Proposed Revisions To Rules Of Conduct

     The Social Security Administration has sent over to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a package of proposed revisions to its rules of conduct for attorneys and others who represent Social Security claimants. If OMB approves the proposal, it will be published in the Federal Register for public comment. Social Security must then consider the comments and can send final regulations back to OMB for approval. At this point, it is impossible to say what is in the proposal.

     I cannot say whether there is a connection but a reporter at the Wall Street Journal has been working on a story having to do, at least in part, with Binder and Binder, which is probably the largest entity representing Social Security claimants. Apparently, the story will not be complimentary to Binder and Binder.

     Update: OMB has added a little more information on this proposal to its website. It is supposed to be a final rule. Since there has been no proposed rule, at least not one described in this way, Social Security is apparently proposing to bypass comments. Social Security can do this but they are not supposed to unless it is either rather minor or rather urgent. I cannot see the urgency so I suppose it must be minor.

Supreme Court To Hear Social Security In Vitro Case

From the Los Angeles Times:

The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether a child conceived through in vitro fertilization after a father's death was entitled to a Social Security survivor's benefit.

At least 100 such claims are pending at the Social Security Administration while officials try to resolve how the Depression-era law should be interpreted in an era of modern reproductive technology. ...

Karen Capato brought such a claim on behalf of her twins, who were born in 2003, about 18 months after her husband, Robert, died of cancer. The couple had married in Washington state in the late 1990s and later moved to Florida to start a business. After being diagnosed with esophageal cancer, Robert deposited semen in a sperm bank.

No one questioned that he was the father of the twins, but Social Security officials denied the mother's claim for survivor benefits for them. They reasoned that under the law in Florida, children who were not conceived at the time of a parent's death are not entitled to inherit his property.

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Tough On Disability Claimants

The St. Augustine Record of Florida reports on the longer waits for appeals and tough standards affecting Social Security disability claimants. This appears to have been planted by Allsup but the reporter, for a change, removed Allsup's name from the piece. I don't know if that's good journalism but it's better than what most do. Of course, the piece is true. It is tougher to get claimants on disability benefits and appeals are starting to take longer.

Payment Delays

Updated stats are out on payments of fees to attorneys and others for representing Social Security claimants, mostly on disability claims. See below. Since claimants are paid at about the same time as their attorneys, this tells you roughly how good or poor a job Social Security is doing in implementing disability benefits after a favorable decision. Obviously, October was a terrible month.

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
July-11	40,451	$123,981,011.36
Aug-11	35,575	$109,778,785.74
Sept-11	36,159	$109,990,042.36
Oct-11	27,269	$79,526,149.33

Aaron Nomination Hearing

The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing for November 17 on several nominations, including the nomination of Henry Aaron to become a member of the Social Security Advisory Board. Aaron is with the Brookings Institution. He has endorsed keeping Social Security pretty much as is.

Veterans Day 2011

Thirty Years Of Back Benefits!

A Providence, Rhode Island law firm has put out a press release about an opinion it received from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in a Social Security case. The opinion came out over a year ago. I don't know why they waited so long but I think the firm has a right to crow. They got 30 years of back Social Security disability benefits for their client as a result of the unpublished opinion. Unpublished opinions aren't secret. It's just that the Court decides that the opinion isn't of sufficient importance to have it published in the official reporter. Most opinions are unpublished. I think maybe this one should have been published.