Getting Nuts

     This is getting nuts. Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General, has announced that the United States government will recognize, for purposes of federal benefits, presumably including Social Security benefits, same sex marriages performed in Utah during the brief period of time between the date that a U.S. District Court issued an order declaring Utah's prohibition of same sex marriages unconstitutional and the date that the Supreme Court granted a stay of that order. On the other hand, Social Security will not recognize the same sex marriages of Utah residents if those marriages were solemnized outside Utah! Does that make sense to anyone?

Offsetting Disability Benefits For Unemployment Benefits

     Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times doesn't like the idea of reducing Social Security disability benefits because of the receipt of unemployment insurance benefits. As he points out, this would only estimated to save $100 million a year. That estimate almost certainly doesn't include the cost of implementation. The cost of implementing new Social Security provisions is never taken into consideration. There's also the problem of state laws that run an offset in the opposite direction potentially subjecting a claimant to double offsetting.

Social Security Subcommittee Schedules Hearing On Alleged Fraud

     The House Social Security Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for January 16 on the alleged Social Security disability fraud in New York.

And You Thought That Sequestration Was Almost Over

     From Politico:

Senate Democrats are coming together on a proposal that would pay for a revival of emergency unemployment benefits through the fall by extending the sequester for one year, senior Democratic aides said.

Republicans are demanding that any extension of unemployment insurance be paid for and, in turn, Democrats are pitching an extension of the sequester’s mandatory savings through 2024. Along with a crackdown on people who draw both disability and unemployment benefits, the proposal would raise roughly $18 billion and fund an extension of an expired unemployment benefits through November.

     Why in the name of God would Democrats be pushing for sequestration through 2024?

OIG Recommending New Tool For Evaluating Hearing Offices And ALJs

     From Analysis of Hearing Offices Using Key Risk Factors, a report from Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

We developed a model that measured variances among multiple risk factors . The model analyzes performance and outcome data among ALJs in the same office and uses five risk factors: (1) ALJ allowance rates, (2) ALJ dispositions, (3) ALJ on-the- record (OTR) decision rates, (4) ALJ dismissal rates, and (5) ALJ average processing time. While the Agency’s monitoring process identified a number of potential workload problems at the time of our review , such as ALJ -specific issues and productivity declines, our model offers another method to evaluate the performance of individual hearing offices. 

Using our model and FY 2012 workload data, we identified hearing offices with the highest and lowest variance score s. We believe o utlier hearing office s provide ODAR managers with indications of potential processing issues (high-variance) as well as potential best practices (low - variance). We fou nd 4 regions had 20 percent or more of their hearing offices among the 25 high- variance offices , and 4 regions had 20 percent or more of their hearing offices among the 25 low- variance offices. In discussions with ODAR regional managers, we learned that they focused their oversight on individual ALJ performance rather than variances among ALJs in hearing office s as we do in our model. 

Finally, our review of the hearing offices with the 10 highest variance scores identified an outlier ALJ who had a significant number of dispositions and OTR decisions with 1 claimant representative. We referred this case to ODAR management for additional review.

     No, they don't explain their model all that well nor do they give the variance score for any office, other than indicating that the Huntington, WV office had high variance scores in past years. The OIG model also identified the Huntington ALJ who was the subject of media attention as being an outlier. Of course, the model was probably tailored so that it would point to Huntington and that particular ALJ.

More Info On Charges Against Retired Police Officers And Fire Fighters

     The Daily Beast gives a little detail on the accusations against the retired New York City police officers and fire fighters who were arrested this week on charges of defrauding the Social Security Administration. 

     I keep wondering why the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York isn't bringing federal charges in these cases. All these charges have been brought in state court. That's very odd. The U.S. Attorney must have declined to bring charges. How strong are these cases? Will they end up being plea bargained to misdemeanors?

102 To Be Arrested In Fraud Investigation

     The Wall Street Journal is reporting that arrests have begun of 102 people who are alleged to have engaged in fraud to obtain Social Security disability benefits. According to the article, those who have been or will be arrested include former New York city fire fighters and police officers. Also, one lawyer, one disability consultant, and two "recruiters" have been or will be arrested.
     Update: A New York Times article has more information on the arrests. Apparently, Facebook pages and other online postings are a major part of the evidence against those being arrested. The attorney who is being charged is Raymond Lavallee, who is 83 years old. Some of the charges being filed are federal charges and some are state charges.
     Further Update: The New York Times has posted the indictment in the case. Somebody will have to explain this to me. The defendants are charged with defrauding Social Security but the indictments were under New York state law and the charges are to be heard by a New York state court. I've never heard of this being done.

Vallas Named to Forbes "30 Under 30" List

     Forbes Magazine has included Rebecca Vallas, the Deputy Director of Government Affairs for the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR), in its "30 Under 30" list of the brightest stars under the age of 30 in 15 different fields.