I Don't Know About This Study

     From the Washington Center for Equitable Growth:

The paper, by economists Manasi Deshpande of the University of Chicago and Yue Li of the University at Albany, State University of New York, looks at how the closure of Social Security field offices affects how many people apply for disability programs and the changes in the kinds of people who apply for the program. Using administrative data from the Social Security Administration, the authors can see what happened to SSDI applications and the number of SSDI recipients in ZIP codes closest to the closed offices. ...

What actually happened when the closest Social Security field offices closed and the cost [meaning inconvenience] of applying increased? The number of applications dropped quite a bit, 11 percent after a few quarters, and stayed at that lower level. At the same time, the number of recipients of disability insurance in ZIP codes near the closed field offices dropped 13 percent and also remained low. The fact that the number of recipients dropped more than the number of applicants—the difference is statistically significant—means that the people not applying were more likely to have been accepted if they had applied. Deshpande and Li also find that the field office closings discouraged people with lower education levels and low earnings levels from applying. ...

     I don't know about this study. Most disability claims are filed over the telephone which reduces the importance of proximity to a field office. If the "cost" -- basically hassle factor -- of applying goes up and it has generally, I expect those most likely to have been deterred from filing claims are those who suffering from depression. It's a struggle to do anything when you're depressed. I think these authors should have talked with some people involved in the process. Economics explains a lot of things but not everything.

"I've Never Had Such A Hard Time Giving Back Money"

     From KUTV:

Sue Brandon got a huge surprise when she checked her bank account one day. She had received a Social Security deposit of $13,098.

The massive amount is a far cry from the $4 per month increase that the Social Security Administration had told her she would be getting after her husband passed away.

“I called them and said, ‘Hey, something's wrong because there's no way you can owe me this $13,000,’” she said. ...

Brandon said she called the Social Security office over and over again but was repeatedly old they couldn’t get to the bottom of it.

The Brandon said one of the SSA employees snapped at her: “I don't know what to tell you anymore. Call your congressman.” ...

"I've never had such a hard time giving back money,” she said. ...

      I think I've posted before about the problem I and other attorneys sometimes have when an attorney fee is overpaid. We issue a check refunding the money to Social Security but the agency immediately issues another check in the same amount. I recently talked with another attorney who was refunding the same fee overpayment for the fourth time!

Eric Conn "Better Surrender Before Monday"

     From the Lexington Herald-Dispatch:

... Scott White, Conn's attorney, repeated his call for Conn to surrender to authorities, and said the FBI was "ramping up" efforts to capture him. 

"That could well mean that he is about to be charged with a separate crime," White said in an email Friday. "And if that happens, my ability to restrict the consequences to a bond violation is seriously jeopardized. In that case, the number of years he is facing in prison will dramatically increase. In other words, it sounds like he better surrender before Monday." ...

Washington Post's Reporting Draws Criticism

     The Washington Post's reporting on Social Security disability continues to draw criticism from many quarters for being "mean spirited" and "cartoonish." I think the Post just keeps listening to right wing "think tanks" who are only too happy to caricature poor sick people. It's easy to write articles like the Post has published if you are so far removed from the people you are writing about that you can only think about them as stereotypes.

A New Obsession

New Evidence In Conn Case?

     From some television station in Kentucky that hides its call letters on its website:

After a raid at the law offices of Eric C. Conn turned up new evidence for federal investigators, the FBI will hold a press conference on the embattled attorney's disappearance. ...

The FBI will hold the press conference at their Louisville offices at 10 a.m.

    Update: Apparently, there wasn't much news coming out of that news conference.

Where's The Budget?

     From CQ News (sorry, I don't have a link):

The White House did not include a required Social Security Administration request in President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget —and lawmakers are waiting to find out why.

The Senate Finance Committee wrote a bipartisan letter to White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on June 1 asking for the administration to release what is called the Social Security commissioner’s “unrevised” administrative budget.

Under a 1994 law (PL 103-296) that made the Social Security Administration an independent agency, the president is required to include the commissioner’s administrative request in the full budget....

“We have not yet received an official response, but understand OMB is working on it,” a GOP aide to the Finance Committee told CQ. ...

The Finance Committee letter says the requirement for the president to make the Social Security budget request public is a “key feature of the Act that made Social Security independent.” ...

In the case of Social Security, the president’s budget is supposed to include both the Social Security’s Administration’s request to the president, and what the president is requesting from Congress....

Another Conviction In Conn Scandal

     From the Floyd County Times:

A federal jury in Lexington Tuesday convicted a clinical psychologist for his role in a Social Security disability fraud scheme that included a former Social Security Administration (SSA) administrative law judge and that involved the submission of thousands of falsified medical documents to the SSA, obligating the SSA to pay more than $600 million in lifetime benefits to claimants predicated on these fraudulent submissions. ...

After a one-week trial in federal court in Lexington, the jury convicted Alfred Bradley Adkins, 45, of Shelbiana, of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of making false statements. ...