EAJA Payments Escalating Rapidly

     When Social Security issues a final administrative decision denying disability benefits, a claimant may bring a civil action in United States District Court to appeal from the decision. If the claimant prevails in federal court and the court determines that Social Security's position wasn't "substantially justified" the court can order the Social Security Administration to pay attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). As you can see below, Social Security's EAJA payments have been escalating rapidly in recent years.

Fiscal Year	Total Payments
2010	$19,743,189.12
2011	$21,668,646.47
2012	$24,666,171.13
2013	$27,720,951.87
2014	$31,637,462.36
2015	$38,132,381.48
2016	$40,045,962.42

     I think there are at least three factors causing this. Social Security's Administrative Law Judges are turning down more claimants than in the past. Social Security is more willing to defend weak denial decisions than in the past. The courts became less conservative as a result of President Obama's appointments.

An Inconsistency?

     Social Security's Listings for systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic vasculits, systemic sclerosis, polymyositis, dermatositis, undifferentiated and mixed connective tissue disease, innume deficiency diseases apart from HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS, inflammatory arthritis, and Sjögren’s syndrome all contain the following criteria

  ... one of the following at the marked level:

1. Limitation of activities of daily living.

2. Limitation in maintaining social functioning.

3. Limitation in completing tasks in a timely manner due to deficiencies in concentration, persistence, or pace.

     This language is also part of the current mental impairment Listings but those Listings will be replaced by new criteria in a couple of weeks and that language isn't in the new mental impairment Listings. Did Social Security mean to leave the old criteria in place for these rheumatic disorders or did they just miss it? I'm thinking the former since they did alter similar child's rheumatic disorder Listings to track with the new child mental impairment Listings but I don't know. I'm not sure that it matters that much since I've seen no sign that Social Security is paying attention to the mental effects of rheumatic disorders, regardless of the Listings.

Lawsuit On Student Loan Collection Practices

     From Market Watch:

For about a year, Hector Rodriguez lost a portion of his limited income, including in some months, a portion of his much-needed Social Security disability benefits over a student loan that was eligible for forgiveness.

Rodriguez, an army veteran, took out student loans in the 1970s to attend college, but he ultimately had to drop out due to frequent hospitalizations and later defaulted on the debt, according to a lawsuit he filed against multiple government agencies earlier this month. In 1973, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He began receiving Social Security disability benefits shortly thereafter and has received them continuously ever since.

Rodriguez’s disability was so severe that he qualified to have his student loans wiped away through what’s known as a total and permanent disability discharge (TPD). And yet, in 2013, he received a notice from the government indicating that the feds planned to garnish a portion of his disability benefits to pay off his student loan, according to his lawsuit. The notice never indicated that a disability discharge might be a possibility and when he spoke to the government-hired debt collector responsible for his loan he or she never provided that information even though he informed them that he was disabled, he claims.

Shortly thereafter, the government began taking $177 out of his $1,184 disability check. ...

But the Department of Education is working to make it easier for borrowers who qualify for a disability discharge to receive it. Earlier this year, the agency cross-referenced its records with those of the Social Security administration and identified nearly 400,000 borrowers who qualified for a discharge — about 100,000 of which were at risk of losing their tax refunds or Social Security benefits over the debt — and sent them a letter inviting them to apply for one. The agency also began suspending disability benefit offsets in cases where it’s clear the borrower has a medical condition that won't improve, according to the recent GAO report....

NADE Newsletter

     The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization of the personnel who make initial and reconsideration determinations on Social Security disability claims, has issued a Special Edition of its newsletter.

Happy New Year

Social Security Employee Pleads Guilty

     From the Times of San Diego:

A Social Security Administration employee who accepted payments and had the authority to waive money owed to the government by overpaid beneficiaries pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing money orders and depositing them into his own checking account.

Josue Edgardo Castro, of San Ysidro, faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced April 3 in U.S. District Court in San Diego.

Castro admitted that on at least 21 occasions, he accepted money orders meant for the Social Security Administration, smuggled them out of the office, and deposited them in his personal bank account.

In addition, Castro admitted that on at least nine separate occasions, he waived outstanding balances that were due to Social Security from overpaid beneficiaries in order to conceal that he had stolen their attempted repayments.
In all, Castro admitted stealing more than $5,700 in money orders and costing the Social Security Administration more than $9,000 due to the overpayment waivers he entered to hide his crimes. ...

Man Arrested For Bringing Pistol Into Social Security Office

     A man was arrested yesterday after bringing a pistol into the Social Security field office in Mobile, AL.

Are ALJs Unconstitutional?

     A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has held in Bandimere v. SEC that Administrative Law Judges are unconstitutional because they are not appointed by the President. The Social Security Administration employs most federal ALJs. This decision may receive en banc review, that is by the entire 10th Circuit instead of just a three judge panel. If en banc review is denied or if there is the same result after en banc review, the case is certainly headed to Supreme Court review.