Banned By SSA!

     It appears that starting this week Social Security's computer network is blocking access to this blog. I strongly doubt that it's just this blog. Probably, everything on blogger is being blocked.

     Update: I don't know what's going on. I'm getting people reporting accessing Social Security News from Social Security computers but Google Analytics shows access to Social Security News way down this week. More importantly, Google Analytics also shows that access from ssa.gov flatlined on October 26. If you're accessing this blog from ssa.gov, were you able to access it yesterday?

    Further update: I'm seeing some things on the Google Analytics product forum suggesting that this may be a Google Analytics problem rather than something that Social Security has done.

1.5% COLA

     As expected, Social Security's Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) will be 1.5% this year.
     Update: Here are all the numbers released today:

Social Security (OASDI) Program Rates & Limits	2014
Tax Rates (percent)
Social Security (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance)
Employers and Employees, each a	6.20
Medicare (Hospital Insurance)
Employers and Employees, each a,b	1.45
Maximum Taxable Earnings (dollars)
Social Security	117,000
Medicare (Hospital Insurance)	No limit
Earnings Required for Work Credits (dollars)
One Work Credit (One Quarter of Coverage)	1,200
Maximum of Four Credits a Year	4,800
Earnings Test Annual Exempt Amount (dollars)
Under Full Retirement Age for Entire Year	15,480
For Months Before Reaching Full Retirement Age in Given Year	41,400
Beginning with Month Reaching Full Retirement Age	No limit
Maximum Monthly Social Security Benefit for Workers Retiring at Full Retirement Age (dollars)	2,642
Full Retirement Age	66
Cost-of-Living Adjustment (percent)	1.5
a. Self-employed persons pay a total of 15.3 percent—12.4 percent for OASDI and 2.9 percent for Medicare.
b. This rate does not reflect the additional 0.9 percent in Medicare taxes certain high-income taxpayers are required to pay. See IRS information on this topic.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program Rates & Limits	2014
Monthly Federal Payment Standard (dollars)
Individual	721
Couple	1,082
Cost-of-Living Adjustment (percent)	1.5
Resource Limits (dollars)
Individual	2,000
Couple	3,000
Monthly Income Exclusions (dollars)
Earned Income a	65
Unearned Income	20
Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) Level for the Nonblind Disabled (dollars)	1,070
a. The earned income exclusion consists of the first $65 of monthly earnings, plus one-half of remaining earnings.

Charlie Binder Has More To Say In Response To Sixty Minutes

     Charlie Binder has more to say in response to the Sixty Minutes piece although that may not be apparent until the last paragraph.

Astrue Called "Hack" By Candidate For Governor

     From the Boston Globe:

[F]issures between Michael Astrue and Donald Berwick, a Democratic candidate for governor, opened in early 2011 when Berwick, then administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, summoned Astrue, then Social Security Administration commissioner, to his office.

Berwick wanted Social Security to help pay for a piece of the health care insurance marketplace, which was in the planning stages and due to go online almost three years later in October 2013.

Astrue said he felt bullied by Berwick and rebuffed him.

Now they have brought the fallout from their Washington dispute back to Cambridge, where, in new roles, they are locked in an increasingly fierce feud with implications for the 2014 campaign for governor.

Astrue, a Republican biotechnology chief executive and supporter of GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, said in news media appearances in recent weeks and in an interview with the Globe that Berwick’s weak leadership and “dawdling’’ during his tenure at CMS in 2010 and 2011 were the root cause of the embarrassing failures this month of Obama’s insurance marketplace.

Berwick, asked by the Globe to respond, vigorously denied Astrue’s accusations. The former Social Security commissioner, he said, is a “hack’’ and a “right-wing pundit’’ who is “just not credible.’’

“His comments are basically ridiculous,” said Berwick, who is seeking his party’s nomination for governor while serving as a fellow at the nonprofit health care think tank he founded in Cambridge. “He’s uninformed, and he’s politically motivated. I met with that guy probably twice in my life.” ...

SSA Making Cat Videos

     This isn't the only one. There's more.

More On Social Security Overpayments

     Another CNN Money piece on Social Security overpayments:

The Social Security Administration is overpaying big sums of money to disability beneficiaries -- and lawyers, consumer advocates and watchdogs say the agency's own missteps are to blame.

