Small Town Newspaper Produces First Rate Story: Serious Problems With Death Master File

From the Kitsap (WA) Sun:

Joyce Simpson, 87, was "scared to death" when her Social Security and pension checks stopped showing up in the mail. ...
It turns out the federal government had mistakenly declared Simpson dead in 1997. Her name was added to a list of deceased people in the United States maintained by the U.S. Social Security Administration called the "Death Master File." ...
The problem is it contains names of people like Simpson, who are very much alive. Social Security spokesman Mark Hinkle admitted that one in every 200 entries to the Death Master Files is false because of "inadvertent keying errors" by federal workers. ...
Something similar happened to Helen Sturdivant of Bremerton, who also noticed the problem when her Social Security checks stopped.
She'd been declared dead in 1997, she discovered. ...
Simpson and Sturdivant are among 21 people in Kitsap and Mason counties who wrongly appeared in the Death Master File. In a sample of the years 1998, 2008 and 2011, Scripps Howard News Service identified nearly 32,000 names nationally that were wrongly put on the list. Those names, including those of the 21 local people, later were removed after the Social Security Administration identified the mistake.

Yes, it has been no secret that the Death Master File contains inaccuracies but I do not think that the extent of the inaccuracies has been known before. Widespread use of this error -illed database outside Social Security makes this a serious matter.

Update: The Kitsap newspaper is part of the Scripps chain. A similar story is many, if not all Scripps newspapers, each one highlighting the effects upon local people.

Updated Fee Payment Numbers

Updated numbers on payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants:

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-11	34,467	$113,459,847.04
Feb-11	33,305	$107,796,771.38
Mar-11	34,885	$112,463,768.46
Apr-11	48,033	$153,893,755.37
May-11	36,479	$115,159012.77
June-11	33,568	$104,782,743.07

The Details?

From Dow Jones:

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) reassured angry House Democrats that a proposal to change a key measure of inflation linked to Social Security was not likely to be part of a debt ceiling deal, lawmakers said Friday. ...
"She basically reassured the group that there's no way it's going to happen," said Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), following a Friday afternoon meeting of House Democrats in the basement of the Capitol building. "After this, I do not think reducing the CPI in any way is a viable option."

"The Dirty Rotten Devil's In The Dirty Rotten Details"

From TPM Media:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has made one thing clear, publicly and behind the scenes, in high-stakes debt discussions: Her caucus won't support Social Security benefit cuts, and Republicans better listen closely, because they need Democratic votes to increase the borrowing limit.

But she may be powerless to stop one increasingly discussed plan to lower Social Security's cost of living adjustment, which would escalate cuts to the program over time. Though in public, and more frequently through surrogates, she agitates against the change, it's an idea that has bipartisan support -- and so a likely candidate in any final debt deal....

"There's concern in my caucus about what would happen with CPI, some think that it's a benefit cut, others do not," she admitted. "The dirty rotten devil's in the dirty rotten details."

Report From House Social Security Subcommittee Hearing

From Dow Jones:

Lawmakers and witnesses diverged over the implications of switching how the Consumer Price Index is calculated at a Friday hearing of the House Ways and Means Social Security panel. Some experts argued that changing to a different indexing method could be seen as a technical fix that more accurately reflects the true rate of inflation, while others stressed that such a move could disproportionately burden women and those who depend the most on Social Security.

Switching to a "chained CPI," which takes into account consumers' changes in behavior when prices rise, and translates into a slower rate of inflation, has been floated as a potential way to help close the federal deficit in the negotiations over increasing the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling.

OIG Report On Online Filing Of Disability Claims

Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has conducted a study on "applicants' perceptions of the Internet claim (iClaim) process for Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB)" and found that:

We held discussions with 154 of the 250 sampled applicants and found the applicants had a positive experience filing for DIB online. In fact, we found that the majority of the applicants understood the questions asked of them in the iClaim application, found the iClaim application easy to navigate, and were able to easily save their progress and return to the application if needed.
We also found that not all applicants completed and submitted the Authorization to Disclose Information to the Social Security Administration to SSA. Further, applicants did not always use the online version of the Disability Report-Adult. However, those applicants who did complete the Report online understood the questions it asked.

I have to say that the fact that many claimants did not use the online version of the Disability Report-Adult is a bigger deal that OIG recognizes. The whole issue for Social Security is having the claimant -- or anyone other than Social Security -- do the inputting of data into their computer systems. Which form is it that requires major inputting of data on a DIB claim? It's the Disability Report-Adult. If claimants frequently fail to use that online form, then Social Security personnel frequently have to do a lot of data inputting. Also, although it was outside the scope of this study, the inability to file Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims online is a huge problem.

The Threat Of Mandatory E-Verify

Scott Hochberg, writing at the Huffington Post:

[B]elieve it or not, one of the biggest threats to Social Security this summer could come from an entirely different direction [than the AARP], from an initiative whose main target is not even related to social program spending. I'm talking about E-Verify, a proposed system for curbing the legal employment of every single undocumented worker in America. While seemingly immigration-related, a mandatory E-Verify program could cripple the Social Security Administration (SSA) by concurrently draining already-limited funding while imposing heavy burdens on one of the most efficient government programs in existence. Oh yes, and it would threaten the timely distribution of all new Social Security benefits....

Forcing SSA to handle the administrative nightmare of E-Verify is worse than the usual conservative position of "starving the beast" -- it is more like starving the beast and making it run a marathon while carrying a 50 lb. backpack. That's because in addition to drastically increasing the responsibilities SSA would be faced with, the agency is already dealing with massive budget cuts that limit its administrative capacity.

A Rose By Another Name?

 From TPM Media:

Social Security benefit cuts may be a bridge too far for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). But what if Republicans and Democrats alike just agreed to refer to a benefit cut by another name.

That's how key negotiators have decided to treat one policy proposal, popular in Washington, that would simultaneously raise tax revenues and reduce Social Security benefits. As explained at length here, the idea is to peg federal Cost of Living Adjustments to a new, stingier measure of inflation. ...

And if you think Democrats are playing dumb because they want a deal, think again. They're some of the biggest supporters of this plan. ...

Reducing the COLA is something top Obama administration officials have wanted to do for a long time. ...

This bucking of orthodoxy via clever wordplay mirrors the cover Republicans give themselves from their base when they agree to close tax loopholes, despite pledging never to raise taxes. Only Democrats seem much more willing to play this game than the GOP.