with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Allostatix has been working with the Department of Defense to get the go-ahead to try to predict PTSD, which would begin with a study of active-duty soldiers and units of the Kentucky Army National Guard. The company recently raised $200,000, in part to be ready if the military approves the project, according to company executives and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ...

The 4-year-old company, located just off the Xavier University campus in Cincinnati, is built around a blood test that measures allostatic load: the concept that the body’s stress response can accelerate disease and affect organs, including the heart. Allostatix’s test measures the damage and predicts (as far as five years out with 85 percent accuracy, according to the company) where a person’s health is heading.