Bill To End Benefits For Suspected Nazi War Criminals To Advance

     From The Hill:

The House will vote next week on a bill that would eliminate government benefits for suspected Nazi war criminals. 

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) office released a schedule Wednesday outlining next week's floor agenda that showed the bill, H.R. 5739, will be considered under a fast-track procedure, indicating that it will pass easily.

     There are no unrelated items in the bill, making it almost completely symbolic.  Far more money will be spent passing and implementing this than could possibly be saved.

Field Offices To Be Closed To Public On Friday

     I just got a tweet from Social Security saying that their field offices will be closed to the public Friday. I don’t know why they waited so late on announcing this. Social Security staff who aren’t taking the day off are supposed to be at work Friday.

Declining Disability Claims

From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General

Fees For Representing Social Security Claimants Going Down

     As part of a virulently hostile piece about attorneys who represent the disabled, the Manhattan Institute, a right wing "think tank", posted this graph, which undermines their argument a bit:

Updated Disability Trust Fund Numbers

     The numbers are now available on the operations of Social Security's Disability Insurance Trust Fund through the third quarter of this year. To make it a little easier to understand, I'll give the net decrease in the Trust Fund balance for each quarter this year, in billions, and the comparison to 2013.

• 1st Quarter 2014 -$6.4 billion, $1.5 billion better than in 1st Quarter 2013
• 2nd Quarter 2014 -$4.1 billion, $0.2 billion worse than in 2nd Quarter 2013
• 3rd Quarter 2014 -$10.1 billion, $0.3 billion better than in 3rd Quarter 2013

     The net is a reduction in the Disability Trust Fund of $20.6 billion through the first nine months of 2014, which is $1.6 billion better than during the same time period of 2013. The intermediate projection of Social Security's Chief Actuary was that the decline in the Disability Trust Fund would be exactly the same in 2014 as in 2013, $32.2 billion, so, thus far this year, the rate of decline is about 5% better than projected. Does that continue in the 4th quarter? More important, does the improvement continue next year and in coming years?

"Truly Disabled"

Senator Tom Coburn, who will be leaving the Senate in January, has some strong opinions he wants to share about Social Security disability.

Hearing Backlog Growing Rapidly

From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General

Americans Demand Local Field Office Service

      Poll results reported by the Strengthen Social Security Coalition:

A majority of Americans want to be able to call or visit a local Social Security field office for various services. The vast majority of Americans — regardless of party affiliation, race/ethnicity, gender and age — believe that we need to have more or the same number of local field offices in the future. 

57 percent of people want to be able to call or visit a local office to request a new Social Security card. 

• 35 percent of those surveyed would prefer to call a local phone number to speak with a live agent. 
• 22 percent said that they would like to visit a local Social Security office in person. 
• 24 percent would prefer to call a national 800 number to speak with a live agent. 
• 11 percent prefer using the internet or email. 
• 7 percent of participants prefer using an automated phone service. 1 percent would like to correspond through the mail and 1 percent are unsure of their preferred method. 

59 percent of people want to be able to call or visit a local office to get information when they are one or two years away from retirement . 

• 33 percent of those surveyed would prefer to call a local phone number to speak with a live agent. 
• 26 percent said that they would like to visit a local Social Security office in person. 
• 21 percent would prefer to call a national 800 number to speak with a live agent. 
• 12 percent prefer using the internet or email. 
• 5 percent of participants prefer using an automated phone service. 1 percent would like to correspond through the mail and 1 percent are unsure of their preferred method. 

61 percent of people want to be able to call or visit a local office when it was time to actually apply for retirement benefits.

• 32 percent of those surveyed would prefer t o call a local phone number to speak with a live agent. 
• 29 percent said that they would like to visit a local Social Security office in person. 
• 19 percent would prefer to call a national 800 number to speak with a live agent.
• 13 percent prefer using the internet or email. 
• 5 percent of participants prefer using an automated phone service. 1 percent would like to correspond through the mail and 1 percent are unsure of their preferred method. 

86 percent of Americans want more or the same number of local field offices in the future. 

• 44 percent believe there should be more local field offices in the future 
• 42 percent believe there should be the same number of local field offices in the future 
• 8 percent believe there should be fewer local field offices in the future 

These results are from a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling who surveyed 1,207 registered voters on November 14 - 16, 2014.