Living In The Sticks Isn't Good For Your Health

From the Kansas City Star:

WARSAW, Mo. -- Around this rural county seat 100 miles southeast of Kansas City, 1 out of every 8 people of working age is home collecting disability checks from the Social Security Administration.

That compares to about 1 in 20 for the Kansas City area ...

[W]here are they most apt to collect [Social Security disability benefits] ? A recent tabulation of data nationwide reveals the highest concentrations of communities subsisting on disability benefits, per capita, to be in historically poor, rural settings.

They’re often places where two-lane highways wind around wooded hills, where mining or manual farm labor once put food on the table, and access to medical care has long been limited.

Poverty begets bad health and greater rates of disability, experts say, and disabilities often lead to deeper poverty.

Reamore ere: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/28/3397747/disability-rolls-have-a-rural.html#storylink=cy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/28/3397747/disability-rolls-have-a-rural.html#storylink=cp

Must File Appeals Online

     Effective on March 16, anyone representing a Social Security claimant is supposed to file reconsideration requests and requests for hearing online, according to a new directive to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow. The directive states that "We may investigate to determine if a representative purposefully violated this duty or is attempting to circumvent our rules. We may sanction a representative who does not follow these rules."

     I hope that Social Security is aware of the limitations of their own online systems. It is often impossible to file a reconsideration request or a request for hearing online. It is seldom clear what the problem is.

Genealogists Fight Back!

     Genealogists plan to fight back against changes in Social Security's Death Master File. The Death Master File affects many interests who otherwise care little about what goes on at Social Security.

Congressional Hearing Announced

     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 a hearing on the accuracy and uses of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File.  The hearing will take place on Thursday, February 2, 2012 in B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 9:00 a.m. ... 

As many news reports have accounted, incorrect death reports have created severe personal and financial hardship for those who are erroneously listed as deceased, including the termination of benefits and the public disclosure of information that the SSA normally keeps confidential.  According to the SSA, each year approximately 14,000 individuals are incorrectly listed as deceased on the DMF.  Those affected have experienced termination of benefits, rejected credit, declined mortgages and other devastating consequences while their personal and private information is publicly exposed.  

Further, the DMF reportedly has become a source for thieves to capitalize on the identities of children and others who have died.  Criminals appear to be exploiting the easy access to death information to submit fraudulent tax returns that include the decedent’s SSN.  Parents of the deceased child do not know their child’s identity has been stolen until the IRS rejects their legitimately filed return and the theft has been exposed.

     But if you don't use the Death Master File, you end up paying out lots of Social Security benefits to dead people. If you don't make the Death Master File available to other agencies, then other agencies have the same problem. If you don't make the Death Master File available to the public, there is the same problem with  private retirement benefits and with credit fraud not to mention that life insurers get to avoid paying off on their insureds whose survivors did not know there was a life insurance policy.
    Like a lot of government, the Death Master File sounds terribly boring but it has huge implications. for many, many people Also like a lot of government problems, probably there is no solution so we'll have to keep muddling along.

Patty Duke Applies For Social Security Benefits And There's More Revealed Than You Would Expect -- Unscripted Social Security Number Wistfulness, A Few Real Tears And A Major Detail That Social Security Hopes You Don't Notice

     Ms. Duke became wistful thinking about receiving a Social Security number at a very young age.At that time one received a Social Security number only when one began working.  She received her Social Security number at such a young age because she started working as an actress at a very young age. The acting itself may not have been so bad for Ms. Duke but her life around the time she received her Social Security number and for many years thereafter was grim and I'm talking PTSD-inducing grim. Bringing up those memories may have contributed to her shedding a few real tears at the end  as she finalized her claim. I doubt that Ms. Duke or Social Security anticipated that this video would have such a genuinely emotional element to it.

     Social Security would prefer that you not notice that Ms. Duke needed the help of her husband in applying for benefits online.

I Feel So Bland And Colorless After Watching This

Social Security Releases Contractor Information

    Social Security has released its annual Service Contract Inventory, which shows how much was made to each of the agency's service contractors. If you go to the trouble, you can find how much was paid not only to Lockheed Martin but to each medical consultant or vocational expert. I did a quick review and came up with this list of the biggest contractors:

• Lockheed Martin $72 million
• Computer Sciences Corporation $34 million
• Microtechnologies LLC $32 million
• Northrup Grumman $31 million
• ABT $22 million

     Note that this is a list of service contractors. It does not include hardware purchases or rent, for instance.

Budget Cuts Mean Staff Cuts Which Means Less Work Gets Done

Here are a couple of tables from the testimony of Steve Clifton, the President of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA) at today's Social Security Subcommitee hearing.

 

Just two acronyms to explain -- FY means Fiscal Year and TSC means Teleservice Center.