Isn't 19 Years Of Testing Enough?

     The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has released an Issue Brief on the Single Decision Maker Pilot. In the Single Decision Maker (SDM) Pilot a single disability examiner can process a disability claim at the initial or reconsideration levels without having a medical consultant sign off on the determination. The agency has been testing SDM since 1996. So, why has it taken 19 years to test SDM? Is Social Security finally ready to either cancel SDM altogether or make it national? Oddly, neither SSAB nor Social Security seems to have an answer for either question. Probably the reason that Social Security doesn't want to go national with SDM is that it leads to a slight increase in the allowance rate and that's a huge negative as far as Social Security and SSAB are concerned. The reason that the SDM Pilot isn't cancelled is that SDM decreases processing time which is a positive. So it looks as if we'll just continue with the SDM Pilot indefinitely.

The Great Recession Caused Big Problems For Social Security Disability But Not What You Think

     Kathy Ruffing, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, has an interesting observation. The Great Recession hurt Social Security's Disability Insurance Trust Fund badly but not in the way people think. The problem wasn't that the Great Recession caused an increase in benefit payments. Any effects on that side were minor. The problem has been that the Great Recession caused a dramatic decrease in the Disability Insurance Trust Fund's income. If the Great Recession hadn't occurred, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund's income and spending would be in rough balance.

What Data Do You Want To See?

     Social Security has a webpage where anyone can submit their ideas for data sets that the agency should make available online. Submit your own ideas. Here are the ideas I submitted:

• Productivity, backlog and allowance rates for each state DDS
• Percent of claimants with attorney or other representation
• EAJA fees paid
• Appeals Council productivity and backlog
• Percent of claimants who are rejecting video hearings
• Number of attorney-advisor decisions issued
• Number of on the record reversals issued by ALJs
• Processing time data for each payment centers
• Average speed of answer and agent busy rate for 800 number service
• Average speed of answer and agent busy rate for field office telephone lines

An Alabama Textbook From The 1970s On "social security"

"Republicans Will Do ... Something"

     Arthur Delaney gives a good summary of yesterday's hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee. His title tells the story: The Social Security Disability Program's In Trouble And Republicans Will Do... Something.
     By the way, note that Delaney has been influenced by the Republican drumbeat insisting that somehow Social Security "liberalized" disability back in the 1980s. That's bull. That supposed "liberalization" was signed into law by the sainted Ronald Reagan. I don't think you could get one vote in Congress today for overturning even one aspect of that supposed "liberalization."

There's No Magic Bullet

     From the written testimony of Paul N. Van de Water, Senior Fellow at the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, given to the House Ways and Means Committee today:

It’s worth testing some promising changes to DI [Disability Insurance] through carefully designed demonstration projects, but those demonstrations won’t yield quick answers. Congress should also consider other ways of rewarding work for people with impairments, such as expanding refundable tax credits for low-wage workers. But Congress should not expect a magic bullet that will simultaneously trim costs, make beneficiaries better off, and avert the need to replenish the DI trust fund in 2016 and beyond. Beneficiaries will face a 20 percent benefit cut if Congress does not act soon to replenish the trust fund.

     None of the other witness written statements say anything that contradicted Van de Water's statement.
     By the way, let me repeat what I said earlier, the House Ways and Means Committtee's website is a mess. It's almost impossible to find anything. I've been looking at websites of various Congressional committees for years and I've never seen anything like this. You think I'm exaggerating? I didn't give a link to the witness statements at today's hearing. Here's a link to the Homepage for the Committee. The witness statements are there somewhere but try finding them.

Benefits Authorizer Charged With Fraud

     From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Five people, including a Social Security Administration employee, are facing federal charges for a kickback scheme involving $1.9 million in fraudulent benefits.

Jayson Cruz, 39, worked as a benefits authorizer at the administration’s Great Lakes Program Service Center in Chicago at the time of the alleged fraud between 2009 and 2013, prosecutors said.

He and four other people were charged in a June 30 indictment that was unsealed Wednesday after their arrests, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

According to the indictment, Cruz was responsible for authorizing monthly old-age, survivors and disability insurance benefits to beneficiaries and their families.

Cruz — along with co-defendants Monica Knox-Sumrell, Vonzell White, Michael Elarde and Jerry Brown Jr. — recruited recipients to receive additional payments on top of what they were owed, authorities claim.

Prosecutors also claim Knox-Sumrell also falsely told recipients that she worked for the Social Security Administration.

Cruz authorized the extra, fraudulent payments, taking care to keep the amounts below a $6,000 threshold that would have required a supervisor’s approval, the indictment said.
His four co-defendants later collected the majority of the money back from the people they recruited, the indictment claims.

Cruz also fraudulently authorized payments to White, Elarde, Brown and others by falsely portraying them as representatives of deceased beneficiaries who were owned money from the administration, according to the indictment.

The Social Security Administration ultimately paid out $1.9 million in fraudulent benefits to more than 150 people because of the scheme, authorities said.

Committee Chairmen Ask For Ideas

     From a press release:

House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (R-TX), and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) today called on the disability community and other interested stakeholders to bring ideas to the table on how best to address the impending depletion of reserves in the Social Security’s Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund. The fund’s depletion has been projected to occur sometime late in 2016, requiring action to prevent across-the-board cuts to beneficiaries of the DI program.

“The Disability Insurance program needs fixing,” Ryan, Johnson, and Hatch said. “And while we’re working on solutions, we also want to hear from those outside Congress. Almost all American workers pay for the disability insurance program through their payroll taxes, and they deserve a program that protects those with disabilities, promotes opportunity, and ensures that hard-earned taxpayer dollars are used efficiently and don’t go to fraudsters. We especially want to hear from disability insurance beneficiaries on how we can improve the disability program together.”

The lawmakers are urging the public to take a more active role in developing how to improve the current program and ensure that benefits are there for future generations. Specifically, the lawmakers are soliciting input on:

1. Ways to make the DI program work better for current and future beneficiaries;
2. Ways to improve the financial outlook for the DI Trust Fund; and
3. Ways to promote opportunities for those trying to return to work.

Individuals, researchers, businesses, organizations, and advocacy groups interested in submitting comments should send an email to the following address: ImproveDI@mail.house.gov.