Things Get Better In Texas

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

North Texans applying for disability benefits are facing shorter waits for appeal hearings, as Social Security officials continue to shave away at a massive backlog of cases.

In Fort Worth, applicants appealing claims got hearings and rulings two months faster than they did one year ago, according to the National Organization of Social Security Claimants [Representatives] , which tracks wait times.

Similar progress was reported at Dallas offices.

Even so, it still takes about 10 months for hearings to occur, an official noted.

"That is still too long," said Ethel Zelenske, with the claimants group's government affairs office. "But delays in general have trended down lately, and that is a good thing for everyone who is waiting for assistance."

Public Distrusts Government

The Pew Research Center reports that just 22% of Americans say they can trust the government in Washington almost all or most of the time. This dissatisfaction has many causes but poor public service at many government agencies, including the Social Security Administration has to be part of it.

No More Paper Checks

The Washington Post is reporting that as of March 1, 2011 those who go on Social Security benefits will no longer be given the option of a paper check. They will either have to specify a bank account for direct deposit or be assigned to the Direct Express Debit MasterCard program. As of March 1, 2013 this will be mandatory for all Social Security beneficiaries.

A Moment To Remember

On April 19, 1995 16 Social Security employees lost their lives in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City:

	Richard A. Allen Claims Representative Had 22 years of service with SSA. A Vietnam veteran, he was born in Bailey's Crossroads, Va., and won a scholarship to Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Okla. He is survived by a daughter and his mother.
	Saundra G. Avery Development Clerk Worked nine years for SSA. She was a native of Danville, Ark., and was active in her church. A graduate of Central State University in Edmond, Okla., Sandy is survived by her parents and a brother.
	Oleta C. Biddy Service Representative Worked 20 years for SSA. Oleta was born in Rosebud, Ark., and was active as a Sunday school teacher and taught children's choir at her church. She is survived by her husband, a son, two grandchildren and two sisters.
	Carol L. Bowers Operations Supervisor Had 33 years of service at SSA, starting as a clerk-steno in December 1961. Carol was born in Chandler, Okla., and is survived by her husband and a son.
	Sharon L. Chesnut Claims Representative Worked for SSA for 21 years and was an active member of her church. She was born in Oklahoma City and is survived by a daughter, her mother, a sister, a stepson and a stepdaughter.
	Katherine L Cregan Service Representative Had 14 years of SSA service. Kathy was a native of West Memphis, Ark. A widow, Kathy is survived by three sons and five grandchildren.
	Margaret E. Goodson Claims Representative Had almost 21 years of service with SSA. Margaret enjoyed motorcycling and camping trips with her husband. Other survivors include three sons, one daughter, three brothers and four grandchildren.
	Ethel L. Griffin Service Representative Had 19 years of service with SSA, starting as a claims clerk. She was born in Illinois, where she attended Southwest Jr. College and the College of DuPage. Ethel is survived by her husband, two children and three grandchildren.
	Ronald V. Harding Service Representative Had more than 30 years of government service. He served two years in the Army and also worked for the Air Force before joining SSA in 1967. A respected musician, Ron is survived by two sons, two daughters, his parents, two brothers and a sister.
	Raymond L. Johnson Senior Community Service Volunteer National Indian Council on Aging worker, was stationed in the Oklahoma City DO for the past six months helping with Head Start programs for Seminole children. Born in Lawton, Okla., Raymond is survived by his wife, seven children, 21 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and a brother.
	Derwin W. Miller Claims Representative Worked at SSA for five years. Derwin was an Arkansas native and a member of the Army Reserve. He was hired through the Outstanding Scholar Program. He is survived by a daughter, his parents, two brothers, a sister and two grandmothers.
	Charlotte A. Thomas Contact Representative Had 12 years of service with SSA. She was employed previously with the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services. Charlotte is survived by a son.
	Michael G. Thompson Field Representative Worked for SSA for 19 years. He served in the Army for more than two years. A Vietnam veteran, he is survived by his wife, three sons, one daughter, his mother, two brothers and one sister.
	Robert N. Walker, Jr. Claims Representative Had 15 years of service with SSA. He served in the Army for three years. Born in Jacksonville, Fla., Bob attended the University of Florida. He is survived by his wife, one son, three stepsons, one stepdaughter and 12 grandchildren. (See in-depth story.)
	Julie M. Welch Claims Representative Was hired under the Outstanding Scholar Program in August 1994. Julie was a recent graduate of Marquette University and had studied abroad at the University of Madrid. She is survived by her parents, a brother and a stepbrother.
	William S. Williams Operations Supervisor Had 20 years of service with SSA. An Oklahoma native, he had a degree in mathematics from Oklahoma State University. Steve is survived by his wife, three daughters, his father, two sisters, one brother and two grandmothers.

Timothy McVeigh, the author of the Oklahoma City bombing, was motivated by a hatred for the federal government. He was particularly concerned about gun rights. The Oklahoma City bombing took place on the anniversary of the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, which McVeigh and many other gun rights advocates took as an assault upon the right to bear arms. McVeigh described the bombing as revenge for Waco.

A gun rights group has scheduled a rally today in Washington "to remind the U.S. Government that it is our right to keep and bear arms, and that right shall not be infringed." One element of the rally is an effort to create a "money bomb." The group's website has a FAQ page which does not say why the rally was planned for April 19, 2010 instead of a Saturday, for instance.

It appears that this gun rights group is remembering the Oklahoma City bombing in its own way.

