Social Security News

May 10, 2017

Trump Budget To Call For Social Security Disability Cuts

Roll Call is reporting that the White House budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2018, which begins on October 1, 2017, will call for cuts in Social Security disability benefits. The cuts are not specified in the article.

But sources said the budget will include proposals to reduce the cost of the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which is not means-tested. - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/trump-wants-800-billion-10-year-cut-entitlement-programs#sthash.YV839krT.dpuf

White House officials are crafting a fiscal 2018 budget proposal for President Donald Trump that aims to wipe out the deficit through a combination of robust economic growth, steep cuts in certain means-tested entitlement programs and other savings. - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/trump-wants-800-billion-10-year-cut-entitlement-programs#sthash.YV839krT.dpuf

Social Security Wants Case Processing System For ODAR Pronto

From a contracting notice posted by the Social Security Administration:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is seeking a Case Management Software System inclusive of a correspondence system; scheduling system; invoicing system and a provider repository that will move cases along the Office of Disability and Adjudication Review’s (ODAR) business process to the closure of the case. The purpose of this RFI [Request for Information] is to identify potential vendors capable of providing a solution for this Case Management Software System....

The solution must be able to do the following:

Be a commercial off the shelf (COTS) product;

Be commercially available as of May 31, 2017; ...

Responses must be received by 12:00 noon EST on May 17, 2017. ...

A response by May 17? Sounds like they already know what product they intend to buy. But how will an off the shelf product do everything they want it to do and work with Social Security's other systems?
I'm probably wrong but what they're describing sounds a lot like the case management systems used by law firms. They're not going to use one of those, are they? One of those wouldn't be this scalable, would it? That wouldn't work with the agency's other systems, would it? But what other type of off the shelf system could it be?

Back To Two Factor Authentication

In August 2016, Social Security introduced two factor authentication for claimants using its online systems. It was a fiasco. The public hated it. The agency quickly backed away.

They're not letting that set them back. They're now planning to again require two factor authentication as of June 10. Users will have the choice of receiving the second factor either by text message or e-mail message.

Will the public find this any more acceptable? Will it actually improve security?

May 9, 2017

Why Disability Benefits Are Especially Important Fro Less-Educated Workers

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has a report up on 4 Reasons Why Disability Insurance Is Especially Important to Less-Educated Workers.

Let me be less diplomatic than the folks at CBPP. Less-educated workers are frequently people with lower cognitive abilities. We do not live in Lake Woebegone. All the children are not above average. Some are born with lower cognitive abilities. The cognitive abilities of others are permanently stunted by difficult childhood circumstances. Lower cognitive abilities lead to lower educational achievements. Adult education is of only limited use for people with low cognitive abilities. They lack the ability to profit from it. People with lower cognitive ability are at a huge disadvantage when they develop medical or psychiatric problems. All they are suited to do is to work at jobs with low skill requirements and those jobs aren't in offices. Those jobs generally involve significant exertional requirements and offer limited tolerance for psychiatric issues. If all you ever had to offer an employer was a strong back and a good attitude you're in big trouble if your back loses its strength or your good attitude isn't so good.

May 8, 2017

DCPS Fight Going Into Extra Innings

Social Security is now planning to hire MITRE, a consulting company, to do a "Build Versus Buy" analysis of its plan to build a new Disability Case Processing System (DCPS) in-house rather than buying it from an external vendor. The vendor of the DCPS now in use is vigorously promoting a new system it wants to sell Social Security but to this point the agency has been convinced that it can build a better system in-house. A good new DCPS is of great importance to Social Security.

May 7, 2017

I Know! Let's Just Be Harsher!

Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) did a study on collection of overpayments through long term repayment plans. Social Security deducts amounts from current benefits to repay the debt. The amount of the deduction depends upon the claimant's income. OIG found that some claimants were so poor that their monthly repayment amount wereso low that they would die before their overpayments were recouped. OIG's response: Stop worrying about whether the claimants have enough money to live on; just recoup more each month. Social Security's response is that they agree. They want to go to collecting at least 10% of monthly benefits without regard to whether this leaves the claimant with enough money to live on. They're not sure if they can just change their regulations or whether they need new legislation.

And by the way, many, perhaps most, of these overpayments are due to mistakes made by the Social Security Administration. Few are due to fraud.

May 6, 2017

More Cross-Program Recovery Possible

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

CPR [Cross Program Recovery] is the process of collecting overpayments for one SSA-administered program by withholding the individual’s payable benefits from another SSA-administered program [recovering an SSI overpayment from regular Social Security benefits or vice versa]. ... The Agency can use CPR to withhold up to 10 percent of individuals’ OASDI [Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance] monthly payments and either 100 percent of individuals’ SSI monthly payments or an amount that is 10 percent of their income, whichever is lower. ...

The Agency did not always use mandatory CPR to recover OASDI and SSI overpayments, as authorized under SSPA. ....

The Agency could have used mandatory CPR to collect $257,914 in OASDI overpayments from the SSI payments of 49 of the 50 individuals we reviewed. Based on our sample results, we estimate the Agency could have imposed mandatory CPR to collect about $52.9 million in OASDI overpayments from the SSI payments of the remaining 11,268 individuals we identified. ...

The Agency could have used mandatory CPR to collect $248,166 in SSI overpayments from the OASDI benefits of the 50 individuals we reviewed. Based on our sample results, we estimate the Agency could have imposed mandatory CPR to collect about $33.5 million in additional SSI overpayments from the OASDI benefits of the remaining 9,364 individuals we identified.

May 5, 2017

Acting Commissioner's Message

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2017 4:34 PM
Subject: FY 2017 Budget

A Message To All SSA Employees

Subject: FY 2017 Budget

I have some good news to share about the budget. This afternoon, President Trump signed the omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2017, which provides the Federal Government with funding for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The omnibus appropriation includes an increase to our agency’s program integrity funding, which will allow us to conduct additional continuing disability reviews and redeterminations. It also sets aside funds to focus on reducing our hearings backlog.

I appreciate your patience during the latest budget negotiations. Thanks again for all you do each day to support our mission.

Nancy A. Berryhill
Acting Commissioner