Treasury Agrees To Scale Back Paper Check Threats

     From the Columbus Dispatch:

Seniors who were threatened with the loss of their benefits if they did not trade in their paper checks for Social Security benefits paid through a debit card or electronic deposit might be getting a reprieve.

The Treasury Department has agreed to make it easier for them to request a waiver to the electronic requirement, after a hearing held by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging. ...

The Treasury Department already had said it would waive the electronic conversion for seniors who were 90 years old as of May 1, 2011. But in a letter to Nelson last week, the department said it will stop using threatening language in letters to beneficiaries who have not embraced electronic access. ...

Treasury reported granting roughly 3,000 automatic waivers based on age as of June, said Rebecca Vallas, representing the National Consumer Law Center, National Senior Citizens Law Center and the Senior Law Center. Yet, more than 300,000 Social Security beneficiaries are 92 or older, she said.

The department also is supposed to grant waivers to people with a mental impairment or who live in an area so remote that an electronic payment would hinder their access to benefits.

New POMS Transmittal On Suspension Or Disqualification Of Representatives

     Social Security has issued a transmittal to its Program Operations Manual Series (POMS) dealing with "Suspension or Disqualification of Representatives." The changes mostly concern the new requirement that those who represent claimants deal with the agency electronically as much as possible. Agency employees can share their experiences but I haven't heard anything suggesting that there have been serious problems getting compliance with this new requirement. The biggest problem I've seen has been that Social Security's systems often make it impossible to file an appeal electronically.

SDM Works Great But It Must Die?

     From a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

Our review of 3,900 sample cases from the SDM [Single Decision Maker] prototype, SDM II and Non-SDM sites showed initial claim processing times were shorter in SDM sites than in the Non-SDM sites.

The 20 pilot sites, as well as the National Association of Disability Examiners and the National Council of Disability Determination Directors, provided feedback on the SDM model. These entities noted improved public service, DDS case processing times, and employee morale.

We noted evidence of SDM-user positive feedback and decreased case processing times for initial disability claims with the use of SDM. However, based on SSA studies showing higher initial and overall (after all appeals) disability allowance rates with the use of SDM, the Office of the Chief Actuary (OCACT) estimated significant program benefit savings to the Trust and General Funds with the gradual termination of the SDM pilot.

     I guess it makes sense to eliminate SDM if reducing benefit payments is your main goal but I thought that making fair decisions promptly was supposed to be the main goal.

No Punishment For Aiding And Abetting Illegal Aliens

     From an audit report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) (footnotes omitted, emphasis added):

Because the Social Security Administration (SSA) calculates future benefit payments based on the earnings an individual has accumulated over his/her lifetime, it is critical that the Agency accurately record those earnings. SSA’s ability to do so, however, depends, in part, on employers and employees correctly reporting names and Social Security numbers (SSN) on Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. SSA uses automated edits to match employees’ names and SSNs with Agency records to ensure it properly credits earnings to the Master Earnings File. SSA places wage items that fail to match name and SSN records in its Earnings Suspense File (ESF). ...

[W]e obtained ESF data for TYs [Tax Years] 2007 through 2009. These data represented the most complete tax data available at the start of our audit, given the inherent lag in posting annual wage information. We then identified the 100 employers who contributed the most wage items to the ESF for the 3-year period. We also identified the 100 employers (with a minimum of 100 employees)who had the highest percentage of suspended wage items for TYs 2007 through 2009. For the 200 employers selected, we analyzed ESF data to identify reporting irregularities, such as SSNs that SSA either had never issued or assigned to another individual. We also contacted Employer Service Liaison Officers (ESLO) to obtain information on their experiences with employers who provided names and/or SSNs that did not match SSA’s records. ...

For TYs 2007 through 2009, the 100 employers who had the most suspended wage items had submitted over 2.3 million wage items for which the employees’ names and/or SSNs did not match SSA’s records. These wage items represented $15.7 billion in suspended earnings over the 3-year period. In total, 18 percent of the wage items these employers submitted did not match names/SSNs in SSA’s files. ...

