Want To Save Some Real Money At Social Security?

     Even researchers at Mathematica, Social Security's prime contractor for the Ticket to Work program, could find "no consistent evidence of impacts [of Ticket to Work mailings] on the number of months in which beneficiaries did not receive benefits because of work, or on other outcomes." The researchers try to blame the failure of Ticket to Work on the recession.

Researchers Find Little Evidence For Link Between Disability Insurance Benefits And Decline In Labor Force Participation By Those With Work Limitations

     The abstract of Reconciling Findings On The Employment Effect Of Disability Insurance by John Bound , Stephan Lindner and Timothy Waidmann in the IZA Journal of Labor Policy:

Over the last 25 years, the Social Security Disability Insurance Program (DI) has grown dramatically. During the same period, employment rates for men with work limitations showed substantial declines in both absolute and relative terms. While the timing of these trends suggests that the expansion of DI was a major contributor to employment decline among this group, raising questions about the targeting of disability benefits, studies using denied applicants suggest a more modest role of the DI expansion. To reconcile these findings, we decompose total employment changes into population and employment changes for three categories: DI beneficiaries, denied applicants, and non-applicants. Our results show that during the early 1990s, the growth in DI can fully explain the employment decline for men only under an extreme assumption about the employment potential of beneficiaries. For the period after the mid-1990s, we find little role for the DI program in explaining the continuing employment decline for men with work limitations.

For Those Who Think Same Sex Marriage Will Destroy Social Security

     From the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's analysis of the Social Security Trustees Report: 

The only major "legislative" change that affected Social Security came from the Supreme Court: the Windsor decision which overturned the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited federal benefits for same-sex couples even if they reside in a state that recognized their marriage. This decision makes more people eligible for survivors' benefits. The report notes that there is significant uncertainty around the estimate of new benefits because rules have not been finalized about how far back a marriage would count -- whether it would start at the time of the Supreme Court decision or when the state legally recognized the marriage, as the Social Security Administration has proposed -- and because it is uncertain how many states will legalize same-sex marriage. (The Trustees assume all states eventually will.) While the decision increases the 75-year shortfall by only 0.01 percent of payroll, the uncertainty surrounding the change means that this area could be a source of future revisions.

$700,000 Social Security Fraud

     A press release issued by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

Thervil Alcinor, 34, of Miami, pled guilty to one count of access device fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft ...

Alcinor was involved in the use of personal identifying information ... to file fraudulent applications for Social Security Retirement Insurance Benefits (RIB) and Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB), and to file fraudulent income tax returns with the IRS claiming false refunds.

Court documents state that Alcinor was involved in establishing online accounts on the Social Security Administration website, MySSA.gov, for already-existing RIB or DIB beneficiaries to redirect RIB and DIB payments to accounts (often prepaid debit card accounts) controlled by him. Law enforcement identified 945 fraudulently established MySSA accounts, all with similarly concocted fraudulent email addresses. The fraudulent claims resulted in $700,462 in fraudulent RIB and DIB payments.

This Happens Thousands Of Times Each Year All Across The Country

     Why mistakes in Social Security's death master file are a big deal.

Biographical Information On Deputy Commissioner Nominee

     From the White House:

Andrew LaMont Eanes, Nominee for Deputy Commissioner of Social Security, Social Security Administration
Andrew LaMont Eanes has been the Vice President of Agile Government Services Incorporated since 2012.  From 2011 to 2012, Mr. Eanes was the Chief Operating Officer of Dynis. Previously, Mr. Eanes was Chief Operations Officer of BT Conferencing from 2006 to 2010.  He was the Executive Vice President of IT/Services Operations with Premiere Global Services from 2004 to 2006. From 1995 to 2003, Mr. Eanes held various positions at Sprint, Inc., including Vice President and General Manager.  Mr. Eanes was the Vice President and General Manager for Sprint/United Telephone Florida from 1992 to 1994 and the Director of Network and Facilities Operations for Sprint United Management Company from 1989 to 1992.  Mr. Eanes received a B.A. from Ohio Northern University and an M.B.A. from Baldwin Wallace College.

Video CEs Now Authorized

     The Social Security Administration has recently posted instructions in its manual on ordering video consultative examinations (CEs). CEs are ordered by the Social Security Administration to use in determining disability. The instructions indicate this is only for psychiatric and some psychological examinations. This is supposed to be for rural areas and for areas where it's hard for the agency to get CEs done. The claimant is supposed to be able to object to a video CE but what will be done then? Just deny the claim for lack of evidence? Social Security will limit this to psychiatrists and psychologist licensed in the state where the claimant is located but adds that this limitation is only "at this time."

Not Fading Away

     The controversy over seizing tax refunds to satisfy thirty and forty year old debts to the Social Security Administration isn't going away.