SSI Report

Social Security has issued its Annual Statistical Report on the Supplemental Security Income program. Some highlights:

Size and Scope of the Supplemental Security Income Program

• About 7.7 million people received federally administered payments in December 2009.
• The average monthly payment in December 2009 was $499.
• Total payments for the year were more than $46 billion, including almost $4 billion in federally administered state supplementation.

Profile of Recipients

• The majority were female (55 percent).
• Sixteen percent were under age 18, 58 percent were aged 18 to 64, and 26 percent were aged 65 or older.
• Most (85 percent) were eligible on the basis of a disability.
• Six out of 10 recipients under age 65 were diagnosed with a mental disorder.
• More than half (57 percent) had no income other than their SSI payment.
• Thirty-four percent of SSI recipients also received Social Security benefits.
• Of the people receiving SSI benefits, about 2 percent were residing in a Title XIX institution where Medicaid was paying more than half of the cost.
• Despite their disabilities, about 340,000 recipients (5.2 percent) were working in December 2009.

Utah Law Firm Reports Threat Made By Mississippi Client

From the Oxford, Mississippi Journal:

Billy S. Dunn of Walnut faces federal accusations he threatened to assault and murder officials with the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Dunn, 32, was indicted recently after an Aug. 4 complaint from a Utah woman working as a legal assistant in a law firm, where he was a client.

During their 30-minute telephone conversation, the woman said Dunn became upset that his SSA disability claim had been denied.

She alleged that he threatened to blow up the Corinth SSA office and himself.

Dunn was arrested soon after, and is in custody of the U.S. Marshal Service until completion of a mental evaluation and report, court documents show.

If convicted on the two counts, he faces up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

By the way, if you work at Social Security and wonder how often Social Security claimants communicate threats against Social Security to their attorneys, the answer is only very rarely. In 31 years of practice I have had only one. She did not stay a client for long. She had never earned enough money to qualify for benefits on her own account. Her husband had too much income for her to qualify for Supplemental Security Income. There was nothing I could do for her even though she was severely delusional. I reported the threat to the hearing office. I was told that several other people who had also dealt with her in one way or another had already warned them about her.

Virginia Attorneys Wants Closer Hearings

From The Roanoke Times:

Why should Covington [Virginia] residents seeking Social Security disability benefits have to drive 90 minutes -- to Beckley, W.Va. -- to plead their case?

That's the question a Covington lawyer [Bill Wilson] is asking in a campaign to get the Social Security Administration to hold hearings in Covington. Since March, residents of Covington and Alleghany and Bath counties whose disability claims reached the hearing stage have had to drive to Beckley.

Previously, they had to travel to Lewisburg, W.Va., a roughly 30-mile drive. The drive to Beckley is about 80 miles. ...

Aidan Diviny, spokesman for the administration in Philadelphia, said the hearings were moved to Beckley because the agency's lease on the Lewisburg building expired in April and because the Beckley office has two hearing rooms. ...

Watson said the Covington office handles about 130 disability claims a month from residents in Alleghany and Bath counties and the three West Virginia counties of Monroe, Pocahontas and Greenbrier. Most of the claimants, he said, are West Virginians.

Diviny said all claimants can request to have their hearings held in Roanoke instead of Beckley. However, the drive to Roanoke is about 60 miles from Covington, with a travel time of more than an hour.

But Wilson is agitated because when claimants travel all the way to Beckley, they don't plead their case live before an administrative judge -- the judge is sitting in a room in Charleston and the hearings are held via videoconference.

Government Shutdown Coming Next Year?

You may have noticed that Republicans are in a take no prisoners, make no compromises, our way or nothing mode. It has not made Republicans more popular but it has certainly made Democrats less popular by making it difficult for them to govern. There are frighteningly plausible Republican plans to shut down government next year to try to stop health care reform.

Take The Quiz!

Take Dean Baker's Social Security quiz. It might surprise you.

Commissioner's Message For Labor Day

From: Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Fri 9/3/2010 2:19 PM
To: Undisclosed recipients
Subject: COMMISSIONER'S BROADCAST--09/03/10

A Message To All SSA [Social Security Administration] And DDS [Disability Determination Services] Employees

Subject: Labor Day

I want to wish you a safe and happy Labor Day, a holiday that is our national tribute to the contributions of American workers to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. In this year of so much economic stress, you have had to step up your efforts, so you deserve this tribute even more than in past years.

As a group, our DDS colleagues have had the most difficult year; many of them have been subjected to across-the-board furloughs by governors and state legislators. We recently submitted legislation to Congress that would fix that problem, and I urge all of you - not just DDS employees - to use every opportunity you have to educate Members of Congress and their staffs about the unnecessary trauma furloughs cause for our DDS employees and the citizens they serve. For more information about this legislation, go to http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pressoffice/pr/furlough-legislation-pr.htm.

I also want to congratulate Jim Hill, who has been our national NTEU [National Treasury Employees Union] representative for many years. He will soon be sworn-in as an administrative law judge for the new Akron hearing office, and I am confident that he will bring to the bench the same passion, civility, and judgment he brought to his service as a labor leader.

I was particularly pleased to hear this week that, despite the pressures brought on by our increased workloads, we remain one of the Top Ten Best Places to Work in the Federal Government for the third consecutive time, and received our highest ranking ever. Thank you for all you do to make SSA a great place to work.

Again, have a safe and happy Labor Day.

Michael J. Astrue

FICA Holiday?

From the Washington Post:

With just two months until the November elections, the White House is seriously weighing a package of business tax breaks - potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars - to spur hiring and combat Republican charges that Democratic tax policies hurt small businesses, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations.

Among the options under consideration are a temporary payroll-tax holiday ...

[A] payroll-tax holiday - a top priority of many business groups - could be applied only to new hires or extended to current employees. It could be limited to small businesses or extended to larger firms.

Death Of ALJ Maggard

Retired Social Security Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Glay Maggard of Dauphin Island, AL passed away on August 25. Maggard had served as an ALJ in Mobile, AL, as well as Louisville, and Lexington, KY.