About Time

Social Security is taking steps to move closer to online security standards used in the private sector -- allowing citizens to select a user name and password to access Social Security's online systems.

New York Field Office To Close

From the Ridgewood Times of New York:

Residents of Ridgewood and Glendale seeking Social Security or Medicaid benefits may be forced to travel farther to find them as the Social Security Administration has announced that it will close and merge the Glendale office with its Rego Park branch as soon as this summer.

Vincent Arcuri, chairperson of Community Board 5, announced the proposed merger during the advisory body’s May 11 meeting at Christ the King Regional High School. He subsequently sent a letter to Rep. Anthony Weiner, calling on him to “use your substantial influence” to keep the site open, adding that its closure “would be destructive to the local Myrtle Avenue rental property situation, currently suffering from the recent financial crisis.”

Weiner joined Arcuri at a press conference outside the Glendale Social Security office on Tuesday morning, May 17, calling for the Social Security Administration to overturn its decision, charging that thousands of seniors and others seeking public assistance such as Medicare and Medicaid would be denied a convenient location to apply for benefits and resolve related problems. ...

The consolidation is a cost-cutting move by the Social Security Administration that will reportedly save $3 million over the next decade. Shallman noted that the merger “makes sense,” adding that there are five Social Security offices located within a 25 square mile area around the Glendale site, including locations in Jamaica, Cypress Hills and Bushwick.

“We just got our 2011 budget, and it was less than 2010, and 2012 is looking very austere as well,” he said. “We’ve got a high concentration of offices in a relatively small geographic area.”

I Thought That Conversation Had Been Underway For Some Time

From a press release:

U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security announced today that the Subcommittee will hold an oversight hearing on the findings in the 2011 Annual Report of the Social Security Board of Trustees.  The hearing will take place on Friday, June 3, 2011 in B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 9:00 a.m. ...

In announcing the hearing, Chairman Sam Johnson (R-TX) stated, “This year’s annual report again sounds the alarm that Social Security will be unable to keep its promises to the hard-working Americans who pay into the system.  Americans want, need and deserve a Social Security program they can count on and a fact-based conservation about how to get there.  This hearing will begin that conversation. 

New Hearing Office In North Carolina

From the Fayetteville [NC] Observer:

The average wait to appeal for disability benefits in Fayetteville has been reduced by more than half in the past four years, the head of the Social Security Administration said today.

The wait was more than 700 days when the administration four years ago embarked on an ambitious plan to beef up its staff, open several hearing centers around the U.S., modernize its operations and fast-track some disability cases.

Fayetteville was a top priority in the country for a hearing center, said Michael Astrue, the commissioner of the Social Security Administration. The wait here to appeal a denial of benefits has since been reduced to under 300 days, he said.

Astrue joined others snipping a ribbon today celebrating this month's opening of a permanent Social Security appeals hearing center in downtown.

The center, which has 48 employees and six administrative law judges, opened last year in temporary quarters until its new home could be remodeled at 150 Rowan St.

COLA Coming -- But Will Medicare Premium Increase Gobble It Up?

 From the Baltimore Sun:

After two years without seeing an increase in their Social Security checks, more than 59 million retirees and other beneficiaries can expect a bump up in benefits next year.

The Social Security trustees' annual report released this month estimates that the cost-of-living adjustment in next year's checks will be 0.7 percent. The increase, which will be announced in October, could be higher, depending on where prices head in the coming months.

Still, experts say, retirees could see all or some of that raise eaten up by higher Medicare premiums.

What's Going On In West Virginia?

If you wondered where the recent Wall Street Journal articles came from, well, here is your answer. Is this person on to a huge scandal or just someone with a huge axe to grind? Why were the local papers not interested in this story? Why was Social Security's Office of Inspector General apparently not interested in this story until part of it appeared in the Wall Street Journal? Why was only the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal interested in the story? Why, for that matter, is the Wall Street Journal staying away from some of the elements of this alleged scandal?

New Plan

From the Borowitz Report:

Presenting what he called a revolutionary plan to slash the nation’s mountain of debt, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) today proposed eliminating the Social Security program in its entirety and replacing it with Groupons.

“Instead of waiting each month for a check from Social Security, America’s elderly will receive valuable Groupons for everything they need, from Ramen noodles to cat food to caskets,” Mr. Ryan said in an appearance on Fox News.

Adding that Groupons would also help provide for elders’ medical needs, the congressman illustrated his point by holding up a Groupon offering 30 percent off on open-heart surgery in Cincinnati.

Moving on from Social Security, Mr. Ryan also proposed replacing Medicare with a new program in which seniors are shot at by Predator drones.

Was It A Bad Thing That The Muskogee Man Was Trying To Work?

From The Oklahoman newspaper:

Sen. Tom Coburn wants a meeting with the top Social Security Administration investigator to discuss the increase in people receiving disability payments, saying he's concerned that some may be using the program as “an extension of unemployment benefits.” ...

Coburn, R-Muskogee, said in an interview the fund may go broke before that because “growth in this program has been horrendous.” ...

Coburn said he has some personal experience: A man he hired in Muskogee to do some yard work told him that he was collecting Social Security disability payments. Coburn said Social Security workers from around the country have contacted him to tell of abuses in the program. ...

Coburn and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sent a letter to the inspector general of the Social Security Administration saying they were concerned that some judges were approving appeals at unrealistic rates.

“Given the looming collapse of (the Social Security Disability Income program), it is imperative that disability claims are properly examined to ensure that only those who are lawfully entitled to benefits receive them,” the senators wrote.

“Individuals cannot be allowed to exploit SSDI, transforming it into a supplemental source of unemployment income with enormous and crippling costs to taxpayers.”

The senators' request followed a story in The Wall Street Journal about a judge in West Virginia who approves nearly every one of the appeals he hears from people who were first denied disability benefits.