Senate Finance Committee Hearing

The Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing today on Social Security. Here is some of the opening statement of Senator Max Baucus, the Chairman of the Committee:

George Burns, who worked until he was 100, said of retirement: “Retirement at 65 is ridiculous. When I was 65, I still had pimples.”

Today, we’ll talk about people who want to work beyond retirement age. And we’ll talk about how those folks’ decisions affect Social Security.

When it comes to Social Security, folks often say that there are only two ways to improve solvency: cutting benefits or raising taxes.

Neither is easy. And each has drawbacks.

Fortunately, there are other ways. And these ways don’t involve cutting benefits or raising taxes.

For example, there’s the tax gap. The tax gap is the difference between what taxpayers owe and what they actually pay. Currently, there’s a gap of about $58 billion each year between Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes that are owed and the taxes that are paid. We have to do more to collect the tax gap.
And today, we are going to look at another idea for improving Social Security and Medicare solvency, without raising taxes or cutting benefits.

We are going to look at facilitating work by people who want to resume work after they retire from their full-time jobs, or who want to phase down their work before retiring.

The written statements of the witnesses concern ways to encourage retired people to go back to work. Stephen Goss, Social Security's Chief Actuary, is one of the witnesses. There may have been questions about the reported conflict between him and the Commissioner of Social Security but there was nothing in his written statement about this.

First 75th Birthday Event

I have received notice of the first official commemoration of Social Security's 75th anniversary on August 14. This is not the major, official event but I am sure that one is coming. This one involves:

[A] special presentation and historical exhibit at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, 1st Street NE, Washington, D.C., in Senate Meeting Room SVC203/202, on Friday, July 23, 2010. Commissioner Michael J. Astrue will open the exhibit at 10 a.m. and introduce our keynote speaker Dr. Edward Berkowitz, professor at the George Washington University, Social Security historian and author. The exhibit will remain open until 3 p.m. Larry DeWitt, our Social Security Historian, will be on hand to answer questions.

House Social Security Subcommittee Hearing

The House Social Security Subcommittee is holding a hearing at the moment. The witnesses' written statements have been posted. Here is a snippet from the written testimony of Kelly Ross, the Deputy Policy Director of the AFL-CIO:

The income replacement rate of today’s Social Security benefit is about one third lower than the OECD [Organization for Economic Coo-peration and Development, whose members are the major industrialized nations] average. The United States ranks 25th of 30 OECD countries in the share of the average worker’s earnings that is replaced upon retirement. For a medium earner retiring at age 65, Social Security benefits replace only 40 percent of their prior earnings, and this replacement rate will fall to 36 percent by 2030 because of the scheduled increase in the full retirement age.

Wyoming DDS Honored

From a press release:

The Wyoming Department of Workforce Services’ Disability Determination Services (DDS) division has received a Commissioner’s Citation for superior customer service to disability applicants and implementing innovative approaches to improving the disability claims processing for the Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2009. The Commissioner’s Citation is the highest award that the Social Security Administration can bestow on an individual, group of individuals, or on an organization.

Even during adversities, the Wyoming DDS managed to maintain the highest productivity per work year in the Denver region during FFY 2009.

New IRMAA Regs

From today's Federal Register:

We are modifying our regulations to clarify and revise what we consider major life-changing events for the Medicare Part B income-related monthly adjustment amount (IRMAA) and what evidence we require to support a claim of a major life-changing event. Recent changes in the economy and other unforeseen events have had a significant effect on many Medicare Part B beneficiaries. The changes we are making in this interim final rule will allow us to respond appropriately to circumstances brought about by the current economic climate and other unforeseen events, as described below.

Does this seem hopelessly confusing and boring? Yes, but it affects real people and somebody has to administer it. Computers cannot do much of this. A lot of this cannot be done from a remote call center. It takes warm bodies spread out in offices around the country.

Hearing Office Average Processing Time Report

Courtesy of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives. Click on each page twice to view it full size.

It's Time To Earn That Award

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue received an award from the Alzheimer's Association for adding Alzheimer's to the list of cases eligible for "compassionate allowance" of disability claims. I consider the "compassionate allowances" list as meaningless since Social Security was already approving everybody on the compassionate allowance list and generally doing so rapidly. To me, the award seemed undeserved since nothing of consequence had happened.

Now, the Alzheimer's Association is announcing new diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease. These new criteria are expected to double or triple the number of people being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Quickly adopting these new criteria for purposes of adjudicating Social Security disability claims would actually be of benefit to Alzheimer's patients and their families. Will the Commissioner step up and do something meaningful to justify that award he received?

Personnel Changes In Chief ALJ Office

The latest issue of the Social Security Forum, the newsletter of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) has a brief article about some changes at the Office of Chief Administrative Law Judge (CALJ) at Social Security. There are now thee new Associate Chielf ALJ positions:

• ALJ Paul Lillios will be the new Associate Commissioner [did they mean Associate Chief ALJ?] for Field Procedures and Employee Relations. He is currently the Regional Chief ALJ for the Chicago Region.
• ALJ John Costello will be the Acting Associate Chief ALJ for Administrative Management and will be responsible for the evaluation of service delivery and processing of cases. He has been the Hearing Office Chief ALJ in Rochester, NY, and has been involved in the training of new ALJs.
• The new Associate Chief ALJ for the National Hearing Center position is vacant for the time being.