West Palm Beach Office Closes

     From WPEC:

If you need to get anything done at the West Palm Beach branch of the local Social Security Administration (SSA) office, you might have to go elsewhere for services.

It's the latest twist in an ongoing CBS 12 News investigation that began after we exposed long wait times at the West Palm Beach office.

An SSA spokesperson says the SSA is scaling back services at this branch because of recurring maintenance and HVAC issues with the building. ...

CBS-12 News first began investigating issues at the West Palm Beach SSA last week after folks told us they were being forced to wait two, three, and sometimes four hours in the hot sun and rain.

After U.S. Members of Congress who learned of our story demanded the SSA address the issue of long wait times, the office suddenly closed Thursday then reopened.

The SSA tells us they're looking to relocate the West Palm Beach office.

CBS-12 has learned that some staff members are suing the buildings' owner Carnegie Management & Development Corp and alleging the building is making them sick.

     OK, if it was ventilation problems that closed the office, why was it that the closure happened almost immediately after a TV station broadcast pictures of lines of people waiting outside the office? Also, why did it take the agency so long to tell the TV station why the office was closed?

Chart Book On Social Security Disability

     The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has issued a Chart Book on Disability Insurance Benefits under the Social Security Act. I guess they're doing this now because of the Senate Finance Committee hearing scheduled for Thursday but the book will be outdated in the near future when the Social Security Trustees issue their report. Even though it will soon be a bit stale, the Chart Book still dispels many myths about Social Security disability.

When Will The Disability Insurance Trust Fund Run Out Of Money?

     We should get the Social Security Trustees report for 2014 in the near future. That will give us an updated projection on the Disability Insurance Trust Fund. That Fund is a matter of some concern since last year's Intermediate projection was that it would run out of money in 2016. Until the 2014 Trustees Report comes out, we can take a look at the newly released numbers on the Disability Trust Fund operations through the 2d quarter of this calendar year. The Trust Fund balance is down $10.4 billion in the first half of 2014. This contrasts with a deficit of $11.8 billion in the first half of 2013. While a declining balance is a bad thing, the reduction is 12% better than last year. The Trustees Intermediate projection made last year was that the Disability Trust Fund would go down at almost exactly the same rate in 2014 as in 2013 so thus far this year we're doing about 12% better than the projection made last year. That's pretty good. If the Disability Trust Fund continues to do 12% better than the Intermediate projection for the entire year of 2014 the difference would be about $4 billion. This is on top of the fact that the actual results in 2013 were $1.2 billion better than the 2013 Trustee's projection.

     To quote a Republican Senator from years gone by, "A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money." While the projection made last year was that the Disability Insurance Trust Fund would run out of money in 2016, to be exact the projection was that the Disability Insurance Trust Fund would be $7.4 billion short of meeting its obligations for 2016 which works out to an exhaustion date in Autumn of 2016. A $1.2 billion improvement over the projection for last year and a 12% improvement in the first half of 2014 -- all you have to do is assume that things continue at the same pace and the Disability Trust Fund lasts into 2017. To state it another way, as of the end of June there was $80 left in the Disability Insurance Trust Fund and it was declining at the rate of about $28 billion a year. You do the math. If the Disability Insurance Trust fund continues to decline at the same rate we're currently seeing, it lasts into 2017 -- only a few months into 2017 but into 2017. If you think that the improvement we've seen over the last year and a half won't turn into a flat line, that is that we will continue to see small improvement, the Disability Trust Fund may limp into 2018.

     Social Security's actuaries never claim to know exactly what's going to happen over the next few years. That's why they give not one projection but three, an Intermediate projection (which is the only one that people pay attention to), a Low Cost or optimistic projection and a High Cost or pessimistic projection. When I say that the numbers we've seen since last year's Trustees report indicate that the Disability Trust Fund is likely to last at least into 2017, I'm talking about something that is well within last year's optimistic projection that the Disability Trust Fund will never run out of money. What I'm saying only differs slightly from last year's Intermediate projection and the difference is based upon what has actually happened since that projection was released.
     One might reasonably say that there is little real difference between a Disability Insurance Trust Fund exhaustion date of October 2016 versus an exhaustion date of April 2017 but politically there's a big difference. As of today, April 2017 looks to be a much stronger time for Democrats than October 2016. It would certainly be better if something could be done about the Disability Insurance Trust Fund before the last minute but does anyone really believe that will happen, especially if the political balance of power is likely to be different a few months later?

     In any case, it shouldn't be long before the Trustees report is released.

