A First Look At The President's Budget

From the President's Budget for FY 2016:

... Equalizing Social Security Benefits for Same-Sex Married Couples. The Budget proposes to amend the Social Security Act to ensure all lawfully married same-sex couples will be eli - gible to receive Social Security spousal benefits, regardless of where they live. Currently, if a legally married same-sex couple lives in a State that does not recognize the marriage, these Social Security benefits are unavailable under Federal law. This means that for a couple that marries in one State where same-sex marriage is recognized and then moves to another State where it is not, the protection that Social Security spousal ben - efits provides to families is unavailable. Under this proposal, such married couples would have access to these benefits. ...

To address reserve depletion of the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund, the Budget proposes to reallocate existing payroll tax collections between the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and DI trust funds while a longer-term solution to overall Social Security solvency is developed with the Congress. ...

The Budget also includes initiatives to help people with disabilities remain in the workforce. It builds on the bipartisan support for these ef forts in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, by providing new authority and $400 million in new resources for the Social Security Administration (SSA), in partnership with other Federal agencies, to test innovative strategies to help people with disabilities remain in the workforce. The cost would be offset by a proposal to better coordinate DI and Federal retroactive dis - ability payments between SSA and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM.) Early-intervention measures, such as supportive employment services for individuals with mental impairments, targeted incentives for employers to help workers with disabilities remain on the job, and incentives and opportunities for States to better coordinate services, have the potential to achieve long-term gains in the employment and the quality of life of people with disabilities, and the proposed demonstrations will help build the evidence base for future program improvements.

To address increasing wait times for a disability appeal decision, the Budget proposes to increase the hiring of Administrative Law Judges (ALJ). SSA’s workloads continue to increase as the baby boom generation enters its most disability-prone years. The average wait time for a disability decision before an ALJ reached a record high of 18.5 months in August 2008. SSA was able to reduce the wait time down to a 10-year low of 12 months in 2011 and 2012, but due to funding constraints, the wait time has begun to grow again and is anticipated to rise above 16 months in 2015. Currently there are over one million people waiting for a disability appeals hearing decision from an ALJ. The Budget commits increased resources to hire more ALJs. But resources alone will not be enough. The process for hiring SSA ALJs has not operated efficiently as is needed to fill vacancies even when funding is available. Therefore, the Administration is creating a workgroup led by the Administrative Conference of the United States and OPM, along with SSA, DOJ, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to review the process of hiring ALJs and recommend ways to eliminate roadblocks, which may include proposing administrative reforms or legislative changes.

To continue to strengthen the integrity and accuracy of Social Security, the Budget proposes to establish a dependable source of mandatory funding in 2017 for Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) and Supplemental Security Income Redeterminations, which ensure that only those eligible for benefits continue to receive them. SSA estimates that each $1 spent on CDRs would save the Federal Government $9. This proposal, THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2016 43 together with discretionary funding proposed for 2016, could produce net savings of $32 billion over 10 years and reduce the current backlog of 906,000 overdue CDRs.

"Bipolar Is Like The Latest Fad"

    From Media Matters:

Fox News Radio host Tom Sullivan told a caller who said she suffered from bipolar disorder that her illness is "something made up by the mental health business" and just "the latest fad." When the caller told Sullivan that she "would not be alive today" if she hadn't received mental health treatment, Sullivan wondered if "maybe somebody's talked you into feeling and thinking this way." 

Sullivan, who is also a frequent Fox Business contributor and guest anchor, began his January 28 program by complaining that people with mental illness have figured how to "game the system" by receiving disability benefits. "They're mostly government employees and they know how to do it," he added. Sullivan also defended Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) controversial and false statement that "Over half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts." ... 

"I've got to tell you, if you haven't been told, I will tell you. I think bipolar is like the latest fad. Everybody and their brother is getting diagnosed with bipolar. And last time I checked, we all have good days and we all have bad. And I don't consider that an illness. And I don't consider it a disability." 

He added that bipolar disorder is "something made up by the mental health business just to be able to give people prescriptions and keep them coming in, and keeping you -- paying them money." ... 

