Strange Ruling In Pennsylvania

A court in Pennsylvania has ruled that a worker who files a claim for Social Security retirement benefits forfeits all rights to periodic workers compensation benefits because he has removed himself from the labor market.

More On 1099s

I am hearing from an attorney who has spent more time studying his 1099 than I have that the amount being reported is the gross amount of the attorney fee before deduction of the user fee. Was that intended?

Update: I have had a chance to review my own 1099 and list of cases and can confirm that the user fee was included as if paid to me. One person has suggested that this is just like W-2s and all attorneys have to do is to post the user fee as a deduction on our income tax forms. That is not as easy as the poster thinks. Social Security is not sending out a list of user fees paid and it would be almost impossible to keep track of them. My bookkeeper records the bank deposits she makes and those are my firm's gross income. Doing it any other way would be quite cumbersome and unnatural. If Social Security ever figures out a way to report accurate figures on payments of attorney fees, there is going to be trouble.

Cental Offices Closed?

Because of the record snowfalls, federal offices in Washington, DC are closed today. What about Social Security's Central Office in Woodlawn, MD, just outside the District? Is it closed today? Social Security has been pretty hard nosed about closing its Central Offices but this snowfall was something way out of the ordinary. I cannot imagine that the parking lots would be clear or that public transit would be functioning today.

Staffing Improves At Hearing Offices

From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

In March 2009, SSA’s Commissioner testified that about 4.5 staff per ALJ (referred to as the staffing ratio) was necessary to maximize the number of legally sufficient hearings and decisions by ALJs [Administrative Law Judges]. In this context, “staff” represents both decision writers and other support staff. Moreover, in a Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 memorandum, ODAR’s [Office of Disability Adjudication and Review's] Deputy Commissioner recommended the Regions hire 1.5 decision writers per ALJ and 2.5 other support staff per ALJ (referred to as the staffing mix ratio), thereby giving additional definition to the Commissioner’s staffing ratio goal. [And adding confusion, since that would be a 4 to 1 ratio, rather than 4.5 to 1.]

RESULTS OF REVIEW

In FY 2009, as a result of additional Agency funding, ODAR increased the number of its ALJs to approximately 1,200 (about a 19-percent increase since FY 2000) and the number of its hearing office managers and support staff to about 6,200 (almost a 25-percent increase over the same period). By July 2009, ODAR’s staffing ratio was about 5.1, exceeding the Agency’s national goal of 4.5 staff per ALJ. However, our review of ODAR’s staffing reports found that 42 hearing offices did not meet the national staffing ratio goal, and 7 of those hearing offices had staffing ratios below 4.0. In addition, ODAR’s staffing ratio had not been adjusted to reflect attorney adjudicators who perform two roles—staffing duties when drafting decisions and ALJ duties when issuing fully favorable on-the-record decisions.

In terms of the staffing mix at hearing offices, we found that the hearing offices that met or exceeded the 1.5 decision writers-per-ALJ staffing mix goal had, on average, an almost 9-percent higher productivity rate than those hearing offices with a ratio less than the goal. We did not find similar productivity differences for the other support staffing mix goal. ...

Fiscal Year National
Staffing Ratio
2006 4.23
2007 4.46
20081 4.08
2009 5.06

The Sky Is Falling

When you see headlines such as Social Security Races To 'Negative' (their single quotes, not mine) and Rush Of Retirements Push Social Security To Brink in USA Today you know someone is pushing private accounts. Sure enough, here is George Will's column touting a scheme proposed by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan:

Medicare and Social Security would be preserved for those currently receiving benefits or becoming eligible in the next 10 years (those 55 and older today). Both programs would be made permanently solvent. ...

Ryan's plan would allow workers younger than 55 the choice of investing more than one-third of their current Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts similar to the Thrift Savings Plan long available to, and immensely popular with, federal employees. This investment would be inheritable property, guaranteeing that individuals will never lose the ability to dispose of every dollar they put into these accounts.

Ryan would raise the retirement age. If, when Congress created Social Security in 1935, it had indexed the retirement age (then 65) to life expectancy, today the age would be in the mid-70s. The system was never intended to do what it is doing -- subsidizing retirements that extend from one-third to one-half of retirees' adult lives.

I certainly hope that Republicans in Congress get a chance to vote on this proposal. By the way, I am pretty sure that the numbers do not come close to working for Ryan's scheme. If you stop one-third of the FICA taxes going into the trust funds, you soon run out of money to pay current retirees. Also, by the way, investing one-third of your FICA is not going to support you for long in retirement. It is not that much money.

In Vitro And Social Security

From the Chicago Tribune:

A[n Iowa] legislative subcommittee approved a measure Thursday giving inheritance rights to children born up to two years after their father's death.

The measure would mean children conceived through in vitro fertilization would be entitled to benefits such as Social Security survivor payments even if they were gestated after a parent's death.

The subcommittee approved the plan after hearing from Patti Beeler, a West Branch woman who gave birth to a girl after her husband died of cancer. She had to go to court to receive Social Security benefits because of a 150-year-old law limiting inheritance to children conceived during marriage.

The Social Security Administration is appealing a ruling granting her those benefits.

1099s

Attorneys and others who receive fees paid directly by Social Security for representing Social Security claimants have been receiving 1099s this week that are supposed to show the monies they were paid by Social Security in 2009. The comment heard from almost everyone receiving one of these 1099s is that it shows significantly less gross income than it should, perhaps 20% to 35% less. This is no big deal since it will not cause any tax problems for anyone but, still, it is something that should be fixed. I have heard speculation that the 1099s are not including fees paid in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cases, that they do not include fees paid on dependent benefits or that only fees authorized by Social Security's Office of Central Operations are included. I expect that someone at Social Security knows the explanation. Can anyone enlighten us?

Centenarian Project

The Paperwork Reduction Act requires federal agencies who want to collect information from the public to go through some formalities, one of which is publishing a notice in the Federal Register., about any new information collection forms. Here is an excerpt from a Paperwork Reduction Act notice that Social Security recently posted in the Federal Register:

Centenarian Project Development Worksheets: Face-to-Face Interview; Telephone Interview; Third Party Contact ... SSA [Social Security Administration] is conducting interviews with centenary beneficiaries age 103 and older to assess: (1) If the beneficiaries are still living; (2) to prevent fraud, through either identity misrepresentation or representative payee misuse of funds; and (3) to assess the well-being of the beneficiaries. SSA's San Francisco field offices are currently using this survey and we intend to expand its use to all other SSA field offices.