New Social Security Agreement With Switzerland

     The President has notified the Congress of a new Social Security agreement between the United States and Switzerland. This replaces an agreement between the two countries signed in 1988. Agreements such as these generally provide for administrative cooperation between the two countries and totalization of wage credits for situations where a person can qualify for benefits only by combining wages earned in both countries. The agreements also prevent situations in which wages might be subjected to Social Security taxes in both countries. 

     Few people will be affected by this agreement but those few will be affected in major ways. All told, Social Security's international operations affect millions of people.

Services To Be Curtailed

     From the Southtown Star:

In a move that one congressional staff member calls “absolutely devastating” to senior citizens and the poor, the Social Security Administration is planning to eliminate some walk-in office services.

In a letter sent to employee union officials this month, the SSA announced that as of April 1, it will no longer provide benefit verification letters to citizens at its local offices or Social Security number print-outs, which can be used as temporary identification while people wait to replace a lost or misplaced Social Security card.

We Don't Need Social Security One Bit -- People Can Just Plan Their Own Retirements

     From the summary of a study on financial advisors:

46% of financial advisers do not have a retirement plan for themselves, yet 40% are planning to retire within the next 14 years.

Senate Finance Committee Hearing

     The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on December 18 on The Role of Social Security, Defined Benefits, and Private Retirement Accounts in the Face of the Retirement Crisis.

Congressional Hearing Postponed

     The hearing that had been scheduled for yesterdays before the House Social Security Subcommittee on identity theft and improper payments was postponed at the last minute. No new date has been announced.

Social Security Security Guard Suffers Broken Arm As Result Of Alleged Assault

     From KOMO in Silverdale, Washington:

A security guard at a Social Security office in Silverdale suffered a broken arm in a struggle with a man who was kicked out for being disruptive.

The 43-year-old guard told Kitsap County sheriff's deputies the man pushed him to the ground Monday in the parking lot.

Kitsap Sun reports the 26-year-old Hoodsport man was charged Tuesday with felony assault. He denied pushing the guard and said he threw himself on the ground.

Despite Budget Deal We're Not Out Of The Woods Yet

     The budget deal that you heard about yesterday isn't exactly what you might think it is. The process is supposed to work like this. First a budget is passed. The budget merely sets top line numbers for the total amount to be spent and for each separate appropriations bill. It's the actual appropriations bills that give agencies money to spend. Budget summaries often say how much individual agencies are to get but these summaries are merely recommendations.

     Passing appropriations bills is tough in this political environment. Social Security's appropriation, or Limitation on Administrative Expenditures (LAE) as it's officially known, is part of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The Labor-HHS appropriations bill is always the most contentious of the appropriations bills, particularly now since Republicans are still trying to find a way to use the appropriations process to hobble the Affordable Care Act. If the hobbling can be done, it would be done through the Labor-HHS appropriations bill.

     Passage of the budget deal announced yesterday is itself no slam dunk. House Democrats had earlier said they would not vote for the deal unless it included an extension for Unemployment Insurance benefits set to expire this month and this deal doesn't do that. Some Republican members of the House had announced that they would not vote for the deal because they thought that the budget was set too high. If all of the House Democrats and all the dissenting Republicans vote against this budget bill, it will fail in the House of Representatives and we're back to square one.

     Despite the budget deal announced yesterday, there's a real risk of a government shutdown in January either because the budget deal itself can't be passed or because appropriations bills can't be passed.

   

The Death Master File Again

      Even though budget bill announced yesterday is supposed to deal just with top line numbers, budget bills  often contain extraneous items. The agreement announced yesterday contains an extraneous item affecting Social Security. From the press release on the budget deal:

Restriction on access to the Death Master File 

This provision creates a program under which the Secretary of Commerce restricts access to information contained on the Death Master File (a list of deceased individuals and their Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and dates of death, maintained by the Social Security Administration) for a three-year period beginning on the date of an individual’s death — except to persons who are certified under the program to access such information sooner. A penalty of $1,000 is imposed for each improper disclosure or misuse of information obtained from the DMF, up to a maximum of $250,000 per person per calendar year. The Secretary is required to establish and collect user fees sufficient to recover all costs associated with the certification program.

     The Death Master File (DMF) sounds deadly boring but it's important. Benefit payments to dead people make for bad publicity for the Social Security Administration. That's why the DMF exists. However, the DMF isn't completely accurate. Some people get listed as dead when they're alive. It's a small percentage but it still amounts to a lot of people because the DMF is so large. It's bad enough that their Social Security payments are halted but what's worse is that financial institutions and other government agencies have been able to get access to the DMF and they have been freezing financial accounts and non-Social Security government payments of the supposedly dead people. Often these people have not been receiving Social Security benefits and have no idea that an error in the DMF is the reason that financial institutions and government agencies are freezing their accounts. They have no idea where to turn to prove that they are alive. Even after they have convinced Social Security that they are alive, they are at risk because bad people can compare the DMF over time to look for names that have been removed from the DMF. These are people that the identity thieves will know to be alive and they will know their name, date of birth and Social Security number. Also, some identity thieves look for the names of those who died as children years ago. They use the identities of those who died as children to apply for financial accounts which they loot. They seem to be able to do this despite the DMF. The relatives of those who died as children find this deeply unsettling.

     On the other hand, financial institutions have a legitimate interest in freezing the accounts of those who have died. The DMF is also used to identify life insurance policy holders who have died but whose relatives have not filed claims because they were unaware of the life insurance policies. The insurance companies don't really want to do this but they're forced to do so by state insurance agencies. Billions of dollars in life insurance benefits are paid each year because of the DMF. Those involved in genealogy research scream loudly about any possible change to DMF access since it's crucial to what they do. Genealogy researchers are a stronger lobby than you might imagine.

     I have no idea why this bill would give the Secretary of Commerce some control over the DMF. I have no idea who might get certified to get access to the DMF. Just government agencies? Just federal agencies? Some financial institutions? We'll have to wait for the fine print.