     We can hope that Mr. Sullivan isn't much of an opinion maker but there's no doubt that his views are already shared by many people. The problem I face on a regular basis is that his views are shared by many who are themselves suffering from serious mental illness. Even though their lives are severely disrupted by mental illness, they do not believe that they could be mentally ill because they don't believe that mental illness is real or because they believe that real mental illness could only be something vastly more severe than what they suffer. In the most extreme cases, individuals who are at a high suicide risk or who are actively hallucinating or delusional will consider it ridiculous when I and others attempt to persuade them to get under psychiatric care. For that matter, Mr. Sullivan sounds a little delusional himself.

I Wonder How Many People Show Up At Headquarters These Days WantingTo Meet With The Commissioner

     From Tom Margenau writing for the Arizona Daily Star:

Q: I’ve got a beef with Social Security. I barged into my local Social Security office, waited for a couple hours, and finally left. Then I tried calling their 800 number and after being on hold for a half hour, I just hung up. So I’ve decided to go right to the top. Can you please give me the address for the Social Security Administration headquarters and the name of their top person? I am going to pay him a visit. 

A.  ... The “top person,” or the commissioner of Social Security, is a “her” not a “him.” Her name is Carolyn Colvin. ... 

Anyway, if you insist on paying her a visit, the address is 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235. But I’ll let you in on two little secrets. First, you’ll have to get in line. And second, you won’t get anywhere near the commissioner’s office. 

I used to work at SSA’s headquarters at the very address I gave you. In fact, I worked directly for the then-commissioner of Social Security. (This was about 20 years ago.) As someone who had grown up within the agency, working in local Social Security field offices around the country before transferring to the head office, I was surprised to learn of the number of people who showed up at those Baltimore offices each day demanding to “see the big boss.” In fact, there were so many they had set up a procedure for handling them. Visitors were ushered into a nice looking office where they met with a representative of the commissioner. But the person they were actually talking to was just an agent from one of the local Baltimore area Social Security field offices. The visitor’s problem was usually taken care of, and he or she left satisfied that they had “gone to the top.” Of course, the problem would have been just as easily resolved had the person dealt with his or her local Social Security office.

National Support Center Coming Online

    From ZD Net:

The [new Social Security National Support Center] Tier 3 data center was completed outside of Baltimore, MD, in 2014 with the conversion to a virtual tape library the first step in the migration process, completed at the end of October. This was immediately followed by the installation of the complete networking and storage infrastructure, a process which is necessary to prep for the overall migration/consolidation projects in the foreseeable future, and which is scheduled to be complete by March 2015. Once this stage is completed the NSC will begin the process, scheduled to take 18 months, of migrating their Mainframe and Open Systems solutions and all of the existing production environments. ...

With the migration work scheduled to be completed in August 2016, it will be a while before the full advantage of the new facility can be realized.

Trouble In New Jersey

     From the Daily Journal of some city in New Jersey (the newspaper's website hides the city name):

BRIDGETON – A Vineland man’s anti-social behavior at a Social Security office landed him in jail, authorities said. 

The trouble began Thursday when 53-year-old Jeffrey Kuss became “irate” because he was unhappy with the long wait time while in line at the Social Security office on West Broad Street, according to police Lt. James Battavio. A security officer at the office contacted police because Kuss was acting up, he said.

The guard told Kuss that his appointment had been canceled due to his inappropriate behavior and asked him to leave the premises. Kuss responded by shouting obscenities in front of a crowd of 40 people, including children, police said. 

Police informed Kuss he had to leave, but he refused and insisted he had an appointment, Battavio said. Officers then escorted him outside the building, 

That’s where Kuss began blocking patrons from going inside as he made threats and used profanities, police said. 

He was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct and taken to the police station, where he refused to be processed and subsequently charged with obstruction, Battavio said.

Kuss was held on $1,000 bail in Cumberland County Jail.

