Obama Speaks On Disability Programs

     From remarks made by President Obama yesterday:

[W]e should be willing to look at fresh ideas to revamp unemployment and disability programs to encourage faster and higher rates of re-employment without cutting benefits.  We shouldn't weaken fundamental protections built over generations, because given the constant churn in today’s economy and the disabilities that many of our friends and neighbors live with, they're needed more than ever.  We should strengthen them and adapt them to new circumstances so they work even better.

     An additional note: The White House is probably working now on next year's State of the Union address and is certainly working on the President's budget for Fiscal Year 2015.

Congressional Hearing On Improper Payments And Identity Theft

     The Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a hearing for 1:00 on December 11 on Improper Payments and Identity Theft. The hearing is supposed to focus on the Internal Revenue Service, rather than Social Security.

Is This New?

     Is this new? Does it do you any good if you've filed a disability claim?

Unemployment Benefits And Social Security Disability

     Wonkblog at the Washington Post decided to look into the question of whether people who are about to lose their unemployment insurance benefits will go on Social Security disability benefits and finds plentiful evidence that that hasn't happened in the past. The article, unfortunately, goes on to discuss the theory that because job openings aren't as plentiful now as they used to be that Social Security has to approve more disability claims, a theory that cannot hold water since the Social Security Act says that the availability of job openings is completely irrelevant in the determination of disability but, hey, that theory sounds plausible if you've never read the Social Security Act and you don't bother to talk with anyone who has.

Hearing Office Attorney Advisor Ability To Issue Favorable Decisions Diminished

     From a Bulletin issued by Social Security's Chief Administrative Law Judge:

In November 2013 we began a pilot: the National Screening Unit (NSU). The NSU Core Team will review and select cases eligible for the program and will distribute those cases to hearing office (HO) management for assignment to AAs.

AAs [Attorney Advisors] may review and sign fully favorable decisions only in cases selected by the NSU. AAs may screen other cases (i.e., those not selected by the NSU) at the direction of HO management, but they may only do so for the purposes of identifying potential Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) OTR [On The Record] decisions or assisting an ALJ with a hearing. ...

AAs can only issue a fully favorable decision when the case is referred by the NSU and the evidence supports the following:

• A claimant’s condition meets a listing at Step 3;
• A claimant’s condition medically equals a listing at Step 3, based on medical expert (ME) evidence;
• Applying the “special” medical-vocational profiles showing an inability to make an adjustment to other work (see 20 CFR 404.1562 and 416.962; Social Security Ruling 82-63); or
• Directly applying a grid rule in Appendix 2 to Subpart P of Part 404 (Medical-Vocational Guidelines) to find a claimant disabled at Step 5.

      This was issued to dramatically cut down on AAs issuing decisions approving disability claims. This also has the effect of reducing Social Security's ability to deal with the growing backlogs of claimants seeking a hearing before an ALJ. However, these AA decisions came to a complete where I am even before this directive.

Getting Worse By The Month

     Some statistics from Social Security's Caseload Analysis Report and National Ranking Report, courtesy of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR):

Average hearing office processing time:

FY 2012: 353 days
FY 2013: 382 days

Cases pending hearing office disposition over 270 days:
FY 2012: 271,557
FY 2013: 288,622

Cases pending hearing office disposition over 365 days:
FY 2012: 130,617
FY 2013: 149,288

Attorney Adjudicator dispositions of requests for hearing:
FY 2012: 37,423
FY 2013: 18,625

Hiltzik Reports On The Demographic Factors Affecting Social Security Disability

     Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times reports on the recent study by two Social Security economists showing that the 94% of the recent growth in the number of Social Security disability claims can be attributed to demographic factors. I had posted about this study on November 20.

A New Right Wing Group Attacks Social Security Disability

     There's a Social Security disability hit piece in today's issue of The Hill, written by MacMillin Slobodien, the executive director of Our Generation which has recently launched Reform SSDI Now. This is almost certainly a Koch Brothers front organization.