The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE) has issued its Fall 2013 newsletter, which includes summaries of presentations made at NADE's National Training Conference by two Social Security officials.
Oct 19, 2013
Oct 18, 2013
COLA Announcement Probably Coming On October 30
Looks like Social Security will be announcing its Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) on October 30. It is likely to be 1.5%.
Breaking Bad In Rhode Island
The Associated Press reports that Randolph Hurst of Wesh Warwick, RI has pleaded guilty to various state charges related to identity theft. Hurst was an Assistant District Manager for Social Security. He used his position to obtain personal information which he then used to gain control of a man's stock investments and steal $160,000. Hurst is facing up to 45 years in prison.
Maybe The Right Wing Should Just Lie Low For A Bit
From Michael Hiltzik writing for the Los Angeles Times:
The anti-deficit lobbying organization "Fix the Debt" staged a question-and-answer chat on Twitter Thursday. Its goal presumably was to reach America's smartphone-savvy youth with its message that Social Security and Medicare payments to their grandparents are going to land them in the poorhouse a few decades from now.
It's fair to say that "Fix the Debt" got more than it bargained for. Twitterers from all over responded to the invitation with pointed, tactless and downright impolite questions. Many of them aimed to discern how paring social insurance benefits for the elderly and infirm will make society stronger, which is the core of the organization's worldview. Those so inclined can still post their thoughts at #fixthedebtqa.
Among the choicer comments: "Can you explain why anyone chooses to be born poor? Why should the rest of us be responsible for their flawed decision-making?" (That's from Twitter user @jefftiedrich.)
A couple of good roundups of the dialogue thus far can be found at the Washington Post's knowmore site and at Liberaland.The tweets at knowmore site and Liberaland really are funny.
Oct 16, 2013
More Money For Social Security's Administrative Budget? No ACA Role For SSA Is Certain
Below is language from the bill set to be passed tonight (yes, it's certain to pass) to resolve the government shutdown-debt ceiling crisis:
Of the amounts made available by section 101 for ‘‘Social Security Administration, Limitation on Expenses’’ for the cost associated with continuing disability reviews under titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act and for the cost associated with conducting redeterminations of eligibility under title XVI of the Social Security Act, $273,000,000 is provided to meet the terms of section 251(b)(2)(B)(ii)(III) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended, and $469,639,000 is additional new budget authority specified for purposes of section 251(b)(2)(B) of such Act.So what does this mean? I won't pretend to know but I like the sound of "additional new budget authority." However, interpreting this is difficult. Generally, an "authorization" doesn't actually give an agency money. It just allows a later "appropriation" which actually gives the agency the money. Social Security, however, is a special case. Social Security technically never receives an appropriation since the money comes out of the trust funds. Social Security has a "limitation on administrative expenditures" -- the LAE. I don't know what the language means but I just can't see a point in giving Social Security a meaningless "authorization" in this bill.
By the way, I had speculated earlier that the media reports that this bill would include a new income verification requirement for insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare, if you insist) might mean a role for Social Security in administering the ACA. A stringent income verification requirement might require Social Security's resources but Social Security won't have a role since the income verification requirement in the bill to be passed tonight is essentially meaningless. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) plans to use commercial databases for income verification. That doesn't sound too workable to me. We've seen the problems with Social Security's Death Master File, for instance, which is about as accurate as a big database can be, but which still contains enough errors to cause serious problems for those wrongly declared dead. However, for better or worse, the income verification process under the ACA is DHHS' baby. Social Security isn't involved, at least not so far.
Update: The bill has now passed the House and will shortly be signed by the President.
OGC Employees Recalled To Work
I'm hearing that most of Social Security's Office of General Counsel (OGC) has been recalled to work. There's every reason to expect that the government shutdown will be completely over by midnight.
One Social Security Employee's Shutdown Story
CNN reports an a Social Security employee affected by the government shutdown. Dramatic? No, but multiply it by tens of thousands and it's a big deal.
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