In Context

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OIG Receives Many Allegations But Few Pan Out

     An excerpt from the annual report of Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG).

Social Security Has Had A Website For Twenty Years

     Social Security launched its first website on May 17, 1994. The current website gets more than 17 million hits a month on its 45,000+ pages.

Whoa! OMB Goofed!

     Yesterday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) website showed that Social Security's proposal that would force more claimants into video hearings had been withdrawn while another Social Security proposal on minimum monthly withholding for recovery of overpayments was still pending at OMB. Today, the website shows the reverse. The proposal on forcing claimants into video hearings is still pending while the overpayment recovery proposal has been withdrawn. Looks like OMB goofed!

SSA Needs Adequate Operating Funds To Prevent Improper Payments

     From Dean Baker writing for Huffington Post:

The media have been rightly focusing their attention on the long waiting lists for veterans seeking medical care, and even worse, the Department of Veteran's Affairs cover-up. ...

Unfortunately the VA system is not the only part of the government where essential services may be threatened by cutbacks. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has recently disclosed plans for a major downsizing that will result in the closing of many more of its field offices. The goal is to handle the bulk of Social Security's requests, questions, and complaints through the Internet....

Last year, the Washington Post ran a major front-page article over the fact that 0.006 percent of Social Security benefits in the prior three years had been paid out to dead people. Of course the Post never told readers that the amount in question amounted to less than one hundredth of one percent of benefit payments. Instead it highlighted the size of the mistaken benefits, $133 million, as though it had uncovered a momentous sum that the program was paying out in error. 

There is no reason to expect the opponents of Social Security to be any more honest in the future. Every mistake that the program makes will be highlighted. For this reason, it is not only essential that we minimize the instances where people don't get the benefits to which they are entitled; we should also be concerned that the SSA has the capacity to keep a lid on improper payments.

SSA is already tremendously efficient compared to its private sector counterparts. Administrative costs for the system as whole are just 0.9 percent of benefits. The administrative costs for just the retirement and survivors' portion of the program are 0.5 percent of benefits. Privatized systems in places like the United Kingdom or Chile have costs that are twenty times as high.

Ruling On Endocrine Disorders

     Last week in my haste to get out of town for a long weekend, I missed the fact that there was a second Social Security Ruling, this one on evaluating endocrine disorders other than diabetes.

Thank You, OMB!

     Social Security has withdrawn its proposal that would have required claimants to decide shortly after asking for a hearing whether they would demand an in-person hearing rather than accept a video hearing. The proposal would also have denied an in-person hearing if a claimant moved after filing a request for a hearing. Almost certainly, this was withdrawn because of opposition at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a part of the White House. OMB approval is required before regulations may be published in the Federal Register.

Trouble In Social Security's Backyard

     The Baltimore Sun is running a story on the huge backlog of cases awaiting a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in the Baltimore, Maryland hearing office. The backlog is now up to 17 months. This has led to bankruptcies, people losing their homes and people dying before being approved. Social Security's headquarters are just outside Baltimore.