Hearing Office Chief ALJ Not Concerned By Threats

From the Akron Beacon Journal:

Judge Thomas A. Ciccolini is not a man easily shaken.

As chief administrative law judge in Akron's new Social Security disability claims office in the heart of downtown, he reacts with calm assurance to the news out of Washington that judges who hear these cases are facing an increasing number of threats from people who are denied benefits, or must wait a year (or more) for the case to be decided. ...

''I practiced law in Akron for 31 years. I did nothing but criminal work, so I know courtrooms can become volatile,'' Ciccolini said. ...

As the chief Social Security hearing officer in Cleveland, where he heard disability cases for seven years before assuming the lead position in Akron, he said he actually had a guard stationed in his hearing room on only a couple of occasions.

''I have conducted thousands of hearings in my seven years and cannot recall any violent incidents. Obviously, there is somewhere in the country that this has happened,'' Ciccolini said, ''but it just hasn't happened in this area.''

By the way, if you do not know what Social Security's hearing rooms look like, take a look at the picture above. Note that the room is not large or fancy and that it includes a large television screen with a small television camera attached to the bottom of the screen. The table in front of the judge has at least one computer monitor on it. The desk in front of the judge probably has another computer monitor on it just off camera.

A Little Help Please

For many years I have maintained that there is little or no proof that there is a significant link between rates of unemployment and the rates of disability claims. Common wisdom is to the contrary. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released a report dealing with disability benefits around the world. Take a look at this chart (click on it to view it full size).

Could someone show me on this chart some evidence of a relationship between disability claims and unemployment?

Can Anyone Explain This?

From the Washington Post:

The government should create incentives for employers to retain disabled workers on their payrolls as a way of slowing unsustainable increases in the number of people receiving Social Security disability benefits, according to a new report.

Adding a "front end" of benefits to keep the disabled in their jobs could arrest the rapidly growing expense of the federal disability program, a problem that has largely escaped the scrutiny of policymakers, according to the report's authors at the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project and the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

Their proposal would require workers and employers to share the cost of a modest private disability insurance package, which is between $150 and $250 a year, according to the report, which is to be officially unveiled at a Dec. 3 event in Washington.

Workers seeking to go onto the federal disability program would first have to be approved for benefits from the private policy. Those benefits would go toward rehabilitation services, partial income support and other related services, the researchers said....

David Autor, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher who co-authored the study, acknowledged that the overall proposal would likely face huge hurdles in a political environment that is growing increasingly hostile to new government mandates.

$150 to $250 a year for private disability insurance? Turning over disability determination to private insurers who get to pocket anything they do not have to pay out? Rehab services to enable all those people with degenerative diseases to return to work?

What could possibly go wrong?

5th Anniversary

Social Security News is now five years old. I have made well over 4,000 posts. I have no idea how much time I have put in on it. I know that I have gotten a good deal of satisfaction out of it. I hope that my readers have found this blog useful.

Happy Thanksgiving

And to continue in a classic mode, read Art Buchwald's classic explanation of Le jour de Merci Donnant.

Something To Be Thankful For

I was able to use Social Security's online process for accessing the files that Social Security has on my clients files today -- using Firefox -- without difficulty. I have heard from some others who have had the same favorable experience this week. I hope that the problems of the past few weeks have been permanently resolved.

NJ Reduces State Supplementation Of SSI

First, let me give some history. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program was introduced in the 1970s. It replaced earlier state programs of aid to indigent people who were of old age or disabled. At the time it was introduced, a number of states were paying higher benefit rates than the new SSI program. States were allowed to supplement the SSI benefits to bring them up to their previous level. Many states still supplement SSI benefits for their residents. The states transfer the money to Social Security which gives SSI recipients one check or direct deposit that includes both the basic SSI rate and the state supplementation. However, states are not obliged to continue the state supplementation.

Social Security has put out an emergency message saying that the state of New Jersey is reducing its state supplementation beginning in January 2011. California has already done this. I will be surprised if other states do not follow suit.

Acronym City: OIG On FIT And DWSI

From a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

FIT [Findings Integrated Template] was released to all hearing offices in January 2006. FIT was designed to address quality issues in ALJ [Administrative Law Judge] decisions, notably legal error or poorly articulated rationale. With FIT, a DW [Decision Writer] does not have to cut and paste from old decisions to prepare the most common types of decisions. FIT provides more than 2,000 templates in 14 categories that cover the majority of decisional outcomes. Each template provides an analytical framework designed to ensure the relevant issues are addressed in a decision.

SSA implemented the DW Productivity Improvement initiative, which was subsequently renamed DWSI [Decision Writer Statistical Index], in Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 to improve the timeliness of the draft decisions the ALJs receive from DWs and to assess DW productivity. ...

To determine the effectiveness of the FIT and DWSI initiatives, we reviewed decision-writing statistics and surveyed 171 DWs, 131 ALJs, and all 13 administrative appeals judges (AAJ) from the AC. We also interviewed Headquarters-based employees of SSA’s OGC [Social Security's Office of General Counsel].

RESULTS OF REVIEW

While the average number of decisions drafted by DWs each day had increased slightly since FIT and DWSI were introduced, we were unable to determine whether the recommended decision-writing timeframes established by DWSI were met. ODAR did not measure decision-writing times in its Case Processing and Management System (CPMS)—ODAR’s management information system. In terms of quality, FIT helped provide uniformity and consistency in written decisions, and the percentage of remanded cases from the AC was lower after FIT and DWSI were introduced. Still, staff reported FIT did not cover all possible decision-writing scenarios, and some improvements were possible.