Disability Benefits In Puerto Rico Draw Attention Of WSJ

From the Wall Street Journal:

CAGUAS, Puerto Rico—This mountainside town is home to a picturesque cathedral, a tobacco museum and a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Another defining feature: Caguas's 00725 zip code has more people who receive a disability check than any other in the U.S.

Puerto Rico has emerged in recent years as one of the easiest places in the U.S. to get payments from the Social Security Disability Insurance program ... In 2010, 63% of applicants there won approval, four percentage points higher than New Jersey and Wyoming, the most-generous U.S. states. In fact, nine of the top 10 U.S. zip codes for disabled workers receiving benefits can be found on Puerto Rico.

The SSDI is set to soon become the first big federal benefit program to run out of cash—and one of the main reasons is U.S. states and territories have a large say in who qualifies for the federally funded program. Without changes, the Social Security retirement fund can survive intact through about 2040 and Medicare through 2029. The disability fund, however, will run dry in four to seven years without federal intervention, government auditors say.

In addition to the uneven selection process, SSDI has been pushed to the brink of insolvency by the sour economy. A huge wave of applicants joined the program over the past decade, boosting it from 6.6 million beneficiaries in 2000 to 10.2 million in 2010. New recipients have come from across the country, with an 85% increase in Texas over 10 years and a 69% increase in New Hampshire. ...

In 2006, just 36% of applicants in Puerto Rico were approved for benefits. By 2010, the rate had rocketed. In December, 69% of applicants were approved, the highest one-month approval rate by any state or U.S. territory since 2002.....

Administrative law judges in Puerto Rico, who make decisions in cases that are initially rejected or need further review, approved full or partial benefits in 80% of the cases they reviewed in fiscal 2010, according to data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. One judge in San Juan, Manuel del Valle, approved 98% of the cases brought to him during that span, according to data reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The SSAB Has A Vision For The Future

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has issued "The Social Security Administration: A Vision of the Future: First Steps on the Road to 2020." The future looks very technological to the SSAB.

Disability claims do not completely fit into the SSAB's vision and are, therefore, mostly ignored even though they make up around half of the agency's workload.

If there is even one original idea in this report, I missed it.

Sink The Bismarck!

The new Republican meme on Social Security: It is bad because it was invented by Bismarck.

Sound odd? Unbelievable? See it here and here and here.

Update: This meme goes back much further than I thought. See here and here and here and here. I had no idea that Bismarck was such a socialist hero.

Not Getting Involved

The text of an Emergency Message recently sent out to Social Security's field offices:

A. Introduction

The purpose of this message is to provide FO i[Field Office] nstructions when claimants or representatives ask the FO to open CDs encrypted by ODAR [Office of Disability Adjudication and Review].

B. Background

Recently ODAR began encrypting CDs they send to claimants and representatives in response to an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directive. Claimants or representatives are occasionally unable to open these CDs and request that the FO:

- Open or unencrypt the CD
- Burn an unencrypted CD

C. Procedure

1. FO employees should not:
- Burn a new CD of any kind
- Take the CD from the claimant or Representative
- Destroy the CD for the claimant or Representative

2. FO employees should direct the claimant or representative to contact their servicing ODAR hearings office to resolve any problem with the inability to open the encrypted CD.

Direct all program–related and technical questions to your RO [Regional Office] support staff or PSC [Program Service Center] OA staff. RO support staff or PSC OA staff may refer questions or problems to their Central Office contacts.

It is more than occasionally that attorneys and representatives have trouble opening the CDs.

Surprising Support For Data Center Funding

From, of all places, the Lubbock, Texas Avalanche-Journal:

... I am not a huge supporter of Social Security. But just because I don't think it's Uncle Sam's job to take care of me and mine doesn't mean I'm oblivious to the reality of the situation. And that reality is that our Social Security system is residing in a data center that is decades old with a backup system that may or may not work, and will take five days to bring online even if it does. ...

In five days people could - probably will - die. I may not think much of Social Security, but the system is in place, and we have to make sure it doesn't fail. For too many people it's their only safety net. Write your congressman not to cut any of the funding for the Social Security data center upgrade.

That Was So Last Year

From Federal Computer Week:

The Social Security Administration reduced backlogs and increased the pace of its disability assessments in fiscal 2010, but missed its target for increasing online applications from retirees, according to an internal SSA report.

Overall, out of 35 performance measures, the SSA met the targets for 26 measures, failed three measures and is awaiting further results on six measures, states the SSA Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2010. The agency conducted the review and issued the report internally late last year, but only recently made it public.

One of the most prominent goals that the SSA just missed in fiscal 2010 had to do with the target for moving a larger proportion of the approximately 2.4 million annual retiree applications for benefits to an online form, rather than paper forms.

Everybody Agrees That The District Court Decision Was Weird

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an opinion in Murkledove v. Astrue, holding that an attorney fee is "incurred" for purposes of the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) at the time a case is remanded by a federal court. The lower court had denied an EAJA fee on a remanded cases saying that the contingent fee had not been "incurred." Social Security had not opposed the EAJA award at the District Court level and also supported the appeal.

Get Your Stats Right Here

The Social Security Administration has released its mammoth Annual Statistical Supplement 2010.