In previous reports, SSA acknowledged unauthorized noncitizens’ intentional misuse of SSNs has been a major contributor to the ESF’s growth. SSA staff told us employers hired unauthorized workers because nothing prevented them from doing so. That is, employers know SSA had no legal authority to levy fines and penalties, and they were not concerned about potential IRS sanctions. Several of the employers and industry associations we contacted acknowledged that unauthorized noncitizens contributed to SSN misuse. For example, one employer told us his and many restaurants would close if they did not hire unauthorized noncitizens. A temporary labor service employer acknowledged that some of his former employees were unauthorized noncitizens who used invalid, unassigned, and deceased individuals’ SSNs. Furthermore, the president of a large growers’ association stated that farm labor contractors employed a large number of unauthorized noncitizens.

     The offending employers are not named in the audit report.

"It Is A Frustrating Bureaucracy"

     From some Arizona newspaper that hides its name on its website:

Gaye Kelley spent 50 years in the workforce, doing many jobs: teacher, flight attendant and, eventually, Salt River Project customer-service representative for 30 years.

When the Mesa resident retired in 2011, she had accrued a full two years of vacation pay and sick days from SRP. She looked forward to retirement. But instead of fully enjoying it, Kelley was forced to do battle with a big government agency, the Social Security Administration.

“It is a frustrating bureaucracy is what it is,” she said.

When Kelley retired in April 2011, she started receiving Social Security benefit checks totaling $1,352 a month. But the following year, she began receiving notices that she owed the agency $10,857 in overpayment of benefits.

Social Security demanded the money back immediately. Kelley was flabbergasted.

In their notices, Social Security asserted that Kelley was working and collecting benefits at the same time, which is against the law. The truth is she was retired and receiving accrued vacation and sick pay from SRP.

Her former employer apparently had lumped the vacation and sick pay together and reported it to the Internal Revenue Service as income. This set off months of back-and-forth communications between Social Security Administration representatives and Kelley.

“It was eight months of insanity,” Kelley said. ...

“I have found that the people in the phone center (Social Security reps), as polite as they are, are empowered to do nothing for you. What boggles my mind in this whole thing is that I had to come to you!” Kelley said.

Investigation In Puerto Rico

     From the Wall Street Journal:

Federal investigators on Wednesday searched six facilities in Puerto Rico as part of a broadening probe into potential widespread disability fraud.

Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Social Security inspector general’s office, among others, searched five doctors’ offices and one other location as part of their sweep, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Puerto Rico said. The spokeswoman wouldn’t comment further, saying it was part of a continuing investigation and that the six search warrants were sealed. ...

In 2006, just 36% of initial applicants in Puerto Rico were awarded benefits. In December 2010, the award rate had jumped to 69%. By 2010, nine of the top 10 U.S. ZIP Codes for workers receiving disability benefits were on the island. ...

The characteristics of Puerto Rico’s beneficiaries differed from other areas. In addition to the large clusters in certain zip codes, federal data showed that 33.3% of Puerto Rican beneficiaries qualified because of “mood disorders,” a rate that is at least 10 percentage points higher than any U.S. state.

Silverstone Named As New Executive Director Of NOSSCR

     Barbara Silverstone has been named as the new Executive Director of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR). NOSSCR's 3,000 plus members, most of them attorneys, represent claimants for Social Security benefits. Barbara had been a staff attorney for NOSSCR.

Doing Less With Less

     From Federal News Radio:

Social Security managed to escape most of the impacts of sequestration. Other agencies, like the Defense Department, the Internal Revenue Service, the Housing and Urban Development Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have furloughed people. Social Security cut back office hours and is doing more with fewer people. It's had two budget cuts in the last two years, and Congress — when it gets back from its latest extended vacation — may or may not approve a new budget. 

In the meantime, Acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin has sent an all-hands message to staffers asking them to hang in there. Effective now, she said, "We are facing our toughest fiscal challenge in 30 years...we anticipate lengthy debates over our budget...Congress may not reach agreement before Sept. 30, which means we may enter a new fiscal year under a continuing resolution and under the continued effects of sequestration." 

Colvin, a veteran fed with four decades of service, noted that SSA has lost 10,000 employees in the last three years, and this has resulted in imbalances in different offices.

She said she is telling SSA bosses to "provide for broader empowerment at the staff level," greater delegation of both "accountability and responsibility" — while asking each employee to come up with "game-changer" processes, rules, procedures or systems that make it easier to do more with less.