Quiz Answer

Question: Ms. A is a native of Italy. She married an American and emigrated to the United States in 1991. She eventually became a citizen. She is now divorced. She worked for many years under U.S. Social Security law. Recently, she became sick. Ms. A has only modest income from investments. Ms. A decides to move back to Italy and live with her sister since she will be eligible for free medical care in Italy but not in the United States. Ms. A files a claim for U.S. Social Security disability insurance benefits in Italy. Which Disability Determination Service (DDS) will make the initial determination on her disability claim?

Possible answers:
DDS for the last state in which Ms. A lived
DDS for the District of Columbia
International DDS within the Office of International Operations
Federal DDS
Under the U.S.-Italy Social Security treaty, the Italian Social Security system using U.S. law

Answer: The  International DDS which is part of the Office of International Operations.

Progress On Electronic Access

From Electronic Services for Claimant Representatives, a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (footnotes omitted):

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) processed approximately 738,000 hearings. About 78 percent of these claimants were represented by another party....

In the first 8 months of FY 2011, claimants filed approximately 52 percent of all requests for hearings using iAppeals. Claimant use of iAppeals has increased over the years, thereby removing workloads from SSA’s FOs [Social Security's Field Offices].

As of the end of June 2011, SSA enrolled approximately 6,400 claimant representatives in ARS [Appointed Representative Services, that is electronic access to claimant files], corresponding to approximately 71 percent of the represented claimants who filed appeals. ...

SSA plans to add a number of features. For instance, ODAR is considering providing claimant representatives ARS access to the digital recording of the hearing. Additionally, SSA plans to create a hearing office status report in ARS that will provide claimant representatives information on all their pending cases. This status report should be available in January 2012.

Quiz

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

Decision Fatigue

From the New York Times Magazine:

Three men doing time in Israeli prisons recently appeared before a parole board consisting of a judge, a criminologist and a social worker. The three prisoners had completed at least two-thirds of their sentences, but the parole board granted freedom to only one of them. Guess which one:

• Case 1 (heard at 8:50 a.m.): An Arab Israeli serving a 30-month sentence for fraud.
• Case 2 (heard at 3:10 p.m.): A Jewish Israeli serving a 16-month sentence for assault.
• Case 3 (heard at 4:25 p.m.): An Arab Israeli serving a 30-month sentence for fraud. 

There was a pattern to the parole board’s decisions, but it wasn’t related to the men’s ethnic backgrounds, crimes or sentences. It was all about timing, as researchers discovered by analyzing more than 1,100 decisions over the course of a year. Judges, who would hear the prisoners’ appeals and then get advice from the other members of the board, approved parole in about a third of the cases, but the probability of being paroled fluctuated wildly throughout the day. Prisoners who appeared early in the morning received parole about 70 percent of the time, while those who appeared late in the day were paroled less than 10 percent of the time.

The odds favored the prisoner who appeared at 8:50 a.m. — and he did in fact receive parole. But even though the other Arab Israeli prisoner was serving the same sentence for the same crime — fraud — the odds were against him when he appeared (on a different day) at 4:25 in the afternoon. He was denied parole, as was the Jewish Israeli prisoner at 3:10 p.m, whose sentence was shorter than that of the man who was released. They were just asking for parole at the wrong time of day. 

There was nothing malicious or even unusual about the judges’ behavior, which was reported earlier this year by Jonathan Levav of Stanford and Shai Danziger of Ben-Gurion University. The judges’ erratic judgment was due to the occupational hazard of being, as George W. Bush once put it, “the decider.” The mental work of ruling on case after case, whatever the individual merits, wore them down. This sort of decision fatigue can make quarterbacks prone to dubious choices late in the game and C.F.O.’s prone to disastrous dalliances late in the evening. It routinely warps the judgment of everyone, executive and nonexecutive, rich and poor — in fact, it can take a special toll on the poor. Yet few people are even aware of it, and researchers are only beginning to understand why it happens and how to counteract it. 

 Do you think this has any relevance to Social Security?

Did You Know This Guy Is Leading In the Republican Presidential Polls?

The Houston Chronicle quotes Texas governor and Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry as saying that Social Security "is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie ... It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them."

Kentucky Supreme Count Holds That Child Benefits Do Not Reduce Child Support Obligation

The Kentucky Supreme Court has issued an unpublished opinion holding that "Social Security benefits received by a child as a result of a parent’s disability—unlike other types of benefits, such as SSI—are not the type of “independent financial resources” that would permit a deviation from the child support guidelines ..." This question comes up fairly frequently around the country. There are fewer published opinions on this than one would expect.

Man Shot To Death At Detroit Social Security Office

CBS Detroit reports that "One man is killed, another flees on foot Friday night around 5:30 p.m. after a Detroit security guard fires nine shots at two men who jumped a fence at the Social Security office near Wyoming and 7 Mile Road."

Update: There was a break-in at the Social Security office but there are serious questions about the security guard's behavior.

Identity Theft Hearing Scheduled

From an announcement by the House Ways and Means Committee:

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 a field hearing on Social Security numbers (SSNs) and child identity theft.  The hearing will take place on Thursday, September 1, 2011 in the Plano City Council Chamber, 1520 Avenue K, Plano, Texas at 12:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.