Why?

     It is not unusual for a Social Security disability claimant to be approved by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and to be immediately eligible for Medicare, despite what amounts to a two and a half year waiting period for Medicare. After some problems in the latter part of last year, Social Security is paying cash benefits relatively promptly after a favorable ALJ decision. However, it has always taken significantly longer for the Medicare card to come in. Why? It's not unusual for a claimant to have an urgent need for that Medicare card. I know that the award certificates in these cases say that the award certificate itself can be used in lieu of a Medicare card but I've heard of providers refusing to accept the award certificate as proof of entitlement to Medicare. For that matter, the award certificates come out slower than the payment of benefits. I know that I can send a claimant to their local field office and someone there may be kind enough to give them something in writing saying they are eligible for Medicare but sometimes they refuse to do this and providers won't always accept it. Why does it take so long to print and mail a Medicare card? Are retirees subjected to the same delays? I've never understood why the Medicare card isn't mailed at the same time as the award certificate.

AARP Tries To Deny The Obvious

     The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), an insurance company that masquerades as a grass roots organization, is now denying that its "salons" with Social Security opponents signaled its openness to cutting Social Security. 

     Let me give a interpretation of the AARP "salons." AARP management knows that no one in Washington respects AARP or cares about AARP as an institution. AARP, however, knows that it is viewed as one of the main supports for Social Security and Medicare, that politicians of both parties believe that AARP can, on its own, block destructive changes to Social Security and Medicare. AARP can see what Republicans have been trying to do to labor unions, particularly public employee unions, since the 2010 elections. There is no doubt that Republicans have been trying to undermine the unions since they are seen as providing major support to the Democratic party. AARP management is afraid that the Republicans are going to come after AARP as a prelude to an attack on Social Security and Medicare and that the Democrats won't try to protect AARP, since they really despise AARP. Thus, AARP management wants to assure Republicans that AARP isn't really their enemy and won't really stand in the way of the destruction of Social Security and Medicare, especially if the destruction of Social Security and Medicare creates additional opportunities for AARP to sell insurance to older Americans.

New Instructions On Prohibition Of New Claims While Appeal Pending

     Social Security has issued new instructions on its policy of prohibiting new claims for disability benefits while an appeal is pending at the Appeals Council,. No one would have much problem with this if the Appeals Council could resolve appeals in three months or so but the Appeals Council often takes two years and more. In effect, the Social Security Administration is making it almost impossible for poor claimants -- and that's most of them-- to appeal from an Administrative Law Judge decision. That's wrong.

Black Lung Regulations Removed

     Social Security has decided to remove its Black Lung regulations. This requires a little explanation. I'll do my best but this goes back before my time. I hope some real old timers can correct any mistakes I make. Black lung, or coal miners pneumonoconiosis, is a disease caused by exposure to coal dust. It used to be endemic in coal miners. I think that increased regulation has dramatically reduced the incidence of black lung. In the 1970s Congress decided to create a program, which I believe was funded by the coal industry, to compensate those affected by black lung. Social Security was initially given responsibility for administering the Black Lung program. Eventually, responsibility for the Black Lung program was given to the Department of Labor which still administers the Black Lung program. Social Security continued to have responsibility for adjudicating claims for benefits for those who initially filed their claims with Social Security. A handful of cases hung around for many years as they bounced between Social Security and the federal courts. Those cases have long since ended, allowing Social Security to end the regulations.

     Can you imagine Social Security undertaking administration of a big new program? It happened in the 1970s with Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Black Lung.

SSI Claims To Be Available Online

     There has been one prominent exception in Social Security's rush to make it possible to file claims for benefits online -- Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims. It looks like that exception will soon end. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, Social Security and other agencies must seek the approval of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for any new form that the agency may ask the public to complete and that includes online forms. Social Security has just sent over a request for approval of forms for the "Modernized SSI Claims System (MMMICS)" and this includes a request for "MSSICS/Signature Proxy." This sure sounds like an online form to me.

I Think We Have A Ringer!

     From time to time I notice reader posts on this blog that appear to be from ringers -- people pretending to be Social Security employees who aren't. Here's one now:

Figured a claimant's finacial assistance the other day. If she were paying taxes, she would have to make about $20.00 an hour to have what she is currently receiving from all finacial assitance. I can not think of any reason she would ever try to go to work. With her background and abilities she is not worth over $8.00 an hour. An thus the system continues to redistribute the wealth.

      If you are talking about $20 an hour, you're talking about approximately $3,500 per month. There is no way you can get to this number if you are talking about needs based assistance. You cannot get much over $1,000 a month. If you are talking about non-needs based assistance -- Title II benefits -- you could get a bit higher but still you could not get to $3,500 per month. And for that matter, Social Security employees are not in a good position to calculate the value of Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance. How would a Social Security employee compute this anyway? I say the post quoted above is bogus. Don't believe everything you hear on Fox News. Relying on public benefits is a tough life. It's never the equivalent of $3,500 per month of income.