Long after notifying Social Security that they have either started working again or earn too much income to qualify for benefits, some disability recipients continue to receive payments for months or even years. It's not until a notice from Social Security shows up that they discover they now owe tens of thousands of dollars to the agency due to these overpayments.  ...

The Government Accountability Office [GAO], which oversees the Social Security Administration, says that budget constraints and huge backlogs of people applying for disability have delayed the reviews of income information that alert the agency to remove beneficiaries who no longer qualify. As a result, the Social Security Administration has made $1.3 billion in overpayments in just two years, according to a recent GAO audit....

We think that they need to devote more resources to this," said Steve Lord, director of forensic audits and investigative services at the GAO. "Right now getting people off the [disability] rolls is secondary -- they have to balance their resources between getting people off the rolls and getting people on the rolls." 

While the Social Security Administration said its accuracy rate is nearly perfect, it acknowledges that funding has been an issue. The agency said it has lost more than 11,000 employees since 2011. At the same time, its workload has been increasing as baby boomers near retirement and enter "their disability prone years," a spokeswoman said.
"[O]ur administrative budget has been significantly reduced, resulting in three straight years of funding levels nearly a billion dollars below the President's budget requests," a spokeswoman said. "We have had to prioritize our workloads given our limited budget and resources."

Is Social Security Sending Out $75,000 Checks To Random Claimants?

     From CNN Money:

Americans dealing with injuries, mental illnesses and other impairments are being notified out of the blue that they’ve been overpaid by the Social Security Administration and now owe thousands of dollars.

One 33-year-old veteran began receiving Social Security disability payments after his left foot was amputated following an explosion in Iraq in 2007. After going through rehab for his prosthetic leg, he began working full-time for a defense contractor in 2009. As soon as he started collecting a paycheck, the veteran, who asked to remain anonymous, reported his roughly $100,000 annual salary to the Social Security Administration.

When recipients of disability benefits reenter the workforce, they have a nine-month trial period in which they continue to receive benefits. Once the trial period ends and their earnings exceed a certain level — currently $1,040 a month — the payments are supposed to stop. And that’s exactly what happened in his case.

But then, last July, he noticed a $75,000 deposit in his checking account. Three days later, a letter arrived from the Social Security Administration saying it had reinstated his benefits because he had not been “gainfully employed” during the past three years. ...

It turns out Social Security overpayments like these are surprisingly common.

A recent audit conducted by the Government Accountability Office found that Social Security made $1.3 billion in potential overpayments to disability recipients in just two years. While some of that amount can be attributed to fraudsters who game the system, many innocent people are also receiving overpayments and then being asked to pay the agency back. Some continue being paid even after they notify the administration that they are no longer eligible for benefits, while others have no idea they are being overpaid.

     I can't say what happened in the vet's case. I can say that the work incentives that Congress has provided for recipients of Social Security disability benefits are so complicated that mistakes are inevitable but not a $75,000 mistake of this sort. That's unusual.
     The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report referenced by this article is seriously misleading. It assumed that any work performed by a person who had applied for Social Security disability benefits made that person permanently ineligible for Social Security disability benefits. That's just wrong. That's not the way the law is written. For instance, many people who have applied for Social Security disability benefits attempt to return to work but are only able to last a short time on a job. This is what Social Security calls an Unsuccessful Work Attempt (UWA) and has no effect upon the person's entitlement to benefits. If anything, a UWA makes a Social Security disability claimant look more credible. GAO would have a person who has engaged in a UWA ineligible for Social Security disability benefits for the rest of their life! You probably didn't notice it but there was no Congressional hearing on the GAO report. Even Republicans figured out that the GAO report was a crock.
     If you're of a mind to believe that all government benefits programs do nothing but waste money you may want to believe that Social Security wastes billions of dollars just sending large checks to people at random but that's not the way the program works. Mistakes happen. Usually the mistakes take away money rather than bestowing it. Usually, the mistakes don't involve much money. Most of the mistakes are just the inevitable result of overworked human beings making mistakes running a complicated program. There's only so much you can expect Social Security to do about that especially when you the size of the agency's workforce is declining while its workforce is increasing.
    

A Manageable Problem