Waiting In Memphis

     From WMC in Memphis:

Federal budget cuts are being felt across the country and many of the people who depend on social security benefits are being forced to wait. ...

The Social Security Administration was already dealing with an 8 percent budget cut and since the sequester, it has had to cut nearly all overtime, decrease office hours, and let go of temporary employees. This is causing a backlog in getting some people their benefits.

C. Greg Cates takes on clients who are waiting for a final benefit decision. Now, it is taking about six month or longer to process new claims.

"It affects people who are already in the application appeals process and we are waiting to hear and obtain social security disability benefits," said C. Greg Cates, Advanced Case Development CEO.

At this point, it appears that those already receiving benefits will not be affected as that process is computerized. For those in need of benefits, Cates' only advice is to get ready to wait.

Witness List For Tomorrow's Hearing

     The House Social Security Subcommittee has posted the witness list for tomorrow's hearing on "The Challenges of Achieving Fair and Consistent Disability Decisions": 

• Patrick P. O’Carroll, Jr., Inspector General, Social Security Administration, accompanied by Heather Hermann, National Coordinator, Cooperative Disability Investigations Program, Office of the Inspector General, Social Security Administration
• Arthur R. Spencer, Associate Commissioner, Office of Disability Programs, Social Security Administration
• Kathy Ruffing, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Trudy Lyon-Hart, Director, Office of Disability Determination Services, Vermont Agency of Human Services, on behalf of the National Council of Disability Determination Directors
• David Hatfield, Administrative Law Judge (Retired), Wexford, Pennsylvania

Visual Impairment Listing Change Delayed

     The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House, has to approve any new regulations that Social Security and other agencies want to publish in the Federal Register. On March 5, OMB approved a final version of new visual disorder listings for Social Security. Once OMB approves new regulations for Social Security, they ordinarily appear in the Federal Register in less than a week. However, that's not required. An agency can decide not to publish regulations even after obtaining OMB approval. Former Commissioner Michael Astrue decided not to publish proposed new mental impairment listings that were approved not long before Barack Obama was elected President. 

     It's now been two weeks since OMB approved these regulations. The proposal was noncontroversial when it was originally published for comments. I wouldn't read much into this delay but it is getting noticeable.

The Consequences Of The "Secret ALJ" Policy

     For some months now Social Security has been trying to withhold the identity of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) scheduled to hold one of its hearings. This caused a raft of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits which the agency could not win. Social Security is now revealing the identity of an ALJ to those who make FOIA requests. I am hearing that the agency has a pending workload of 10,000 FOIA requests and that this is occupying the time of ten employees.

     A friend suggested to me that attorneys who represent Social Security claimants shouldn't wait until a hearing is scheduled to request the name of the ALJ. These cases are being assigned to ALJs long before they are scheduled. Why not make the request much earlier?

No Need To Gut Social Security Disability Benefits

     I think it's important to repeat this excerpt from the testimony of Steve Goss, Social Security's Chief Actuary, at a Congressional hearing in December 2011:

Sustainable solvency can be restored for the Disability Insurance program with ... [A] simple tax-rate reallocation between OASI [Old Age and Survivors Insurance] and DI [Disability Insurance], as was done in 1994, could equalize the financial prospects of the trust funds. We estimate that temporarily raising the Disability Insurance program’s share of the 12.4-percent OASDI payroll tax rate from 1.8 to 2.2 percent for 2012 through 2024 and to 2.0 percent for 2025 through 2029 would make scheduled benefits payable for both OASI and DI beneficiaries until 2036....

[T]he baby boomers already moved from young ages (25-44) in 1990, where few were disabled, to older ages (45-64) in 2010, where many more are disabled. Thus, the 20-year demographic shift in the age-distribution of the population has already occurred for DI. ...

As a result, the number of workers per DI beneficiary is expected to be relatively stable in the future. This means that restoring sustainable solvency for the DI program will not require continually greater benefit cuts or revenue increases. A one-time change to offset the drop in birth rate is all that is needed to sustain the DI program for the foreseeable future.

      You don't need to gut the program. Just do a simple reallocation, something which has been done in the past. It's a temporary problem. Don't over-react.

House Oversight Committee Gets On The Disability Bandwagon

     From the Washington Free Beacon:

Fraud could be a major reason that the number of people enrolled in Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) has risen so dramatically over the past 10 years, according to two letters written by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The number of enrollees in the program grew by almost 60 percent between 2003 and 2012, from 5.58 million to 8.82 million people, the March 11 letter to acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration Carolyn Colvin says. This rate of growth is twice what the previous decade experienced.

The increase is likely not coming from people who actually need the care, the letter contends. Fraudulent enrollment and improper payments are pushing up the numbers.
The letter, signed by Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) and two subcommittee chairmen, points out “significant management problems that lead to misspending within the program.” ...

The second letter from the Oversight Committee, addressed to New York Regional commissioner Beatrice Disman and also sent on March 11, notes where the program’s exposure to fraud is the greatest.

“In recent years, Puerto Rico has emerged as ‘one of the easiest places’ in the country to qualify for and receive benefits through SSDI,” the chairmen write, referencing a Wall Street Journal article. New York’s Social Security commissioner oversees the programs in Puerto Rico.

Congresswoman Criticizes Social Security Funding

     From the Shelton, CT Herald:

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, whose district includes part of Shelton, is criticizing the impact of sequestration on the Social Security Administration (SSA).

DeLauro said sequestration “puts the basic functions of Social Security at risk” and the cuts come at a time when the agency — and many other government departments — have been “dealing with funding that has not kept up with inflation and demand over the years.”  ...

Funding for the SSA over the past two fiscal years for routine operations has been essentially flat, according to DeLauro, the senior Democrat on the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

“In each of these years the funding level provided was below the president’s request by $924 million, or 8%,” she said. “These cuts have a real impact on our ability to serve our seniors, and to ensure they get the proper benefits they have earned.”

This Is What You Voted For, Oklahoma!

     From KXII in Oklahoma:

The Social Security Administration is closing a Texoma office, citing federal budget cuts and less foot traffic as reasons for the closure.

 Allison Harris spoke with Hugo city leaders who are appealing this closure, saying it's undue and will be a burden for people in the area.

 Hugo city leaders are concerned that southern Oklahomans will be deprived access to social security support. ...

City manager Jeff Rabon says the Social Security Administration is closing its Hugo office in June, consolidating it with the Paris office. ...

"You know, we all breathe the same air, to quote President Kennedy, 'We pay the same taxes;' we don't want to see any services diminished." ...

The consolidation would force many elderly people in the area to either go online for social security help, or drive further -- by up to 85 miles -- to the Paris office.

"We feel like it's our responsibility to represent the people of our area to say, wait a minute, you know, we already struggle for access to services as it is; it's either Durant or to McAlester or, you know, Oklahoma City or Tulsa," Rabon said.

We spoke with an employee at the Hugo office who says many of their clients don't have access to the Internet, nor the resources to drive further to the Paris office.

"A lot of them don't even know how to use a computer. They're very upset over it, they say, 'what are we going to do without this?'