Congressional Leaders Reported To Be Close To Budget Deal

     Politico reports that Congressional leaders are close to a budget deal that would avoid another shutdown. The deal would include additional revenue from fee increases and would replace about $80 billion in sequester cuts over the next two years. Changes in federal retirement benefits may be part of the deal. The reductions in the sequester cuts would be evenly divided between defense and domestic spending. It's too early to say whether there would be any additional or increased Social Security fees or whether the Social Security Administration would get some sequestration relief.

Does This Look Like The Social Security Disability Program Is Out Of Control?

Final Outcome Of Disability Claims

Former Social Security Employee Sentenced

     From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A former Social Security Administration employee, who charged a fee to elderly and disabled people seeking income assistance to speed their claims, was sent to prison Monday.

Cordell Fleming, a former claims representative in Morrow, was sentenced to one day and one year in prison, after pleading guilty to extortion in August. The sentence also requires three years of supervised release, 120 hours of community service and full restitution of the illegally obtained funds.

It is not clear exactly how much money Fleming got, but an investigation found that from October 2012 to April 2013, he extorted and attempted to extort money from at least nine Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients or their representatives. The amounts ranged from $500 to $1,800.

Soaring Number Of People Approved For Disability Benefits?

     Below are the total number of persons newly approved for Disability Insurance Benefits by the Social Security Administration over the last three years. The meme being promoted on the right is that the number of people going to Social Security disability is soaring and the program is completely out of control. That meme lacks a basis in reality.

2010		1,026,988
2011		998,979
2012		960,206

Why Have ALJ Reversal Rates Gone Down?

     The Scranton, PA Times-Tribune looks into why Social Security's Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are approving a lower percentage of the disability claims they hear than they used to. The bottom line is that there are many theories but no one, including the Social Security Administration, knows why this has happened.

Another Old Overpayment Story

     Another day, another story about Social Security trying to collect on an ancient overpayment. The claimant involved says he was told years ago that it had been taken care of but the computer says he owes $14,000 so Social Security is planning to just seize his benefits for the next year and a half to make it up. It's up to a very sick claimant to sort it out.

     Yes, I know he can ask for waiver -- possibly for the second time since the first waiver may have been lost -- but the claimant involved doesn't know which way to turn. Shouldn't there be a statute of limitations on overpayment collections? How long is too long for the agency to wait to try to collect? And why do we have this run of stories about very old overpayments? Is Social Security using some new computer program to dredge up these old overpayments out of its records in order to please Congressional Republicans? Does this really please Congressional Republicans?

Was It What You Expected?

     FedSmith visits a Social Security field office.

Happy Thanksgiving!