Underpayments To Widows And Widowers

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

SSA needs to improve its controls to ensure it establishes the correct PIA [Primary Insurance Amount, the basis for computing how much a claimant is to be paid] for widow(er)s when deceased wage earners die before age 62. Based on our random sample, we estimated that SSA underpaid approximately $224 million to 25,309 widow(er)s....

     Social Security agreed that they need to do something about this problem.
     The thing that gets me is that if this report had said that claimants were being overpaid by $224 million, the House Social Security Subcommittee would hold a hearing and grill Social Security officials. They would insinuate that fraud must be involved. However, when it's $224 million in underpayments I'm sure the reaction will be "Meh."
     Overpayments and underpayments are both important. They deserve equal treatment.

Florida ALJ Arrested

     From the Tampa Tribune:

An administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration in Tampa was arrested late Sunday and charged with driving under the influence, police said. Two witnesses saw Glen H. Watkins, 42, strike a parked car while driving a 2014 Honda Pilot on Davis Boulevard at 11:14 p.m., Tampa police said. Watkins’ blood-alcohol content was later measured at 0.151 and 0.163, records show. The legal limit for Florida drivers is 0.08.

Eanes Nomination Advances

     The Senate Finance Committee has favorably reported the nomination of Andrew Lamont Eanes to become Deputy Commissioner of Social Security. Senator Crapo cast the only vote against Eanes.

Sanitizing The File

     Let's say you're an attorney and you have evidence that a particular Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) is prejudiced against a certain group of people. I'm not talking about suspicion or an opinion or belief. I'm talking about specific evidence. I'm not talking about a specific case but let's say you make a Freedom of Information Act request for statistics on the rate at which an ALJ is approving claims depending upon the race of the claimant. You fight the agency for months, if not years, but eventually get the statistics showing a huge disparity. You get a hearing scheduled before this ALJ with a person whose disability claims the agency rarely approves. You file a motion asking for the ALJ to recuse himself or herself attaching the evidence showing the pattern of discrimination. The ALJ refuses. The ALJ goes on to deny the claim but makes sure to remove from the file all the evidence that you submitted showing the pattern of discrimination so the Appeals Council and a federal court can't see it. Can an ALJ do this? Sure, under a recent change to Social Security's HALLEX manual, the ALJ is supposed to remove from the file any evidence you submit concerning the ALJ. If the attorney submits an affidavit to the Appeals Council concerning the ALJ's behavior in the case, that must also be removed from the file.

The Writing Is On The Wall

     From KTNV in Las Vegas:

In a story that's only on 13 action news, a federal crime happening inside a federal facility and no one is doing anything about it.

Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears exposes the government agency ignoring the writing on the wall. 

"When I went in, I was actually dumbfounded."

Travis Knapp went to the Social Security office on Buffalo near Charleston because of one crime.

"My son's social got stolen."

But while there, he saw evidence of another. 

The scene? The men's restroom.  

"It was completely covered in graffiti. The mirror just completely etched into. The walls--the stall walls and everything." 

It's a federal offense to deface a federal building. And against state law, too. But the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says no one from the Social Security office has reported the crime. 

Police have a special graffiti investigation unit to tackle what they call the most costly property crime in southern Nevada--with a high success rate of identifying and arresting graffiti vandals. 

In fact, Nevada has the toughest graffiti laws in the nation. 

But Social Security hasn't said a word.

Travis believes there's another crime going on here--apathy.

"If there's something going on in your line of work, be it graffiti or somebody stealing from your company, and you're sitting there watching it and you don't report it to a higher-up to have it taken care of, you're just as much a part of the problem as the person doing so."

      Is there a name for a writing style which glorifies almost every sentence with its own paragraph? Maybe I shouldn't be too critical. It was written for on air delivery.

Eanes Nomination To Be Considered By Senate Finance Committee On April 18

     The Senate Finance Committee has now rescheduled its meeting to consider the nomination of Andrew Lamont Eanes to become Deputy Commissioner of Social Security for April 18.

Social Security To Require That Those Representing Claimants Use Online Systems To Access Files

     From a notice that Social Security will publish in the Federal Register on Monday:

This notice provides advance notification of the requirement that, for claims with certified electronic folders pending at the hearing or Appeals Council levels, an appointed representative must access and obtain a claimant’s folder through Appointed Representative Services (ARS) in matters for which the representative requests direct fee payment. Except under the limited circumstances described in this notice, we will no longer provide compact disc (CD) copies of the electronic folder to appointed representatives who request direct payment of fees. ...

A representative who falls under the terms of this mandate, as described, has an affirmative duty to comply with this requirement. We may investigate to determine if a representative violates this duty or is attempting to circumvent our rules. We may sanction a representative who does not follow these rules, as described in 20 CFR 404.1745-1795 and 416.1545-1595. However, we will not reject or delay a claimant's hearing or process a claim differently if a representative fails to comply with this electronic access requirement. ...

Still No Action On Eanes Nomination

     The Senate Finance Committee scheduled a meeting for March 2 to consider the nomination of Andrew Lamont Eanes to become Deputy Commissioner of Social Security but the meeting was later "postponed." It's never been rescheduled. I'd think that if it were a simple scheduling issue, it would have been rescheduled by now. It sounds like there's a more serious problem. If there is a problem, it may not be with the Eanes nomination. There were three other nominations scheduled for consideration at that time. If there's a problem, it may be with one of the other nominations. Even if the problem is with another nomination, at the least, it's certainly delayed the Eanes nomination.