Social Security is seeking a contractor for an early intervention mental health study. This would only be for denied applicants. The overwhelming majority of applicants for Social Security disability benefits who suffer from mental illness are denied.
Aug 17, 2015
Why Do So Many Republican Candidates For President Favor Cuts In Social Security?
Today's opinion pieces:
- Paul Krugman at the New York Times believes most Republican candidates for President support cuts to Social Security not because these cuts are popular with the Republican base (they aren't) but because big money donors support cuts in Social Security.
- Tim Worstall at Forbes says that you don't have to be a bloated plutocrat to favor cuts in Social Security. In fact, retirement age should be raised to 80!
- Ezra Klein at Vox believes that one of the major reasons that Donald Trump is popular with Republican voters is that Trump doesn't favor cuts in Social Security.
Grim Processing Time Report
From the newsletter (not available online) of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR). Click on the image of each page to view full size.
Aug 16, 2015
Aug 15, 2015
They've Got Opinions And Some Facts
- Michael Hiltzik on the lack of a confirmed Commissioner of Social Security
- Tom Margenau on the Lump Sum Death Payment (LSDP)
- Laurence Kotlikoff and Robert Pozen on how the retirement earnings test for those between age 62 and full retirement age discourages people from working
Aug 14, 2015
House Appropriations Committee "Believes" In Functional Assessment Batteries
From the report (page 150) of the House Appropriations Committee on the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill, which covers the Social Security Administration:
The Committee can "believe" what it wants but any function assessment battery will be worthless in determining disability. You cannot test someone's work capacity over the course of a few hours and extrapolate from that to determine the person's ability to work eight hours a day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year. You cannot say that because a person has run 100 yards that they can run a marathon, much less say that the person can run a marathon at the same pace that they have run 100 yards. There's no way around this problem.
Functional assessment batteries have always been and will always be fool's gold. They appeal only to those who give little thought to the matter, especially if they have no interest in justice, and to those who stand to profit from performing the functional assessment batteries.
The United Kingdom has started using functional assessment batteries in determining disability. It's been pretty disastrous.
If you think disability determination in the United States is problematic, you'd right. Disability determination is an inherently messy, imprecise business. That doesn't mean that things can't be made worse. Things could get a lot worse with widespread use of functional assessment batteries.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has partnered with the National Institutes of Health to create a functional assessment tool that is reliable and objective and may inform the disability determination process. One of the major projects of this partnership is the Functional Assessment Battery (FAB). The Committee believes the FAB tool could serve to provide uniform, objective evidence to the disability determination.The Committee notes its concern that SSA is currently limiting the use of this tool for only survey research. The Committee directs SSA to test the use of the FAB as part of the demonstrations undertaken within the Disability Early Intervention Initiative.The bill has now been reported out of Committee.
The Committee can "believe" what it wants but any function assessment battery will be worthless in determining disability. You cannot test someone's work capacity over the course of a few hours and extrapolate from that to determine the person's ability to work eight hours a day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year. You cannot say that because a person has run 100 yards that they can run a marathon, much less say that the person can run a marathon at the same pace that they have run 100 yards. There's no way around this problem.
Functional assessment batteries have always been and will always be fool's gold. They appeal only to those who give little thought to the matter, especially if they have no interest in justice, and to those who stand to profit from performing the functional assessment batteries.
The United Kingdom has started using functional assessment batteries in determining disability. It's been pretty disastrous.
If you think disability determination in the United States is problematic, you'd right. Disability determination is an inherently messy, imprecise business. That doesn't mean that things can't be made worse. Things could get a lot worse with widespread use of functional assessment batteries.
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