Help On Garnishment

From the Associated Press:

The Obama administration on Wednesday proposed rules aimed at closing a legal loophole that debt collectors have used to seize Social Security and veterans' benefits from bank accounts. ...

Federal law has long protected Social Security and veterans benefits from most creditors, with a few exceptions for child support, alimony, unpaid federal taxes and debts to other federal agencies. But creditors have been seizing the payments anyway by getting court orders to freeze and garnish bank accounts that receive the federal benefits through direct deposit. ...

Under the proposed rules, banks that receive garnishment orders for their customers' accounts would be required to review the accounts to determine whether they received deposits of federal benefits in the past 60 days, and in what amount.

The goal is to give financial institutions clear rules concerning garnishment orders and a safe harbor against liability, a Treasury official said Wednesday.

I do not see this in the Federal Register for last Wednesday.

Update: There is a good reason that I did not see this in last Wednesday's Federal Register. I did not appear in the Federal Register until today.

A Little More Information Needed

Representative John Tanner, who was then the Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee, asked Social Security's Office of Inspector General last December for a report on Social Security's selection of a site for a new National Computer Center. Below is almost all of the OIG report that was released to the public:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $500 million to replace the National Computer Center (NCC). The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has been tasked to provide oversight for the development and implementation of the NCC replacement. As part of our oversight function, we initiated a review to evaluate the appropriateness of the site or potential sites selected for the new data center and determine whether best practices were followed in the development of the overall project plan and milestones. OIG contracted with Strategic e-Business Solutions, Inc. (SeBS) and its subcontractor, Fortress International Group, to assist with this review. ...

SeBs evaluation found that in general, the Social Security Administration (SSA) developed a highly sophisticated set of selection criteria with which to evaluate general geographic areas of consideration and prospective individual properties. The Agency’s decision criteria avoided major areas that potentially are hazardous to the operation of a data center (including both natural and man-made risks). In addition, the criteria define major site and data center construction issues that would ultimately have a significant impact on the site property to be selected. However, questions remain concerning SSA's process employed in narrowing the site properties down to a short list. In addition, the initial mandatory selection criteria applied to the geographic regions under consideration may have excluded too many locales. In particular, when developing the mandatory selection criteria, it does not appear that consideration was given to the serious fiscal impact that exclusions would have in the electrical power cost arena over the life cycle of the data center. Finally, in evaluating the telecommunications criteria concepts, SeBS found only limited information. SeBs made 25 recommendations related to site selection industry best practices. SSA agreed with 22 of 25 recommendations.

This report may contain Federal procurement sensitive source selection information. The disclosure of such information is restricted by section 27 of the Procurement Integrity Act.

I think that OIG could have released a bit more of the report without revealing "sensitive source selection information."

Yesterday's Hearing

Videos of yesterday's House Social Security Subcommittee hearing are now available for your viewing pleasure in bite size pieces:

• Chairman of Social Security Subcommittee, Congressman Earl Pomeroy
• Government Accountability Office, Barbara Bovbjerg
• President of National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), Joe Dirago
• Secretary of NCSSMA, Billie Armenta
• American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Witold Skwierczynski
• AFGE, Daniel Woosley
• Office of Inspector General, Social Security Administration (SSA), Patrick O'Carroll
• The Commissioner of SSA (Michael Astrue)

Here are a couple of excerpts from a Washington Post article on yesterday's hearing:

If you work in an agency where the number of employees has increased a little bit while the amount of work has jumped a lot, there are going to be some unhappy campers among the staff and the customers.

That's the situation at the Social Security Administration, according to several witnesses at a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing Thursday.

But one witness had a different opinion, demonstrating the old maxim that where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit. If you sit in the boss's office, as does SSA Commissioner Michael J. Astrue, you can paint a considerably more optimistic view of the agency's operations than employees and independent evaluators. ...

That kind of work environment produces great stress, representative of the American Federation of Government Employees told the panel. Daniel Woosley is a social insurance specialist in the Louisville office and serves as a SWAT team reserve police officer in his county's sheriff's department.

"Working in the Louisville West [SSA] office is incredibly stressful," said Woosley, who also is executive vice president of AFGE Local 3984. "I've made statements in the past that I feel less stress while working with the SWAT team -- and having weapons pointed at me by perpetrators -- than I do going into the Social Security office every day."

Raise The Death Benefit?

From The Sun of San Bernardino, CA:

Americans who lose a spouse would get more money from Social Security under a bill introduced by Rep. Joe Baca, but critics worry the plan would put more pressure on an entitlement system already on the verge of going broke.

When a Social Security recipient dies, their surviving spouse receives a one-time payment of $255, but they miss out on their spouse's regular Social Security check for that month.

Baca, D-San Bernardino, wants to change that, giving surviving spouses a larger "death payment" and a check for the deceased's final days. ...

Baca's bill - called the Benefit Adjustment of Social Security Income Compensation, or BASIC - calls for increasing the size of the death payment from $255 to 47 percent of the deceased person's typical monthly Social Security income, with $255 as the minimum payment.

The bill also calls for paying Social Security benefits for each day - not just each whole month - a recipient lives. At present, Baca's office said, the spouse of a Social Security beneficiary who dies May 15 will not receive their spouse's check for May. Baca's plan would send a check for half the month, on top of the death payment.

I have no idea whether this has a chance but we ought to do something about the death benefit -- either abolish it or make it more meaningful. At the moment, it probably costs about as much to administer it as it does to actually pay the benefits. My opinion is that if we are going to have a death benefit that it ought to be several times the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), that is the monthly amount paid to the primary beneficiary on an account.