Continuing Disability Reviews Study

     The Social Security Advisory Board convened the 2014 Disability Policy Panel to study Continuing Disability Reviews. Here are the Panel's recommendations:

• Provide Continuing Disability Review (CDR) Funding that is adequate, predictable, and sustained
• Retain the Medical Improvement Review Standard (MIRS) and strengthen its implementation
• Strengthen other payment integrity tools
• Strengthen links between CDRs and support for return to work
• CDRS for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) children and youth: 1) SSA should communicate expectations of independence to youth beneficiaries whose medical improvement is expected or possible. 2) As with the adult population, the Panel recommends that Congress continue the employment support services of the Ticket to Work program for one additional year. 3) The training recommended for the medical review standard should be extended to include examples unique to children.

Plea Bargain Sends 91 Year Old Man To Prison For Nine Years

     A press release from Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

A 91-year-old ex-cop at the heart of a massive Social Security scam involving more than 120 retired NYPD cops and FDNY firefighters who raked in millions agreed to a plea deal Friday that could land him behind bars for up to nine years, prosecutors said.

Thomas Hale copped to grand larceny and agreed to pay $2 million in restitution in exchange for three to nine years in prison during a hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court.

“In essence, he was the epicenter of the scheme,” said Assistant DA Christopher Santora. “Even with respect to the other ring leaders, it was Mr. Hale who was the hub through which everything and everybody went right up until this case was taken down and Mr. Hale surrendered for arrest.”

The nearly $22 million scam that spanned 25 years was orchestrated by Hale, who coached applicants to lie on their Social Security disability applications, authorities said.

About half of the defendants exploited 9/11 by falsely claiming they suffered post-traumatic stress by responding to the attacks.

It's a Weird Scheme But Why Not Allow It?

    PBS runs some pieces by Laurence Kotlikoff on Social Security. His specialty is figuring out angles to increase Social Security payouts. It's all legal but often a bit weird. It's always schemes that only a few people could use. One scheme he's been promoting is for people who are drawing Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB) to suspend their Social Security retirement benefits once they reach full retirement age (FRA) and wait until age 70 to start collecting them. He's mad that Social Security has decided to stop this scheme. It's an odd scheme he's been promoting, available to only a few and advisable for even fewer but I think that Social Security's decision to prevent this scheme is wrong.

     Let me explain how his scheme would work -- if Social Security allowed it. If you file a claim for DIB, you're also filing a claim for retirement benefits. It says so at the top of the claim form. When you get to FRA, your DIB automatically stops and your retirement benefits start. You don't have to file a claim for the retirement benefits because you did so at the time you filed your DIB claim. A person who never files for DIB can get more per month by waiting until age 70 to file their claim for retirement benefits. It's called the delayed retirement credit. It's a good thing to do if you can afford to wait and if you're healthy because you receive a good deal more per month if you wait until age 70 to start drawing benefits. You can, in the alternative, file a claim for retirement benefits at FRA and ask that Social Security suspend your benefits. You still get the delayed retirement credit but dependent benefits are payable on the account. Kotlikoff was urging DIB recipients to suspend their retirement benefits once they reach FRA, thus getting the delayed retirement credit.

     Kotlikoff was unhappy to find out that Social Security decided in December to treat a request to suspend benefits in the automatic conversion situation as a request to withdraw the original DIB claim. That would require the claimant to pay back all DIB benefits that had been received. Almost no one would do that, ending Kotlikoff's scheme.

     I think the scheme that Kotlikoff has been promoting would be of value to very, very few people even if it were allowed. The vast majority of people eligible for Social Security retirement benefits have no choice but to take the money in order to support themselves. Many, perhaps most, of those who could afford this strategy shouldn't do it anyway because their life expectancy is low. The very impairments that put them on Social Security disability lower their life expectancy. Even those few claimants who could do this are unlikely to do so because the scheme is so exotic and hard to explain.

     Even though I think that Kotlikoff's scheme would be of value to very, very few people, I think that Social Security's position is wrong. I can't think of anything in the Social Security Act that supports the agency's position. There's a difference between asking that benefits be suspended and withdrawing a claim. The agency recognizes that difference. Why would you refuse to recognize that difference in just this one situation? What's wrong with permitting a handful of people to get the delayed retirement credit after being on DIB? Would it be OK if a claimant tells Social Security to stop their DIB a month before they reach FRA and then does a file and suspend? Surely, Kotlikoff will soon figure out that possibility.