House Budget Committee Attacks Child SSI

    The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee has issued The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later, which is, of course, critical of federal anti-poverty efforts. The major part of discussion in the report of programs run by the Social Security Administration has to do with children's disability benefits under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The report tells us that "SSI has become a more general welfare program that in large part targets able-bodied single mothers ..." No, actually it targets sick children. With or without SSI, the mothers of seriously ill children usually aren't working anyway. The question is whether we assist them and their children. The report goes on to note that most child SSI recipients don't go on to work and many don't get a high school diploma. What do you expect? If they're seriously ill as children, shouldn't we expect them to have trouble getting a high school diploma and working as adults? If the evidence were the exact opposite, that child SSI recipients were getting high school diplomas and going to work as adults, wouldn't this report say that this shows that the child SSI recipients weren't that sick?

AALJ Lawsuit Dismissed

     The Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) the labor union, yes, labor union, that represents Social Security's Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) sued Social Security in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging that the agency imposed an illegal quota requiring that the ALJs decide 500-700 cases per year and that this quota infringed upon the ALJs' right to decisional independence. The Court has now dismissed the AALJ lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, saying that the AALJ would have to exhaust its remedies under the Civil Service Reform Act before proceeding to federal court.

Should States Take Social Security Benefits Of Kids In Foster Care To Pay For Their Care?

     From the Baltimore Sun:

After Ryan Weinberger's parents died while he was in foster care, Maryland collected his Social Security survivor's benefits of more than $30,000 to help cover his state-funded living expenses.

Now Weinberger, 21, wants to persuade the General Assembly to pass legislation to stop the Department of Human Resources from confiscating benefits available to hundreds of foster children each year. ...

Some child welfare advocates are hoping Maryland will become one of the first states to block a practice that state agencies across the country quietly adopted decades ago. They want the money — projected to total $15 million in Maryland over the next five years — to be set aside for the foster children. The money could provide additional services for a child or a nest egg when he or she leaves foster care, as Weinberger did recently. ...

D.C. Area Offices Closed Monday

     Washington area federal offices will be closed on Monday due to a predicted snowstorm. This has been a terrible year for these closures. These delay many things at Social Security but for me the most prominent delays are in implementation of disability claim approvals. I don't live there but I don't remember many years with more weather closures.

OIG On Representation At Initial And Recon Levels

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued an audit report on Claimant Representation at the Disability Determination Services Level. They reviewed 379 cases involving representation. Their findings were that in:

• 84, we found no evidence that the representative assisted with the claim;
• 154, the representative assisted with filing the claim, but did not assist the DDS with claim development in the disability determination; and
• 141, the representative assisted throughout the claims process

      The report does not describe how it decided whether a representative had assisted with the claim or assisted DDS with claim development. 

     How would OIG know whether the attorney or representative had assisted the claimant with setting an appointment to file a claim or with completing claim paperwork? 

     Much of the time, the most important thing an attorney can do is simply to encourage the claimant to get on with it. Most claimants delay filing a claim because they keep hoping to get better. This may be appropriate for a few months but eventually it's just procrastination and the claimant needs encouragement. I don't see how OIG would know about this sort of encouragement which can be of considerable value to the claimant. 

     There's also the efforts that attorneys and other representatives make to prevent things from falling between the cracks at Social Security. It's not rare for a claim to be filed but go astray somewhere at Social Security. Without representation, nothing happens. Eventually, the claimant returns to Social Security some months later. The assumption is made that the problem happened because the claimant failed to complete the claim process and a new claim is taken. Sometimes it's the claimant's fault. Sometimes it's true that the claimant never completed the process but Social Security never warned the claimant that there was a problem. The process is complicated enough that it's not hard for someone who's sick to fail to do all that was expected of them even though they were trying. Sometimes the problem is wholly Social Security's fault. (Please, if you work at Social Security, don't tell me this never happens. I know better. Claims get sidetracked all the time. Sometimes they reappear months later. Sometimes they never re-emerge without external prodding.) A good attorney or representative straightens out these problems. Would OIG have been aware of this sort of work done by an attorney? I doubt it. 

     In terms of medical development at DDS, there's little point in the attorney or other representative duplicating DDS' effort. There's a role for the attorney or representative but in many cases, there's nothing the attorney or representative can do that helps the claimant -- and the point of representation is to help the claimant, not Social Security.

     My view of representation at the initial and reconsideration level is that it usually doesn't involve that much work but the chance of getting a fee is low and the fee, if I do get one, is usually modest. It's a relatively low return for a relatively low effort. If OIG thinks that representation at the initial and reconsideration levels is so remunerative, why is it that most attorneys and representatives avoid this sort of representation?

Interesting

     From Roll Call:

House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan has said he wants the Ways and Means Committee gavel next year, but the Wisconsin Republican will face a challenge from Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

Brady, the current chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, told columnist Al Hunt in an interview that will air Friday evening that he wants the top slot on the Ways and Means Committee, where he is currently the No. 2 Republican.

Reigning Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., must relinquish his title next year due to term limits.

     Ways and Means has jurisdiction over Social Security. I don't know that either is better or worse for Social Security. Ryan certainly has a higher profile.

Annual Statistical Supplement Issued

     Social Security has issued its Annual Statistical Supplement for 2013. This is crammed with all the statistical information about Social Security benefits you could ask for. Unfortunately, it contains only limited information about the operations of the Social Security Administration itself. Want to know how many people are drawing U.S. Social Security disability benefits and living in the nation of Lebanon? It's 27. Want to know what percentage of appeals are approved by Social Security's Administrative Law Judges? You won't find it in the Annual Statistical Supplement. Which piece of information is of more interest?

Awesome Social Security Disability Survey

Social Security has put out on Twitter an online survey on its Social Security disability program. Take it yourself. And then comment here.