Hope This Works

     Maybe my complaint about Social Security's ineffective process for notifying the public of office closings did some good. Here's an e-mail I received from the agency:

You are subscribed to the Social Security Administration’s Office Closings and Emergency Information page. 

Now you can sign up to receive email or text messages when Social Security offices in your state or territory close down or open late because of severe weather or emergencies. 

To sign up for your state or territory, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/agency/emergency and click on this button:

 

Upload Documents When Filing Appeals

     Social Security says you can now upload supporting documents when filing an appeal.

60 Minutes Report On Death Master File Problems

Blame CBS for the formatting problems here. Here's a link to watch it properly formatted.

Well, You Looked Dead To Me

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a report on Social Security's efforts to deal with situations in which the agency receives some information suggesting the possibility that a beneficiary has died but not definitive proof of death. Two of the situations identified by OIG were mail returned as undeliverable or a beneficiary who cannot be located. Not surprisingly, there are often overpayments in these cases when it turned out that the beneficiary had died. The agency often failed to recoup the money in these cases. OIG identified 58 cases involving about $1 million where that happened.

     This is one of those reports where you wonder whether OIG considers the collateral costs of what it is recommending. Sometimes people move and fail to leave a forwarding address. Sometimes the Post Office fails to properly implement a forwarding address. Sometimes a John Smith is reported to have died but the agency needs the death certificate to make sure it doesn't cut off benefits to the wrong John Smith. Sometimes people just disappear. Sometimes they reappear.  An overly aggressive approach to these types of cases could  save money but it could also cause benefit terminations for a lot of people who aren't dead. That's an enormous hassle for those whose benefits are wrongly terminated. Social Security doesn't have an army of employees with time on their hands to quickly investigate and sort out these cases.

Makes For Nice Headlines

     It doesn't even show up on the Committee's website but apparently the House Social Security Subcommittee plans to hold a hearing on Monday on the reports that there are millions of names shown in Social Security's database as being alive at age 112 or older, even though only 13 of them are receiving benefits and there's a date of birth error in each of those cases. 

     There's legitimate concern that the database inadequacy could be exploited for non-Social Security related criminal purposes but no sign that's actually happened. Declaring all those people dead would create havoc for many thousands of people whose date of birth was inaccurately entered in a database. This issue makes for great headlines but this shouldn't be a major story.

This Matters Far More Than Some Stupid WSJ Op Ed

     Is it easier to win a World Series than to get on Social Security disability?

Number Drawing Disability Benefits Declines For Fifth Straight Month

     The number of people drawing Social Security disability benefits declined in February. This is the fifth straight month of decline. I think we have a trend.

Does Social Security Have A Policy On This?

     The Social Security Administration allows electronic signatures on its Form SSA-827, "Authorization To Disclose Information To The Social Security Administration." The agency allows most claims and appeals to be filed online. What about Form SSA-1696, "Appointment of Representative." What about fee agreements between attorneys and their clients? Does Social Security have a policy on acceptance of electronic signatures on these forms? Are "wet" signatures still required?