Former Service Representative Pleads Guilty To Social Security Fraud

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

A former employee of the Social Security Administration (SSA) appeared in federal court in Dallas this morning and pleaded guilty ... to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and restitution. ...

In some instances, for example, [Carwin Shaw of Arlington, Texas, who was a Service Representative] manipulated the verified income attributed to Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries that resulted in the issuance of larger payments than authorized, the issuance of payments when none were due, and the removal of legitimate overpayments posted to beneficiary’s record. Shaw further admitted using the SSA’s electronic systems that interface with the U.S. Treasury Department to issue duplicate checks to beneficiaries when only one check was due. Shaw would cut additional checks to the co-conspirators by alleging their initial check had been lost or stolen, split the second check with the co-conspirator and then access the system and waive the overpayment so that it would not be recovered from any future benefits. Each co-conspirator was the representative payee for one minor or otherwise incompetent Social Security beneficiary.

The loss to the SSA as a result of all of Shaw’s relevant conduct is approximately $78,165. ...

Republican Members Of Social Security Subcommittee Announced

     Republicans have announced their list of members of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security for the upcoming Congress

• Sam Johnson, Chairman
• Jim Renacci
• Vern Buchanan
• Aaron Schock
• Tom Reed
• Todd Young
• Mike Kelly

Allegation Of Computer System Coverup

    From FoxNews.com:

Senior officials at the Social Security Administration (SSA) tried to hide a damning report on a $300 million computer system that lawmakers have called a “boondoggle” in order to protect President Obama’s nominee to lead the agency, a whistleblower claimed in an interview with FoxNews.com.  

Whistleblower Michael Keegan told FoxNews.com that McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm, issued a draft report in December 2013 saying the agency had spent $288 million over six years for a new computer system processing disability claims that has yet to launch.

But Keegan said he was present at a meeting of senior officials in May of this year where they decided to sit on the report as long as Carolyn Colvin’s nomination for commissioner was pending.

“They hid the report,” he told FoxNews.com.

Keegan said it was discussed at that May meeting that Colvin, the acting commissioner, had been briefed on the findings.

He added: “There is absolutely no way that [Colvin] could be in the dark” on the effort to hide it.

     If there was a coverup it wasn't very successful since word first got out about this in July. It seemed to be no problem for Colvin's nomination until after the election.

Average Age Of Disability Recipients Rising Steadily

Do Jobs With Higher "Cognitive Analytic" Skills Have Higher Rates Of Disability?

     The abstract of a study by Lauren Hersch Nicholas for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

We use Health and Retirement Study data linked to the Department of Labor’s O*Net classification system to examine the relationship between lifetime exposure to occupational demands and retirement behavior. We consistently found that both non-routine cognitive analytic and non-routine physical demands were associated with worse health, earlier labor force exit, and increased use of Social Security Disability Insurance. The growing share of workers in jobs with high levels of cognitive demand may contribute to growth in DI use.

     It's obvious at ground level that people who work at jobs that have higher physical demands have higher rates of disability. It only stands to reason. However, increased rates of disability for those in jobs requiring the use of higher "cognitive analytic" skills comes as a surprise. I'm generally skeptical of government funded research that ends up calling for more government funded research. This report actually doesn't make that recommendation but this is a topic worthy of more research.

Colvin Defends Herself

     Here's Colvin defending herself against charges that there's somethintg illegal about a contract her agency is administering:

I've always met the highest ethical standards," ... I've worked in government my entire life. There's never been a suggestion, personal or professional, of any wrongdoing.

I'm certainly not ending my career with that, .. I came out of retirement to help this organization, not hurt it. ...

Colvin noted that the project was launched "way before I got here," ...

That's what I do, I'm a problem-fixer," ... Every organization I've gone into I try to identify what the vulnerabilities are and try to fix them. ...

     If Republicans want to block this nomination, they can. There's no need to cast ridiculous aspersions on a person who has done nothing wrong. Colvin has served Social Security and other agencies honorably.

ABLE Passes House

     The ABLE Bill has passed the House of Representatives. Under the bill, contributions may be made to an ABLE account set up for a recipient of Supplemental Security Income Disability (SSID) without affecting SSID entitlement. The funds in ABLE accounts may be used for "education, housing, transportation, employment training and support, assistive technology and personal support services, health, prevention and wellness, financial management and administrative services, legal fees, expenses for oversight and monitoring, funeral and burial expense."
     Although ABLE would affect needs based programs such as SSID, it will primarily help disabled people who come from middle class or wealthy families. They are the ones who will have the money to contribute to ABLE accounts. The ABLE Bill doesn't update the absurdly low income and resource limits in SSI. This is not the fault of those behind ABLE. They would like to update SSI as well. This was the best they could do. It says something about the current state of our politics that helping poor people would be considered a deal breaker for this bill.

Senators Want To Hold Up Colvin Nomination

     The Associated Press is reporting that a "group" of Republican Senators is planning to hold up Carolyn Colvin's nomination for a term as Commissioner of Social Security while they seek more information about Social Security's troubled $300 DCPS computer project. The article doesn't say who is part of this "group" or how big it is. However, it hardly takes more than one Senator to block a nomination. Holding up the nomination over this sounds preposterous to me. This was former Commissioner Michael Astrue's project. Colvin merely inherited it. It's a necessary project and one that everybody knew was bound to be messy. However, if you're looking for a pretext to block a nomination of an otherwise non-controversial nominee, I guess this will do.

     Update: It's all Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee. This nomination is dead at last for for this session of Congress.