Washington Post's Bleak Take On Social Security Hearings

     The Washington Post has an article on Social Security's huge backlog of disability hearings. Here are a couple of excerpts to give an idea of the article's bleak, despairing tone:

In this case, the [disability hearing] system became, in effect, too big to fix: Reforms were hugely expensive and so logistically complicated that they often stalled, unfinished. What’s left now is an office that costs taxpayers billions and still forces applicants to wait more than a year — often, without a paycheck — before delivering an answer about their benefits. ... 

“I really wonder if what we’re doing is effective at all. If it helps at all,” [Social Security Administrative a Law Judge] Pennock said, after a day of hearing cases and trying to reduce her share of the backlog. “If, based on the amount of evidence we get, my decision is any better than flipping a coin.”

     A reader could only come to the conclusion that not only is the Social Security disability hearing process broken but that it is unfixable. The only solution would be to abolish Social Security hearings and maybe to abolish Social Security disability benefits themselves. It is the right wing view of government as hopeless, something to be largely eliminated since it can't be reformed. 

     Disability determination is a messy business but many worthwhile things in life are messy, including mankind itself. Disability benefits are an essential lifeline for millions. Without hearings Sovial Security disability would lack legitimacy. If the hearings were abolished, they would have to be restarted almost immediately. There would be too many horrible injustices that couldn't be righted.                      
     There is a simple solution for Social Security's hearing backlog -- more resources. That's been done before. We know it works. It was working until tea party Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2010. Everything else has been tried without success. 

Don't You Know The Department Of Justice Has To Study This For Another Year Or Two?

     From USA Today:

When the U.S. Supreme Court reopened the door for same-sex marriages in Indiana last week, Ryan Selby and Barry Cox thought their battle for recognition was over. ... 

[W]hen Selby called the Social Security Administration the same day the Supreme Court let stand federal court rulings striking down Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage, he thought they'd be able to honor his request to change his last name to his husband's.Instead, he was met with uncertainty. 

"They said they didn't have any process in place," Selby said.

What I Spend A Lot Of Time Doing

     If you wonder what attorneys who represent Social Security claimants do, let me tell you about one client I recently met with. He's a young man with a congenital health problem. In addition to helping him file a request for reconsideration of his disability denial and telling him how ridiculously long it will take for him to get a hearing after he's denied at recon, I advised him on the help available to him under the Affordable Care Act (not much since NC declined additional Medicaid benefits), advised him on local free or lost cost health care (which will be an enormous help to him), advised him on prescription assistance plans to help with his very high drug costs (which again will be an enormous help to him and his parents) and advised him on filing for Medicaid. I also talked with him about applying for Disabled Adult Child (DAC) benefits once one of his parents dies or goes on Social Security, making sure to warn him that he wouldn't be able to get DAC if he's married.
     This client needed more non-Social Security advice than most but an attorney must know all this and a lot more to effectively advise Social Security disability claimants. 

     Most Social Security employees have no idea how much help Social Security claimants need from their lawyers and how much of that help is only indirectly related to Social Security benefits.

     And to lawyers who don't do this sort of counseling because they never meet with their clients until the day of the hearing, real lawyering is a fulfilling career. You ought to try it.

OIG Explains Its Need For Ammo

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) tries once again to explain why it needs to buy large quantities of ammunition. I think the issue that OIG is avoiding is whether it is classifying too many of its employees as law enforcement officers. Law enforcement officers get to retire at an earlier age than other employees.

Why Social Security Is Lagging In IT

     From Federal Times:

The “next generation” of the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Program (T4NG) — the Department of Veterans Affairs’ contract to manage its IT [Information Technology] systems — will almost double in scope from the current T4 contract, with the projected value rising from a ceiling of $12 billion to $22.3 billion.

     Has Social Security spent $22.3 billion on managing its IT systems in the last ten years? Twenty years? In its entire history?

"Very Unlike" The Way Things Normally Happen At Social Security?

     From Harry Gross' column in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

DEAR HARRY: Many years ago, my husband had heart failure. He applied for Social Security disability, which took three years to get.... 

About five years ago, Social Security sent us a letter saying that the payments to the children were incorrect and demanded a return of $12,000. We asked for a review of this, and the reviewer then sent us another letter now demanding an additional $8,000 with no explanation as to where it came from.

We paid back the money, but I can't see any reason for any overpayment. I cannot reach that reviewer or anyone else who is willing to explain this to me. Don't we have any recourse?

WHAT HARRY SAYS: This is very unlike the way things are normally checked out at Social Security. Try going to your local Social Security office with all your info. That visit will get you all the data on that refund and quite likely a resolution of the problem.

     No, this is actually normal behavior at Social Security. It's extremely difficult to get an explanation for an alleged overpayment and the amount usually changes if you file an appeal, although my experience is that when you file an appeal the amount goes down more often than it goes up. I've had several cases where an alleged overpayment turned into a large underpayment by the time we got through!
     The easiest way for the widow to have resolved these overpayments, at least for the children, would have been to request waiver. The children certainly weren't at fault and it's unlikely they had the means to pay back the money. Waiver would have been close to automatic for the children. Probably, the widow could also get a waiver.
     Unfortunately, even most attorneys who do Social Security work aren't familiar with overpayment cases. It's hard to hire an attorney for a Social Security overpayment case anyway because there's no way to charge a contingent fee in these cases and the claimants usually can't afford to pay a fee in any other way. It's a shame since there's so much an attorney can do to help a claimant with an overpayment.

