Social Security Releases Much Data

A press release from Social Security:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency is making new data about beneficiaries and the agency’s disability and hearing processes available to the public. The new data supports the President’s Transparency and Open Government initiative and is available at www.data.gov.

“I applaud President Obama’s commitment to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government and the new datasets we are posting far exceed what was asked of us,” Commissioner Astrue said. “Social Security has always valued transparency and sought to give the public user-friendly information about our programs. Each year we send millions of Americans personal information about their Social Security contributions and potential benefits. Our website www.socialsecurity.gov has a wealth of information about our programs and the Social Security trust funds. I hope the new data we are making available will lead to a better understanding of our operations and the important role we play in people’s lives. I look forward to engaging Americans in the business of their government.”

Here are a few examples of the value of the Social Security datasets available today:

• Researchers can find out about the work-related experiences of our beneficiaries receiving Social Security disability benefits and give us policy guidance for our disability programs.
• The public can see information about hearings workloads and a breakdown of the types of decisions made by Administrative Law Judges.
• Researchers can study the effects of current and proposed legislative and program provisions.
• People who have requested a hearing on their disability claim can estimate the amount of time they may have to wait for the hearing to be held and for a decision.
• The public can see general information requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

“These new datasets are just the beginning of our efforts. In February we will launch our Open Government webpage that will include improved access to our data in a variety of formats. In April we will publish our Open Government plan,” said Commissioner Astrue. “Let me also reassure all Americans that while our goal is to become more open and transparent, we will continue to vigilantly protect the personal information the public entrusts to us. We will ensure that transparency does not put that information at risk.”

Here is the list of Social Security provided datasets. Here are what I find to be the more interesting of the newly released data, some of which I was unable to open due to technical problems, which I have noted below:

• Hearing Office Dispositions Per ALJ Per Day Rate Ranking Report
• Hearings Held In-Person or Via Video Conferencing Per Hearing Office
• Hearing Office Average Processing Time Ranking Report (technical problems)
• Hearing Office Workload Data (technical problems)
• State Agency Workload Data (technical problems)

Please let me know if you can open the datasets that I had trouble with.

OIG Report On Hearing Office Productivity

In response to a request from Senator Voinovich, Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has produced a report on Hearing Office Disposition Rates. Nothing surprising about the findings:

Our review identified various factors that impacted hearing office productivity. Specifically, we found ALJs had control over certain factors that affected hearing office productivity—motivation and work ethic, case review time, and hearings management. Further, we identified factors related to support staff that can also affect hearing office productivity—staff quantity, quality, and composition.

Fast Scheduling

My firm is seeing some Social Security hearings scheduled within a month after asking for one. This might be welcome news except for the fact that we have many other cases where claimants have been waiting for over a year for a hearing. These cases being scheduled rapidly are not ones which are supposed to be expedited, such as those for terminally ill claimants or "wounded warriors." We are seeing this from at least two different hearing offices. This just started this month.

Is this a local phenomenon or is something happening regionally or nationally that could explain this?

My opinion is that the only fair thing is to schedule hearings in the order in which claimants asked for them insofar as practical. What I am seeing seems inappropriate to me.

Budget Commission Coming

From the Washington Post:

Faced with growing alarm over the nation's soaring debt, the White House and congressional Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday to create an independent budget commission and to put its recommendations for fiscal solvency to a vote in Congress by the end of this year.

Under the agreement, President Obama would issue an executive order to create an 18-member panel that would be granted broad authority to propose changes in the tax code and in the massive federal entitlement programs -- including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- that threaten to drive the nation's debt to levels not seen since World War II.

South Carolina Field Office Receives Award

From the Independent Mail of Anderson, SC:

The Anderson office of the Social Security Administration pays more than $93 million in benefits to local residents every month.

The speed in which it takes applications for those benefits and turns the applications around has now garnered the office’s staff an award for being the best district office for the Social Security Administration’s Atlanta region, said Jan Hammett, one of the office’s officials. ...

The staff will receive the recognition on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Rodney Taylor, the deputy regional commissioner for the Atlanta region, will present the award.

Libertarians And Social Security

William Eggers and John O'Leary have an interesting piece on Reason.com with the title Five Reasons Why Libertarians Shouldn't Hate Government. Here is an excerpt that should have some resonance for those who saw what happened at Social Security during the last presidential administration:

To shrink government, you need to love government. Most liberals believe deeply in government. As a result, they sit on school boards, city councils, and regional planning boards. They become expert at navigating through the bureaucracy and know which bureaucratic levers to pull to make their policy vision reality.

Many conservatives and libertarians come from the world of business. They don’t particularly like government. They view it as merely a necessary evil. As a consequence, they rarely immerse themselves in the intricacies of governing, preferring to make their case from a safe distance.

Once in power, they tend to have far more difficulty navigating the complex terrain of the public sector. The result? From Ronald Reagan’s Grace Commission to the 1995 government shutdown by a GOP Congress, most high-profile attempts to shrink government fail.

Until small-government types better master the nuts and bolts of the public sector—how to design policies that work in the real world and how to execute on large public undertakings—their initiatives to downsize government will continue to disappoint.

Florida Office Honored

From The Villages Daily Sun:

When Tom Milligan learned the Leesburg Social Security office was to be honored for excellence, he was surprised — and gratified.

“I’ve always thought we were very deserving, every year,” said Milligan, the office’s district manager. “It’s a great honor, and we’ve worked really hard.”

A brief award presentation took place Thursday afternoon at the office.

“It means a lot to us — the people in this office,” Milligan said, “and hopefully it means a lot to this area — that they get the kind of service here that they would like to have.”

The award was presented by Paul Barnes, regional commissioner for the Southeast Region of the Social Security Administration.

Getting Media Attention Helps

From KIVI-TV in Boise, Idaho:

An 18-year-old Orofino teen with a rare disease that has left him partially blind and deaf has won his year-long fight to get Social Security benefits.

Jacob Walk has type-2 neurofibromatosis, a disease that causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout his body. He says he's accepted his prognosis, and knows the disease will likely leave him completely blind and deaf in the coming years. He's had eight brain surgeries and has at least 14 tumors on his spine.

The Lewiston Tribune reports Walk first applied for Social Security benefits more than a year ago, but was denied -- twice. He took his fight to the media and to lawmakers, and last week U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo told him a Social Security administrative law judge had decided in Walk's favor.