Field Office Managers Stressed

     The National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), an organization of Social Security management personnel, has released its March 2012 newsletter. Hiring is mostly frozen at Social Security. Inevitably, this causes problems since attrition is uneven. Some field offices have no employees leaving but some small offices have several employees leaving. The newsletter has an article on this problem. Some badly affected offices receive help from other components of the agency but others receive no help and struggle. One particularly interesting point is that new telephone systems in field offices allow managers to see just how bad phone service has been in their offices and to allot additional resources. This has improved field office telephone service but at a cost to other workloads. Field office managers also complain that they are forced into more production work such as answering the telephone and working at the reception window. This leaves them inadequate time for management duties and forces them into overtime to try to keep up.

A Snapshot

Monthly Statistical Snapshot, February 2012

(released March 2012)

• Table 1. Number of people receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, or both, February 2012
• Table 2. Social Security benefits, February 2012
• Table 3. Supplemental Security Income recipients, February 2012

For more detailed monthly OASDI information, visit the Actuary's website for Beneficiary Data. For more detailed monthly SSI information, see SSI Monthly Statistics.

Table 1. Number of people receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, or both, February 2012 (in thousands)

Type of beneficiary	Total	Social Security only	SSI only	Both Social Security and SSI
All beneficiaries	61,138	52,975	5,387	2,777
Aged 65 or older	39,507	37,444	899	1,165
Disabled, under age 65 a	13,822	7,722	4,488	1,612
Other b	7,809	7,809	. . .	. . .
SOURCE: Social Security Administration, Master Beneficiary Record, 100 percent data. Social Security Administration, Supplemental Security Record, 100 percent data.
NOTES: Data are for the end of the specified month. Only Social Security beneficiaries in current-payment status are included.
. . . = not applicable.
a. Includes children receiving SSI on the basis of their own disability.
b. Social Security beneficiaries who are neither aged nor disabled (for example, early retirees, young survivors).
CONTACT: (410) 965-0090 or statistics@ssa.gov.

Table 2. Social Security benefits, February 2012

Type of beneficiary	Beneficiaries		Total monthly benefits (millions of dollars)	Average monthly benefit (dollars)
	Number (thousands)	Percent
All beneficiaries	55,752	100.0	62,707	1,124.80
Old-Age Insurance
Retired workers	35,876	64.3	44,165	1,231.10
Spouses	2,291	4.1	1,393	608.30
Children	605	1.1	366	604.60
Survivors Insurance
Widow(er)s and parents a	4,216	7.6	4,881	1,157.70
Widowed mothers and fathers b	148	0.3	129	873.60
Children	1,926	3.5	1,512	785.10
Disability Insurance
Disabled workers	8,630	15.5	9,584	1,110.70
Spouses	163	0.3	49	298.60
Children	1,897	3.4	627	330.70
SOURCE: Social Security Administration, Master Beneficiary Record, 100 percent data.
NOTES: Data are for the end of the specified month. Only beneficiaries in current-payment status are included.
Some Social Security beneficiaries are entitled to more than one type of benefit. In most cases, they are dually entitled to a worker benefit and a higher spouse or widow(er) benefit. If both benefits are financed from the same trust fund, the beneficiary is usually counted only once in the statistics, as a retired-worker or a disabled-worker beneficiary, and the benefit amount recorded is the larger amount associated with the auxiliary benefit. If the benefits are paid from different trust funds the beneficiary is counted twice, and the respective benefit amounts are recorded for each type of benefit.
a. Includes nondisabled widow(er)s aged 60 or older, disabled widow(er)s aged 50 or older, and dependent parents of deceased workers aged 62 or older.
b. A widow(er) or surviving divorced parent caring for the entitled child of a deceased worker who is under age 16 or is disabled.
CONTACT: (410) 965-0090 or statistics@ssa.gov.

Table 3. Supplemental Security Income recipients, February 2012

Age	Recipients		Total payments a (millions of dollars)	Average monthly payment b (dollars)
	Number (thousands)	Percent
All recipients	8,164	100.0	4,493	515.60
Under 18	1,294	15.8	829	613.60
18–64	4,806	58.9	2,806	532.50
65 or older	2,064	25.3	858	414.60
SOURCE: Social Security Administration, Supplemental Security Record, 100 percent data.
NOTE: Data are for the end of the specified month.
a. Includes retroactive payments.
b. Excludes retroactive payments.
CONTACT: (410) 965-0090 or statistics@ssa.gov.

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