Doing As Little As Possible On Same Sex Marriages

     It appears that the Department of Justice is still telling the Social Security Administration to do as little as possible on same sex marriage. The approach is still state by state, waiting for each frivolous appeal to end. This could drag on for months.

Mass Mailing To Some Workers Compensation Recipients

     This is an Administrative Message (AM) sent out recently to Social Security field offices:

Instruction

Identification Number AM-14066 Effective Date: 10/07/2014 Intended Audience: All RCs/ARCs/ADs/FOs/TSCs/PSCs/OCO/OCO-CSTs

Originating Office: DCO OPSOS

Title: Workers' Compensation (WC) or Public Disability Benefits (PDB) Offset Pending Mass Mailings

Type: AM - Admin Messages

 

Program: Disability

Link To Reference: See References at the end of this AM.

 

Retention Date: April 7, 2015

 

A. Purpose

 

This administrative message (AM) advises you of the mass mailing project for the Workers' Compensation Pending Cleanup workload.

B. Background

 

Disability (DIB) beneficiaries are subject to possible offset if they receive WC [Workers Compensation] or PDB [Public Disability Benefits] payments. When SSA [Social Security Administration] adjudicates a disability award and the claimant's WC or PDB claim is still pending, or under appeal, the Modernized Claims System (MCS) posts limited WC or PDB claim data to the Master Beneficiary Record (MBR) with an alert "WC Type OFFSET PENDING."

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) discovered that beneficiaries often do not report when their WC or PDB claims are approved and, prior to March 2011, SSA did not have an effective systems control to ensure processing center (PC) technicians follow up and resolve OFFSET PENDING cases. As a result, SSA has a backlog of OFFSET PENDING cases that the PCs must review and resolve.

 

C. Mass mailings to solicit information on pending WC or PDB claims

 

Effective October 2014 through December 2014, the PCs will send mass mailing letters to a group of DIB beneficiaries for whom:

 

We first processed the claims in 2001-2003; and MBR [Master Beneficiary Record] data indicate a WC or PDB claim is still "pending." The letters solicit information about the outcome of the WC or PDB claim. Based on the MBR language indicator, we will print the mass mailing letters in English or in Spanish. When the PCs release the letter, a special message will post to the MBR indicating that the PC sent the letter and includes a reference to this AM.

Example of Special Message Text:

 

" PROGRAM CENTER MASS MAILING DIRECT CONTACT LETTER SENT TO BIC A FOR STATUS OF WC/PDB CLAIM--SEE AM-14066".

 

The letter provides and requests the following information:

 

Reminds the beneficiary that "you told us you filed or intended to file for workers'

compensation or public disability benefit payments or that you were appealing the decision made on your workers' compensation or public disability benefit claim" and "we are writing to update the information;" Asks the beneficiary to answer the questions in the letter by checking each item that applies, to fill in any requested information, to sign and date the letter, and return it in the enclosed envelope; Requests the beneficiary to enclose proof of any workers' compensation or public disability benefit payments received; Includes SSA's 800# (including TTY) for any questions; and Includes a return envelope addressed to:

Social Security Administration

Western Program Service Center

P.O. Box 4213

Richmond, CA 94804-0213

 

NOTE: Although the beneficiary should return the letter to the Richmond CA address, the Richmond office dispatches the returned letters to the PC [Payment Center] of jurisdiction for final action.

See the attached facsimile of the English language mass mailing letter.

 

WCPE FY15 MASS MAILING ATTACHMENT (ENGLISH).doc

 

D. Handling inquiries from beneficiaries

 

The following instructions provide guidance for handling inquiries from beneficiaries regarding the mass mailing letters.

 

1. Field Office (FO) instructions

 

If the beneficiary:

misplaced the return envelope enclosure, ask him or her to send the completed and signed letter to the Richmond CA address shown in section C.; brings proof of WC or PDB payments into the FO instead of mailing it to the PC address, the claims representative should promptly input the information into the Interactive Computation Facility (ICF) system. After update to ICF, fax the proof into NDRED [Non-Disability Repository for Evidentiary Documents]; and states he or she already provided SSA with proof of the WC or PDB claim or appeal status, check eView, NDRED, and PCACS [Processing Center Action Control System] to determine whether SSA has received the documents. Advise the beneficiary if the FO or PC has already input the information or if it is still under review. If the documents are not in eView, NDRED, or PCACS, ask the beneficiary to resubmit the proof to the FO and input the information when receive

2. 800 Number instructions

 

If the beneficiary:

 

misplaced the return envelope enclosure, ask him or her to send the completed and signed letter to the Richmond CA address shown in Section C.; and states he or she already provided SSA with proof of the WC or PDB claim or appeal status, send an MDW to the servicing FO. On the MDW, indicate WC Pending Cleanup workload and that the beneficiary alleges providing SSA with proof of WC or PDB claim. Advise the beneficiary that someone from the FO will contact him or her.

 

Direct all program-related and technical questions to your Regional Office support staff or Processing Center Operations Analysis staff.

RO [Regional Office] support staff may refer questions or problems to their Central Office contacts.

 

Reference:

 

DI 52140.010 Processing Center (PC)

Responsibilities for Processing Workers'