E-File Access Delayed

A few hundred attorneys already have online access to Social Security's electronic files. There is some frustration that this has not been made available to everyone who represents Social Security claimants. I am hearing that the problem is technical. Social Security would like to allow people to sign themselves up online -- with proper security controls -- but the software is not cooperating. Social Security can only sign people up in person which dramatically slows down the process. The latest word is that Social Security hopes to automate the process by November.

Updated Fee Payment Numbers

Updated numbers on payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants:

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-10	32,227	$111,440,046.23
Feb-10	29,914	$105,708,101.59
Mar-10	34,983	$122,874,426.87
Apr-10	44,740	$153,478,589.32
May-10	34,686	$119,527,194.40
June-10	32,432	$111,887,579.72
July-10	32,232	$132,328,622.27

New Trial Ordered In UNUM Suit

That qui tam (or whistle blower) lawsuit claiming that UNUM , an insurance company which writes Long Term Disability (LTD) insurance and administers LTD plans for employers, was doing something abusive by forcing the people to whom it was paying LTD to file claims for Social Security disability benefits has been remanded by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. A new trial was ordered because the District Court had excluded evidence that the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) does essentially the same thing as UNUM.

By the way, retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter sat on the panel hearing this case. I hope he was more alert than retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell was when I had him on a panel hearing a Social Security case I had appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals many years ago.

Astrue On Trustees Report

From the Huffington Post:

[A]t a press conference Thursday, Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue, one of the government trustees releasing the report, begged reporters not to scare the public by exaggerating the significance of trust fund exhaustion

"That does not mean that there will be no money left," Astrue said. At that point, even if Congress took no action, Social Security could still pay out 78 percent of expected benefits from annual revenues. "That would be a bad result, but it is a far cry from having no benefits at all," he said.

Inaccurate reporting on the topic tends to "make young people despair about Social Security," he said.

Health Care Reform Helping Social Security Trust Funds?

Bruce Webb at the Angry Bear blog makes an interesting observation about the annual report of Social Security's trustees issued yesterday:

The 2009 Social Security Report projected a 75 year actuarial gap for combined OASDI [Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance trust funds] of 2.00%. ... I fully expected this gap to edge up. Instead it was revised down to 1.92% putting it back to where it was in 2001. Why the change? ...

The OACT [Office of Chief Actuary, Social Security] calculates that HCR [Health Care Reform] will result in dollars being shifted from employer paid health insurance to wages after the Exchanges et al are fully in operation. This seems to rest on an argument from economic theory that has employers setting total compensation at some rate established by the underlying fundamentals and then backing out health care costs from that, with the idea that savings in the latter simply means more of the total flowing to wages.

Decision Time Coming For Mental Listings

Something may be about to happen on the mental listings front. First, a little back story on these listings to help you understand just how important and possibly controversial these listings may be. The mental impairment listings are not the only way by which a person claiming to be disabled by mental illness can be found disabled but they are certainly the most important. Mental illness is an extremely important component of Social Security's disability claims workload. Historically, the mental impairment listings have had the most effect of any of Social Security's listings. Advocates for the disabled follow any mental impairment listings developments extremely closely.

Just before the 2008 elections, Social Security obtained approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for new mental impairment listings. Social Security then did something extremely unusual. It never published that proposal and eventually withdrew it. I have no knowledge of what happened behind the scenes on the 2008 mental impairment listings but my assumption then and now is that the proposal would have regarded as harsh. by many. I think that Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue did not publish the proposal because he knew that the incoming Obama Administration would have refused final approval for the proposal and because he knew that even publishing it would have poisoned his relationship with the Obama Administration and Congress.

Social Security submitted a new proposal to OMB for changes in the mental impairment listings on May 12, 2010. We do not know what is in this proposal. It could be identical to the proposal approved by George W. Bush's OMB in 2008 but I would be surprised if it were. What I do know is that OMB is supposed to act upon proposed regulations within 90 days and that time is up next Tuesday. This is not a hard deadline. OMB can extend it. An extension of the deadline would be a strong sign that OMB and Social Security are talking and even negotiating about the proposal. Even if it is delayed, it is unlikely to be delayed for more than a month or two.

Something is coming. Stay tuned.

E-Services Week

The Nevada Daily Mail reports that "the week of Aug. 9-13 has been proclaimed Social Security eServices Week by Jayne Novak, mayor of Nevada; and Sherry Brown, mayor of Bronaugh. "

Deficit Reduction Commission Looking At Slashing Entitlement

From TPM Media:

... Though most of the [Deficit Reduction] commission's work occurs behind closed doors in small working groups, early reports indicate that the GOP's unwillingness to support any significant tax increases are pushing the group toward proposed entitlement slashes and larger budget cuts. ...

On mandatory spending issues, according to the aide, things are shaping up similarly. "We spent all but 10 minutes on benefits cuts and spent 10 minutes on raising the wage caps." ...

The commission's report is due by December 1. House Democrats have committed to voting up or down on the package if the Senate passes it first.

I hope that Republicans get a chance to vote for slashing Social Security. I wish they could vote on this before the election.