Problems At The Appeals Council

     An e-mail I recently received: 

Does anyone have an alternate AC [Social Security's Appeals Council] Fax number. I'm trying to fax a request for AC review and have used the standard fax number with no luck. I called the AC to verify that's the correct number and it is. They even gave me a backdoor fax number that isn't working. I'm just trying to find some alternatives. Thanks in advance!

     If you're sending anything to the Appeals Council, you pretty much have to fax it since you can't count on them opening and distributing their mail. The overtaxed fax machines at the Appeals Council are nothing new. And no, we can't file requests for Appeals Council review over the internet. 

CDI Investigations In Kansas City

Senate Finance Committee Schedules Hearing On Social Security Disability

     The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing for 10:00 on July 24 on "Social Security: A Fresh Look at Workers’ Disability Insurance." Here's the witness list:

Mr. Stephen Goss, Chief Actuary, Social Security Administration, Baltimore, MD

Ms. Marianna LaCanfora, Acting Deputy Commissioner, Retirement and Disability Policy, Social Security Administration, Baltimore, MD

Ms. Rebecca Vallas, Associate Director, Poverty to Prosperity Program, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Washington, DC

Dr. Richard Burkhauser, Professor, Adjunct Scholar, Cornell University, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC

     Will the Social Security Trustees Report be out by then?

This Is Extraordinary

     Let's review what has happened. 

• On Wednesday there was a single report on a West Palm Beach, FL television station about long lines of people waiting in the hot sun to get into the local Social Security field office. 
• Staff at the West Palm Beach Social Security field office forced the reporter and camera operator off the property, making things look even worse. 
• The reporter tried to get a response from Social Security's public information office in Atlanta. That office promised a response by 5:00 Wednesday but couldn't manage to get back to the reporter by then. That didn't help. 
• The television station reported that on the next day, Thursday, President Obama met at the White House with Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin and the local member of the House of Representatives to discuss the West Palm Beach problem. 
• Note that the President had at least a couple of other things on his plate yesterday -- almost 300 people killed when a commercial airliner was shot down over rebel controlled territory in Ukraine and the Israeli invasion of Gaza. 
• Republican Senator John McCain criticized the President for sticking to his regular schedule yesterday despite the international problems yet the President still squeezed in a meeting about a local television report of people waiting in line outside one Social Security field office.
• The local member of Congress came out of the meeting blaming sequestration brought on by Republicans for the service problem. 
• Now the television station is reporting that the West Palm Beach Social Security field office has been closed due to unspecified "facilities problems." 

      For all I know, there is some major "facility" problem requiring the closure of the West Palm Beach office but it sure looks like the office was shut down to prevent television cameras recording the lines snaking out the door. The problem is that this isn't the only Social Security field office with a line out the door. You can't shut down all field offices where there are lines going out the door. You certainly won't make people in West Palm Beach happy by shutting down their Social Security field office.

Acting Commissioner Promises To Address EEO Problems

     From the Baltimore Sun:

The Social Security Administration is overhauling its internal anti-discrimination program after federal auditors found that the agency failed to establish an adequate system for handling employee claims.

Auditors from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported in May that the Woodlawn-based agency had failed to follow regulations on addressing workplace discrimination complaints, had manipulated data to boost case completion rates and might have allowed managers to interfere in what were supposed to be impartial investigations. Of 2,292 claims processed over a four-year period, not one resulted in a finding of discrimination, they reported.

The agency, which employs 60,000 workers nationwide and 11,000 in Maryland, told The Baltimore Sun on Thursday that acting Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin had ordered an action plan to transform its Equal Employment Opportunity program into a "model program." ...

Commission auditors found that top managers of the agency's Equal Employment Opportunity program had worked previously in the general counsel's office, which defends the agency against discrimination claims.

"We find that a majority of ... employees interviewed expressed concerns about the general counsel's office's involvement during the EEO investigation process and perceived the involvement as a conflict of interest," they wrote. "We continue to note that the investigative process is a non-adversarial fact-finding process."

Auditors also suggested that Social Security managers reviewed and made changes to affidavits by employees in the early stages of investigations. The EEOC said it reviewed testimony that appeared to have changed between the time it was initially given by an employees and then signed.  ...

Employees interviewed by auditors said the agency sometimes attempted to make those rates look better than they actually were. "Several ... employees stated that when the report of investigation is untimely, some ... managers move the case file to the next fiscal year to look timely, and that they manipulate the data in the ... tracking system," the auditors wrote. ...