Final 2015 Disability Insurance Trust Fund Numbers

     The Social Security Administration has released the final numbers for last year on the performance of the Disability Insurance Trust Fund. Because of a temporary change the Disability Insurance Trust Fund's revenues will increase in 2016. The fund's balance should be higher at the end of 2016 than it is today. Please note however that the annual deficits in the Disability Insurance Trust Fund have gone down each of the last two years. Continuation of this trend would slowly move the Disability Trust fund towards balance.

Disability Insurance
(Amounts in millions)

Calendar year	Total income	Total outgo	Net increase in asset reserves	Asset reserves at end of calendar year
2011	$106,276	$132,332	$-26,056	$153,850
2012	109,115	140,299	-31,184	122,666
2013	111,228	143,450	-32,221	90,445
2014	114,858	145,060	-30,201	60,244
2015	118,595	146,581	-27,985	32,259

Obama To Visit Social Security Headquarters -- Apparently Only Its Parking Lot

Social Security Headquarters, October 12, 1966

     I looks like President Obama will be visiting Social Security headquarters on Wednesday -- but apparently only its parking lot which will be used as a staging area for a visit to a nearby mosque.
     It's been almost 50 years since the last Presidential visit to Social Security headquarters. That doesn't seem right to me.

VIP To Visit Social Security Headquarters

     Social Security is warning its central office employees of extraordinary security measures that will be in effect Wednesday morning at its Security West property due to a "VIP-related security event." Parking will be significantly reduced, some entrances will be blocked off and blinds or shades will have to be closed in some offices. Vehicles will be inspected by K-9 units. 

     I hope someone can enlighten us but I'm having trouble imagining anyone whose visit would justify such preparations other than the President or the head of state of some foreign nation and I don't think any foreign leader is visiting Social Security headquarters.

At Least Somebody Is Hiring

     From a job posting:

Binder & Binder Disability caseworker
Quikaid, Inc. - Saint Petersburg, FL
$35,000 a year

Our firm is seeking 1-2 disability caseworkers with experience working in the disability field, particularly with a firm such as Binder & Binder. Binder & Binder is in bankruptcy, and our firm has made an offer to purchase Binder & Binder's assets from the bankruptcy estate. While that offer is being reviewed, we continue to grow aggressively and are seeking to build our staff. ...

Man Convicted Of Stealing More Than $1.5 Million From Social Security and VA

     From a press release issued by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated today that Dennis Paulsen, age 45, of Blythewood, was convicted of stealing more than $1.5 million from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration following a seven-day jury trial in federal court in Columbia [SC].  ...

After being diagnosed [with Multiple Sclerosis] and discharged from the Navy in the early 1990s, Paulsen began receiving a monthly VA benefit as a result of his diagnosis.  Unsatisfied with the amount he was receiving, Paulsen began a pattern of malingering by claiming his MS rendered him unable to use his hands or feet in any respect.  Still unhappy with the money he was awarded, Paulsen ramped up his claims, lying to his doctors, presenting himself as house- and wheelchair-bound, and making false claims that he required daily professional medical care to live until his benefits were increased to the maximum disability payments available to a Veteran.  At the same time, Paulsen used the same feigned impairments to convince the Social Security Administration that he was entitled to Social Security disability benefits.  Despite his feigned claims of impairments and presenting himself in a wheelchair to his doctors, Paulsen lived in a non-handicap accessible residence and was able to ride his motorcycle and jet skis plus play baseball and golf on a regular basis. ...

The extensive investigation by the VA and SSA included undercover agents, surveillance, and photographs and video footage from banks, stores, and the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Family photographs kept by Paulsen’s ex-wife were also obtained showing Paulsen’s many activities with his family, playing baseball, and participating in a Marine Mud Run. Paulsen testified, in a wheelchair, for four hours and called three doctors as expert witnesses in an attempt to support his claim that he was and had been totally disabled. The guilty verdict reflects that the jury did not find this testimony credible.

     MS is a strange disease. A person with relapsing and remitting MS can have dramatic fluctuations in their functional abilities. They can legitimately go from having few symptoms to being in a wheelchair to again having few symptoms over the course of a few weeks. A jury convicted this man so I assume the evidence against him was strong but an MS patient who tells a story of severe symptoms that come and go may well be telling the truth. If you deal with MS patients at all, you really get struck by how strange MS is.

Doctor Indicted For Fraud

     From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

... Federal prosecutors Friday unsealed an indictment charging a Wynnewood doctor with Social Security fraud. 

Frederick Douglas Burton, 67, of the Burton Wellness & Injury Center on City Avenue in Wynnewood, has been charged with two counts of mail fraud and attempted mail fraud.

He is accused of defrauding the Social Security Administration by signing and sending letters on behalf of another doctor, Dennis Erik Fluck Von Kiel, of Lehigh County. 

The two letters, sent in the fall of 2013 to a law firm that helps clients obtain Social Security disability benefits, falsely contended that Burton had been treating Von Kiel for about seven years, and that Von Kiel suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was unable to work, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia. ...

Old Age And Survivor Trust Fund Keeps Growing

     Social Security has posted the final 2015 numbers for the Old Age and Survivor's Trust Fund. Please note that despite the gloom and doom from the right that the Trust Fund reserves keep increasing and now stand at $2.8 trillion. That's trillion with a T. I'm sure that we'll hear the right say that this proves that SOCIAL SECURITY IS DOOMED TO FAIL. They've been proven wrong for more than 80 years but they keep bellowing the same thing. Koch brothers money buys a lot of bellowing.

Old-Age and Survivors Insurance
(Amounts in millions)

Calendar year	Total income	Total outgo	Net increase in asset reserves	Asset reserves at end of calendar year
2011	$698,781	$603,750	$95,031	$2,524,075
2012	731,075	645,482	85,593	2,609,668
2013	743,793	679,475	64,317	2,673,985
2014	769,417	714,170	55,247	2,729,233
2015	801,561	750,542	51,019	2,780,251

Prior Claim Files

     I wonder if someone could confirm something for me. I've heard that in Social Security disability cases prior claim files, as long as they are electronic, are linked to current electronic claim files in some fashion and are easily available to those adjudicating the new claim. Is this accurate?
     The problem for me is that the prior claim files are not available to attorneys representing claimants. If these files are available to an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) hearing a case, shouldn't they also be available to the claimant and his or her attorney? I can hear the response, "Well as long as I don't make them an exhibit, what's the problem?" The problem is two-fold. First, how do I, as the claimant's attorney know that you haven't looked at them? It's possible to look at something without making it an exhibit. I'm not implying some impropriety. My impression from things I've heard is that many ALJs believe that if something was made an exhibit at a prior hearing, it remains an exhibit at a hearing on a new claim and is available to the attorney representing the claimant but it isn't. Second, the prior file may include valuable information that would help in the adjudication of the new claim. If ALJs aren't looking at the prior claim files, they should be.