Informal Remands -- Have They Stopped?

     I had written earlier about Social Security's faltering efforts to speed up decisions for those who are in the long queue awaiting a hearing on their Social Security disability claims. I am now noticing that my firm, which has six attorneys doing Social Security work, hasn't received an informal remand (or re-recon) decision since June. Informal remands have been one of the most important ways of speeding favorable decisions for those who are disabled. Have informal remands stopped? Have the criteria used to make informal remand decisions changed? 

     Whatever is going on -- or not going on -- increases backlogs and slows down the process. We had progress on backlogs for a time but things seem to be going backwards at the moment. This retrograde movement may get a lot worse next year, depending upon the agency's operating budget and the new Commissioner's attitude. 

     I hate the idea of two year wait times for hearings. It's just brutal on claimants. The newspaper articles of a few years ago about suicides among claimants facing a two year wait for a hearing wasn't just media hype. At ground level, it was very real. I pray we don't go back there.

New Jersey Offices Remain Closed

    From a Social Security Administration website:

The following Social Security Office [sic] is closed today, October 31, 2012:
Michigan
Fort Gratiot

New Jersey
Brick
Clifton
Hackensack
Hoboken
Jersey City
Neptune
New Brunswick
Somerville
Toms River
Trenton
Union Township

Ohio
Cleveland Northwest

     At least Social Security's central offices and the Appeals Council have reopened.

A Replacement For The F.I.C.A. Cut

From the Washington Post:

The White House is weighing the idea of a tax cut that it believes would lift Americans’ take-home pay and boost a still-struggling economy, according to people familiar with the administration’s thinking ...

The tax cut could replace the [F.I.C.A.] payroll tax cut championed by President Obama in 2011 and 2012 ...

A growing number of voices have been calling on the White House and Congress to extend the payroll tax cut ...

The administration may be looking at alternatives to the payroll tax cut because some lawmakers, particularly Democrats, don’t like the idea of using a tax that ordinarily goes to fund Social Security. Any lost revenue as a result of the payroll tax cut has been offset by additional taxpayer money. Still, powerful interest groups such as the AARP have criticized using the payroll tax cut for short-term stimulus.

User Fee Cap To Be $88 Per Case In 2013

     In today's Federal Register -- yes, they were able to get it out -- Social Security made its official announcement on cost of living adjustments. This included the news that the cap on the user fee paid by attorneys and others who represent Social Security claimants will be $88 in 2013. This is the fee paid in most cases by those who represent Social Security claimants for Social Security's costs in computing and paying the fee. It amounts to a tax on those who represent Social Security claimants.

More Offices Close

     From a Social Security website:

The following Social Security offices will be closed Tuesday, October 30, 2012:
All Connecticut offices
All Delaware offices
All Maryland offices [which includes Social Security's central offices]
All Massachussetts offices
All New Jersey offices
New Hampshire
Keene
Manchester
Nashua
New York
All New York City offices including New York counties of
Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk [which includes the Program Service Center in Jamaica, NY]
Hudson Valley
Kingston
Monticello
Newburg
Poughkeepsie
Pennsylvania
All offices in the Philadelphia metro and surrounding areas.  Also all offices in the Harrisburg and surrounding areas.
All Rhode Island offices
Virginia
Richmond
Fredericksburg
Petersburg
Chesterfield
Newport News
Hampton
Norfolk
Portsmouth
Suffolk
Virginia Beach
Culpeper
Winchester
All Washington, DC offices and those in the surrounding area [which includes the Appeals Council]
West Virgina
Martinsburg
Petersburg

---

The following Social Security Office is closed until further notice:
Massachusetts
Roxbury

Office Closures Due To Hurricane

     From a Social Security website:

The following Social Security offices will be closed Monday, October 29, 2012:
All Baltimore, MD metro area offices [which includes the Office of Central Operations]
All offices on the Delmarva Peninsula
All Connecticut offices
All Massachussetts offices
All New Jersey offices
All New York City offices
All offices in the following New York counties:  Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk.
All Philadelphia, PA area offices
All Rhode Island offices
All Washington, DC metro area offices [which includes the Appeals Council]

---

The following Social Security Office is closed until further notice:
Massachusetts
Roxbury

     By the way, what happened in Roxbury? That has to be more than the hurricane.

George Will Weighs In

     I don't even know where to start in writing about the latest column from George Will. It couldn't be more misleading or more full of hatred if it were written by Rush Limbaugh. Just read it yourself.

     Update: Let me start to respond to this garbage. Anyone who compares Social Security disability as it was in 1960 to what it is today is deliberately trying to mislead you. The Social Security disability trust fund was only created in 1957. In 1960, disability insurance was in its infancy and growing extremely rapidly since people were just discovering the existence of the program. (Believe me, even today, there are people who are surprised to learn that Social Security pays disability benefits.) The number of people  on Social Security disability benefits grew by 56% between 1960 and 1961 alone! The definition of disability was quite different in 1960, requiring that disability be permanent and that one be 50 or older to get benefits. Today's population is dramatically older than it was in 1960. The incidence of disability increases sharply with age. The aging of the baby boomer population has dramatically increased the number of Americans in their 50s and 60s who are in their prime years for onset of disability.
     By the way, I hope that George Will tells his friends who are approaching knee replacement surgery their pain is no reason for them to restrict their activities. I hope he tells the parents of a schizophrenic or the survivors of a person who committed suicide because of depression that mental illness isn't, you know, really real.
     The loony right and the supposedly respectable right are rapidly becoming indistinguishable.

     Further update: Will wrote another column recently in which he seems to have predicted violent revolution in the United States if Social Security as we know it and other similar programs are not terminated. He also calls for an end for representative government since it has led to programs he disagrees with such as Social Security. He quotes Macaulay as asking "On what principle is it that, when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?" He then answers the question by saying, in effect, that "Of course, there's nothing but deterioration before us because the government is doing things I don't want it to do!" Will may be calling for a monarchy by next week.

$206,000 In Back Benefits

     From the Baltimore Sun:

Jim Nicholas lay in a hospital bed recovering after a heart procedure when his attorney called with life-changing news: The Social Security Administration would pay him more than $206,000 in disability benefits, bringing an end to his nine-year court battle.

The Dundalk couple was dogged throughout the process by denials and delays ...

Efforts to collect disability payments often turn into legal battles that critics say are stacked against the claimant. The agency denies an average of two-thirds of applications from low-income individuals who are disabled and more than half of claims submitted by disabled workers. And some administrative law judges are far less likely than others to approve claims. Then there's the wait.