ALJ Sues Over LGBT Diversity Training

     From the Washington Post:

Citing his First Amendment rights and religious protections under the Civil Rights Act, a Social Security Administration judge in Texas who refused to watch an LGBT diversity training video is suing his superiors to avoid being fired, saying he was subject to a “religiously hostile work environment.”

Judge Gary Suttles said in a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Texas that the Social Security Administration, or SSA, should be barred from taking any disciplinary action against him at least until his religious discrimination claims are heard by a federal employment panel. ...

Though his complaint describes a “sterling work record,” Suttles was criticized and investigated by the SSA in 2015 after he scoffed at a Gulf War veteran’s post-traumatic stress disorder during a disability benefits hearing. Suttles questioned whether the veteran, a 44-year-old who served as a fueler on an aircraft carrier, had experienced true trauma during the war. ...

     Suttles has a 15% reversal rate, meaning he turns down 85% of the claimants whose cases he hears. That's an extraordinarily low number. By any standard, Suttles is an extreme outlier.

Hiring Freeze Update

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 10:14 AM
Subject: Update on the Presidential Executive Order Freezing Federal Hiring
Importance: High

A Message To All SSA Employees

Subject: Update on the Presidential Executive Order Freezing Federal Hiring

On January 25, I informed you of the President’s memorandum freezing Federal hiring. During this time, we will use certain, limited flexibilities provided to us by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that include career ladder promotions or reassignments and details to fill positions that ensure the continuation of essential services and benefit payments.  We will also continue to ensure that our public safety and national security responsibilities are met. 

Keep in mind, this pause is temporary while OPM develops broader plans for the Federal workforce over the next few months.  I will continue to do my part to keep you informed and I sincerely appreciate your dedication to our work and the public we serve.   

Nancy A. Berryhill

Acting Commissioner

A Dire Warning

     From a writeup about a recent press conference about the future of Social Security:

Witold Skwierczynski, of the American Federation of Government Employees, came to the press conference with a dire warning:  Expect customer SSA service to retirees to get worst in the coming years.  Staffing in field offices has been cut by 2,900 (10 percent) since 2010 while work increased 12 percent, he noted, expecting the agency’s workload to go up 32 percent through 2025 due to the retiring baby boomer generation.  

 Skwierczynski expects Trump’s recent Continuing Resolution to freeze the hiring of federal employees to further increase waiting times at SSA field offices and for 800 number callers.

“President Trump is a hotel man.  If he ran his hotels like SSA he would have another bankruptcy.  None of his customers would tolerate a 3 to 4 hour wait for room service.  However, SSA customers wait hours, days, weeks, months and years for SSA to process their business.  That's not acceptable,” says Skwierczynski.

How Do You Beat This Efficiency?

Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities

Income Inequality Takes Toll On Trust Funds

     Rachel West and Rebecca Vallas of the Center for American Progress write about the serious effects of income inequality on the Social Security trust funds. Because of the $127,200 cap on wages covered by the FICA tax, rising income inequality a greater and greater portion of income is escaping FICA. It's not like those with incomes over $127,200 a year are struggling. That's the group receiving the vast majority of income gains. If, instead of a flat cap, the FICA cap had been set since 1983 so that 90% of wages are covered, the Social Security trust funds would be $1.3 trillion higher now.

Senate Votes To Allow Mentally Ill Claimants With Rep Payees To Buy Guns

     The Senate has now joined the House of Representatives in voting to block regulations adopted during the Obama Administration that would have prevented some individuals with representative payees drawing disability benefits from Social Security from buying firearms. 

     Great work by all those in the Obama Administration who slow walked these regulations. The GOP couldn't have blocked these regs without your help. Oh, I know, you rushed it from Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) to Final Regulation. I'm talking about all the time this was being ever so slowly considered before the NPRM was published.

Report On DQ Reviews -- And I'm Not Talking About Dairy Queen!

     For some years, the Division of Quality (DQ) of Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) has reviewed a small number of Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decisions granting disability benefits prior to effectuation of benefits. Some decisions are overturned as a result of these reviews. A recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) looks into these DQ reviews. Here's the bottom line of the OIG report:

Overall, about 5 percent of the total PER [Pre-Effectuation Review]  cases processed in FY [Fiscal Year] 2011 led to a denial or dismissal. Given the rate of denials and dismissals, we estimated the potential net program savings ranged from $23 to $25 million for that year. Overall, the Agency saved $4 to $5 on average per $1 spent on the PER process in FY 2011.

     There's one big problem with these DQ reviews -- there's zero proof that DQ possesses the gold standard for determining who is and who isn't disabled. You could save money by randomly overturning ALJ decisions that approve disability claims with no less validity.  No one has a gold standard for determining disability.
     By the way, take a look at this table from the report (click on it to view full size):

 

      Notice the decline in dispositions at the same time as the agency's backlogs were increasing. Note also the much more dramatic decline in the number of favorable decisions. The 2010 election brought GOP control to Congress. The laws weren't changed but the climate at the agency changed dramatically. Backlogs were no longer a big concern. Denying as many cases as possible became a good thing. Anything like DQ that would cause more claims to be denied received favorable attention.

     In any case, I'm going to keep repeating, DQ isn't the repository of the gold standard for determining disability. There is no gold standard. DQ is a waste of money unless your goal is denying more claims.

Full Retirement Age Increasing

     From U.S. News and World Report:

Most baby boomers can receive the full amount of Social Security they have earned at age 66. However, retirees who will turn 62 in 2017 need to wait an extra two months to collect their full Social Security payments. Starting this year the retirement age begins a gradual increase toward age 67. Here's how the older retirement age will impact how much you receive from Social Security.

A longer wait to claim full payments. The Social Security full retirement age is 66 for people born between 1943 and 1954. For those born during the five years after that, the full retirement age will gradually increase in two-month increments from 66 and 2 months for people born in 1955 to 66 and 10 months for those born in 1959. The full retirement age is 67 for everyone born in 1960 or later. ...