Sanitation Problems Close Social Security Cafeteria

     From the Baltimore Sun:

Officials at the Woodlawn-based Social Security Administration took the unusual step Thursday of closing its cafeteria facilities after an internal inspection found problematic "housekeeping conditions," a spokesman said. ...

The agency did not provide detail of what was found, other than to note the issues were "sanitation-related." The agency said an inspection found conditions that "do not meet required standards."...

A spokesman for Brock & Company, the Pennsylvania-based food services vendor for the agency, said in a statement that "sanitation is a top priority at all our locations and we are working with our partner client [SSA] in addressing the housekeeping and facilities issues that were discovered during today's inspection."

     Update: The cafeteria reopens Monday.

Online Appeals System Problems

     I'm hearing many complaints about Social Security's system for filing appeals online. Attorneys are required to use the system but it's unreliable. Much of the time when you try to access the system online you get a message that "This page does not exist."

Comp Cuts Causing Increase In Social Security Disablity Costs?

     The Center for Economic and Policy Research has done a study on Rising Disability Payments: Are Cuts to Workers' Compensation Part of the Story? The charts below, extracted from the report, suggest that the answer is "yes."

Frye Out As President Of AALJ

     Randall Frye of Charlotte has been the president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), the labor union that represents Social Security's Administrative Law Judges for some time. I understand that he has left that position. He is resuming his regular duties as an ALJ. I do not know the circumstances of Frye's departure from his position at AALJ.

Workers Comp Changes Costing Social Security

     From National Public Radio (emphasis added):

Ten ranking Democrats on key Senate and House committees are urging the Labor Department to respond to a "pattern of detrimental changes in state workers' compensation laws" that have reduced protections and benefits for injured workers over the past decade. ...

The letter also referred to NPR/ProPublica stories last week that detailed an emerging trend that permits employers to dump out of state-regulated workers' comp programs, write their own injury plans and limit benefits on their own. ...

The Center for Economic and Policy Research is releasing a study Wednesday that estimates that more than 20 percent of the increase in federal disability cases is due to cuts in workers' comp programs. ...

A 2007 study by J. Paul Leigh, a health economist at the University of California, Davis, estimated that workplace injuries not covered by workers' comp cost government programs about $30 billion a year.

Federal intervention may also come as the result of the "opt out" movement in Texas and Oklahoma, in which employers shun heavily-regulated workers' comp and are permitted to write and administer their own largely-unregulated workplace injury plans. South Carolina and Tennessee are considering opt-out laws now and proponents are aiming for a dozen states by the end of the decade. ...

Which Candidate Is More Interested In Protecting Social Security?

     From a New York Times  comparison of the effects of the Social Security plans of two Presidential candidates:

     Elements of the two plans:

• Christie would raise early retirement age from 62 to 64 and full retirement age from 67 to 69. Sanders wouldn't change either date.
• Christie would eliminate the FICA tax for those 62 and older. Sanders would apply the FICA tax to those with incomes over $250,000, in addition to the current FICA tax structure that applies FICA to incomes up to $118,500.
• Christie would reduce Social Security benefits to those with an income over $80,000 and eliminate all benefits for those with an income over $200,000. Sanders would increase benefits for all recipients, with the amount of the increase being between 2% and 9% depending upon work history. He would also add a special minimum benefit.
• Christie would reduce the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). Sanders would increase COLA.

Even WSJ Says COLA Unfair To Retirees

     Even the Wall Street Journal says that the formula used to compute Social Security's Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) is unfair to retirees.

Appeals Council To Stop Returning New Evidence

     From a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) that Social Security will publish in the Federal Register tomorrow: 

We propose to amend our regulations by revising our rules regarding the return of evidence at the Appeals Council (AC) level. Our current rules state that the AC will return to the claimant additional evidence it receives when the AC finds the evidence does not relate to the period on or before the date of the administrative law judge’s (ALJ) hearing decision. We are proposing these revisions to give the AC discretion in returning additional evidence that it receives when the AC determines the additional evidence does not relate to the period on or before the date of the ALJ decision.

We now use many electronic services that make the practice of returning evidence unnecessary. For example, we now scan most of the medical evidence into the electronic claim(s) file or appointed representatives submit it through our Electronic Records Express system. ... It is neither administratively efficient or cost effective for us to print out documents that have been submitted to us electronically by a claimant or appointed representative in order to return them to the claimant. ...

The administrative burden of processing and returning evidence also has increased significantly over the last few years. ...