America Isn't As Exceptional As We Like To Think

     The United Kingdom is embarking upon a major overhaul of its Social Security disability benefits. The government minister whose department administers these benefits has presented a report to Parliament giving a broad overview of what is envisioned. Here are a few quotes

• [Disability benefits are currently] confusing and complex.
• Individuals will have to qualify for the benefit for a period of six months and be expected to continue to qualify for a further six months before an award can be made.
• Key to the [disability] benefit will be an objective assessment of individual need, which we are developing in collaboration with a group of independent specialists in health, social care and disability, including disabled people.
• [W]e plan to periodically review all awards.
• Since [the current system of disability benefits] was introduced in 1992, there have been significant improvements in medical treatments and in aids and adaptations that assist disabled people. Attitudes to disability have also changed. The introduction of legislation, for example the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Equality Act 2010, to protect the interests of disabled people and prevent discrimination has helped many disabled people lead more independent live.
• We are committed to further breaking down the barriers in society that prevent disabled people from exercising choice and control, and living active and independent lives. Just as society is changing and advancing, so too must our benefits system to reflect those changes.
• In just eight years, the numbers receiving [disability benefits] has increased by 30 per cent. The complexity and subjectivity of the benefit has led to a wider application than originally intended. To ensure that the new benefit is sustainable and affordable in the long term, we must reform [disability benefits] to make sure we focus on those that need the greatest help to live independently.
• Evidence suggests that [disability benefits] can also act as a barrier to work, when it should enable people to lead independent lives, including having or getting a job.
• The definitions currently used are subjective and reflect views of disability from the 1990s, not the modern day.
• A greater emphasis on objectivity and increased use of evidence will lead to more consistent outcomes and greater transparency for individuals, as the process will be easier to understand.
• We know that many disabled people use aids and adaptations to increase
  their ability to participate in everyday life. ... We believe we should take greater account of the successful use of aids and adaptations ... This might mean, for example, considering an individual’s ability to get about in a wheelchair, rather than ignoring the wheelchair, as we do currently.

"Utmost Heinous Kind"

     Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union that represents most Social Security employees, has posted online its January 2012 newsletter. No urgent news in the newsletter, just more proof of the poor relationship between the union and Social Security management. 

     This issue of the newsletter has an item titled "Alabama Employee Wins Reinstatement" that includes this quote from an arbitrator's decision:

I find the behavior of Mr. (Jeff) Murphree, Grievant's fourth line supervisor to be of the utmost heinous kind. [He] used his position as supervisor to stalk Grievant, to humiliate her, to threaten her, to frighten her, and to cause her health to be affected.... [This supervisor] was the malicious leader of these actors [in her removal case]. I find that [this supervisor] used his position [highest authority in the office] to lead his subordinates to lie, to antagonize Grievant and/or to misuse their own positions in order to retaliate against Grievant for having charged [this supervisor] with violation of protected EEO activity. When Grievant sought to work at a different office in a different town in order to free herself from his heinous activities, [this supervisor] managed a way to show up to continue the harassment and to cause false charges to be made against her by his subordinates.

OIG Report On Outlier ALJs

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released its report on "outlier" Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), that is ALJs who have either high or low rates of approving disability claims or high or low productivity. If you were expecting dramatic revelations, you will be disappointed. The chart below is an example. It displays the expected bell shaped curve of ALJ rates of approving disability claims. This is pretty much inevitable when you are talking about human behavior. Notice that the tail on the left side seems to be a lot longer than the tail on the right side. I'm prejudiced but I think the problem is much more with the ALJs with a low allowance rate.

I Wonder

 NASA has just retired its last mainframe computer. Is Social Security still using mainframes? Should it be?

Congressman Speaks To ALJ Class

     From a press release:

Addressing a new group of judges being sworn in today to determine the outcomes of Social Security Disability cases, Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI) used his life story to emphasize the importance of their task. His remarks were part of a keynote address delivered to nineteen new Administrative Law Judges and ten new Administrative Appeals Judges for the Social Security Administration (SSA) who will play a key role in reducing the disability backlog. During his speech before administering the oath of office, Langevin recalled the incident when a gun accidentally discharged and fired a bullet that severed his spinal cord, leaving him a quadriplegic at age 16. ...

Langevin has supported efforts to reduce the backlog of cases, the number of which increased when the economic downturn hit. For Fiscal Year 2012, which began in October, the average processing time for a case is down 80 days from FY 2010 and 168 days from FY 2008. In addition, according to SSA, the Administration is issuing more hearing decisions, an increase of 45% between FYs 2007 and 2011, and expects that to increase to 55% through FY 2012. ...

I'm Having Trouble Getting Worked Up Over This

    Janet Novack at Forbes is outraged that Social Security has taken 14 months to act on comments made when the agency made it impossible to retroactively withdraw a retirement claim in order to get a higher monthly benefit. Some people who had made plans to withdraw their claims have been unable to do so and she thinks that is unfair.

I Wonder If He Found Any Fraud There

From WSHM in Springfield, MA:

Looking into potential fraud within the $10 billion Children's Supplemental Security Income program. Monday, Congressman [Richard] Neal [D-MA-2] alongside Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue toured Springfield's Social Security office and discussed the issue.

Unrelenting Austerity

     The President's proposed budget for the Social Security Administration for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, which begins on October 1, 2012, is out. It calls for a near complete freeze in Social Security's administrative budget, with total outlays of $11.723 billion compared to $11.678 billion for the current FY (2012) and $11.888 billion for FY 2011.

     By law, the White House has to submit to Congress the Commissioner of Social Security's own budget request for the agency. I have not yet been able to find that number. Can anyone point me to it?
     Update: Found it.  The Commissioner is asking for $12.622 billion which I would call modest but which the White House and Congress would call out of the question.
    Further update: Social Security's own summary of the President's budget shows $444 million more than what the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) summary shows. The difference is attributable to a "program integrity base adjustment" and a "user fee" adjustment. I cannot say why there is this difference between the two versions of the President's budget. At best, one of these versions is misleading. Understanding the federal budget is difficult enough without this sort of thing.