Third Way Is A Fraud

    Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times has a fine article on Senator Warren's response to a misleading Third Way op ed in the Wall Street Journal. 

     The right wing lies about Social Security are out of hand and it mostly starts with bogus front groups like "Third Way" which poses as a centrist organization but which is nothing of the sort. Its board is thoroughly dominated by Wall Street and corporate executives who want no change in current law that allows most of their high incomes to escape the FICA tax while every penny of Joe Sixpack's income is taxed.

I Agree With Cato On This One

     From a press release issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) division of the Department of Homeland Security:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas today announced an enhancement to the E-Verify program that will help combat identity fraud by identifying and deterring fraudulent use of Social Security numbers (SSNs) for employment eligibility verification.

This enhancement provides a critical safeguard to the E-Verify system by detecting and preventing potential fraudulent use of SSNs to gain work authorization. An employer, for example, may enter information into E-Verify that appears valid – such as a matching name, date of birth, and SSN – but was in fact stolen, borrowed or purchased from another individual. This new safeguard now enables USCIS to lock a SSN that appears to have been misused, protecting it from further potential misuse in E-Verify. ...

USCIS will use a combination of algorithms, detection reports and analysis to identify patterns of fraudulent SSN use and then lock the number in E-Verify. This will help deter and prevent fraudulent use of SSNs in the E-Verify system.

If an employee attempts to use a locked SSN, E-Verify will generate a “Tentative Nonconfirmation” (TNC). The employee receiving the TNC will have the opportunity to contest the finding at a local Social Security Administration (SSA) field office. If an SSA field officer confirms the employee’s identity correctly matches the SSN, the TNC will be converted to “Employment Authorized” status in E-Verify. Employees who successfully confirm their identities are encouraged to call USCIS so they can learn more about available resources on identity theft and fraud prevention.

    Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute is concerned about this process:

The largest and most obvious problem is the Kafkaesque bureaucratic resolution process that could catch employees in an endless loop of lockdowns. To begin with, the onus for establishing a valid ID is placed on the user of the number as opposed to USCIS having to prove that the user is fraudulent. Mere identification by a USCIS algorithm shouldn’t prevent somebody from lawfully working.

Legitimate holders of Social Security numbers that are locked down are forced to go through the standard and long TNC resolution process to unlock their numbers, which in turn involves the use of state and federal issued documents to prove the applicant’s validity.

But these documents are dependent on Social Security numbers.  Driver’s licenses in most states, passports, and most of the other forms of government issued ID use Social Security numbers to establish the bearer’s validity. In essence, the holder of a suspect Social Security number is forced to use documentation derived from a number considered suspect by USCIS in order to prove identification to USCIS.  The government has not stated how it will resolve this conundrum or even if it has considered it. 

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