Social Security Loses A Big One In Little Rock

Social Security just suffered a big arbitration loss in Little Rock, Arkansas. (I uploaded this to Yousendit. It can only be downloaded 100 times.) The American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents most Social Security employees, had requested the arbitration over the firing of a union member. The employee was alleged to have engaged in misconduct in approving the use of Social Security's Critical Payment System for a $57,354 fraudulent payment made to another Social Security employee. The actions of the employee involved in this arbitration in approving the payment were only alleged to have been negligent. The employee involved in this arbitration was not alleged to have profited from her mistake. Another employee was guilty of fraudulent conduct and did profit from their fraud. That employee faced criminal charges.

Inconsistency in Social Security's treatment of its employees involved in this matter was a major issue raised by the union. One huge problem for Social Security was that the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) had investigated what had happened in Little Rock but the agency refused to disclose the entire OIG file, leading the arbitrator to presume that the agency was hiding exculpatory information.

The end result in this arbitration was that the employee was ordered restored to her job and was given $100,000 in compensatory damages and another $100,000 in punitive damages. I am not familiar with this sort of thing. Does it get worse than this for an agency?

Social Security Helps Bring Fugitive To Justice

From the Contra Costa Times:

Pacifica police Capt. Fernando Realyvasquez got a letter in 2007 he had waited 14 years to receive.

It was from the Social Security Administration and said the agency had located a man named Dedy Idris, who was wanted for allegedly molesting several young girls in Pacifica.

Today, nearly three years after that envelope landed on Realyvasquez's desk, Idris, 65, is slated to be sentenced in San Mateo County Superior Court on 10 counts of child molestation. ...

Idris had applied for benefits, and a routine check had turned up the 14-year-old arrest warrant.

Way Off Topic: Anyone Want To Guess Who This Is?

Update: Yes, it was the Rolling Stones in 1966.

Threat To Florida Social Security Office

From WEAR-TV in Pensacola, FL:

A suspicious package at a central Florida Social Security office turned out to be a box with two kittens.

Authorities say the box was found early Friday on the front steps of the building. A bomb squad examined the box and found the kittens. One of them ran away and hasn't been found. The other will be taken to an animal shelter.

That kitten certainly looks vicious to me!

Former Social Security ALJ Kept Her Silence About Clarence Thomas

From the Washington Post:

For nearly two decades, Lillian McEwen has been silent -- a part of history, yet absent from it.

When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in an effort to deflect Hill's allegations.

Lillian McEwen was that woman.

At the time, she was on good terms with Thomas. The former assistant U.S. attorney and Senate Judiciary Committee counsel had dated him for years, even attending a March 1985 White House state dinner as his guest ...

Now, she says that Thomas often said inappropriate things about women he met at work -- and that she could have added her voice to the others, but didn't.

Over the years, reporters and biographers approached her eager to know more about Thomas from women who knew him well. But McEwen remained mum. She said she saw "nothing good" coming out of talking to reporters about Thomas, whom she said she still occasionally met. ...

Today, McEwen is 65 and retired from a successful career as a prosecutor, law professor and administrative law judge for federal agencies.

McEwen apparently began her career as an ALJ at Social Security not long after the Thomas confirmation hearing. She later moved on to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Social Security's Real Estate Plans For Baltimore

From the Maryland Gazette:

The JBG Cos. of Chevy Chase won the bid to develop a 538,000-square-foot Social Security Administration campus opposite the new Reisterstown Metro station to replace offices in downtown Baltimore, city officials announced Tuesday.

The $150 million complex will transform the northwest corner of the city, an area of low-slung retail and residential properties that Maryland and Baltimore officials have targeted for transit-oriented development. JBG will design and build two office buildings, five and seven stories tall, with a parking garage and day care center.

Construction of the office building, which includes 1,076 parking spaces, is to start next year and be completed in 2014. ...

The new center, 6100 Wabash Ave., will replace the existing Social Security Metro West center. ...

The federal agency has had a long and tortured relationship with the city since it opened its headquarters near Baltimore's waterfront in 1936. It served as a path to middle-class security for thousands of residents, including many blacks who otherwise were shut out of most jobs in the segregated city.

But Social Security's biggest expansion and economic impact came in 1960 when it moved its headquarters to Woodlawn in Baltimore County, spurring an explosion of growth north of the city. The agency eventually opened a new city office complex at 300 N. Greene St. on Baltimore's downtown west side in 1980, but employment there has steadily dwindled.

Problems With Federal Workers Compensation Offsets

Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently looked at a sample of 50 people who were receiving both Social Security disability benefits and federal workers compensation benefits. Of that group, 32 had overpayments because their federal workers compensation benefits had not been considered in computing their Social Security disability benefits. Additionally, OIG looked at another 50 who were receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and federal workers compensation and found that 21 of them were being overpaid.

Before you assign the blame to Social Security, let me tell you that the federal Office of Workers Compensation Programs (OWCP) has a longstanding reputation for being incredibly incompetent. There are many attorneys who have handled one federal workers compensation case and decided that they never wanted to mess with OWCP ever again. At the moment, I am not sure that there is any attorney in the state of North Carolina who regularly takes on federal workers compensation cases. Around here, even the federal employee unions do not know who to refer these cases to. OWCP is the biggest mess of any agency, federal or state, that I have ever dealt with. Social Security has real problems with workers compensation offsets in general but difficulty in getting information from OWCP almost certainly exacerbates the problem for claimants receiving federal workers compensation benefits.

Disability Claims Spike In Georgia And Tennessee

From the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Judy Duncan had worked in the same place for more than 40 years.

Over that time, her knees began to give out and, when she was laid off three years ago, she already was medically disabled, she said. ...

At 63, the East Ridge resident was able to get by in her job as an insurance company office clerk because she knew the job like the back of her hand and her employer accommodated her limitations, she said.

But when she found herself unemployed at the start of a worldwide economic crisis, her physical problems made it impossible to get back into the work force. ...

Duncan, with the help of her attorney, was approved for disability compensation seven months after losing her job.

There are thousands of other Americans just like Duncan, and they are fueling a large spike in applications for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.

Nationally, applications were up 17 percent from 2007 to 2009. In Georgia and Tennessee, applications are up more than 25 percent in the same time frame, Social Security Administration numbers show.

Claims have risen so much, Georgia requested another 100 federally funded staffers to sort and handle the paperwork. Starting in mid-November, 35 of those employees will staff a new Claims Adjudication Office in Dalton, Ga. ...

Disability claims have been on the rise for years because of aging baby boomers whose ailments make work too difficult. But the latest spike, seen over the last three years, is fueled by both boomers and the economy, officials say.