It's Nearly Certain That He'll Win But He Still Has To Wait And Wait

     From the Riverdale Press:

Ted Grohowski spent five days during a recent week in the hospital suffering from tender, infected ulcers on his feet — his sixth overall visit for the issue. The blisters are so painful, they often make him unable to stand up or walk. 

But for the 64-year-old, it is only one ailment on a laundry list of illness and injury. 

Some 14 years ago, Grohowski had a knee replacement that is now starting to fall apart. Last August, his left kidney was removed because of a cancerous tumor. 

He has a rotary cuff tear in his right shoulder that sometimes makes him unable to lift his head.

So, when Grohowski walked into the Yonkers Social Security office in April to file for disability, he thought it was a no-brainer. Two months later, however, the office sent him a letter rejecting aid, stating he “did not meet our standards.” ...

For most of his adult life, Grohowski sold jewelry in midtown Manhattan. While he enjoyed the work, the days were filled with long hours standing on his feet. After a while, it proved to be too agonizing, and he stopped working altogether more than a year ago.

He plans on appealing the Social Security Administration’s decision, which means he’ll have to go to court and state his case. But according to the disability adjudication and review office, Grohowski could wait as long as two years before he can appear before a judge. ...

One of the reasons there is such a backlog of cases ... is because of the federal government’s continual budget cuts to the Social Security program. President Donald Trump already has proposed another $64 million cut to the disability agency’s $813 billion budget. ...

     Yes, I know, he can get his early retirement benefits while he's waiting but most claimants can't.
     Don't ask how I know he's nearly certain to win. I represent claimants. I have to predict chances of success. It's easy to predict that he'll win. In better times he would be approved shortly after requesting a hearing. If the system were more sensibly and humanely administered, he would never have been denied.

NPR On Eric Conn

     National Public Radio reports on Eric Conn's strange story.

Trustees Report

     From a Social Security press release:

The Social Security Board of Trustees today released its annual report on the long-term financial status of the Social Security Trust Funds. The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds are projected to become depleted in 2034, the same as projected last year, with 77 percent of benefits payable at that time. The DI Trust Fund will become depleted in 2028, extended from last year’s estimate of 2023, with 93 percent of benefits still payable.

In the 2017 Annual Report to Congress, the Trustees announced:

• The asset reserves of the combined OASDI Trust Funds increased by $35 billion in 2016 to a total of $2.85 trillion.
• The combined trust fund reserves are still growing and will continue to do so through 2021. Beginning in 2022, the total annual cost of the program is projected to exceed income.
• The year when the combined trust fund reserves are projected to become depleted, if Congress does not act before then, is 2034 – the same as projected last year. At that time, there will be sufficient income coming in to pay 77 percent of scheduled benefits.

Just A Note To Social Security: We Haven't Forgotten

     Here's something I posted on October 26, 2015:

The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), an organization of personnel involved in making disability determinations for Social Security, has released its most recent newsletter, focusing on NADE's recent conference in Portland.

NADE members attending the conference heard a presentation on Social Security's effort to create a new occupational information system to replace the outdated Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) used in disability determinations. There are a couple of items of interest from the write-up. The number of occupations listed will go down from the DOT's 12,000 to 1,000, which means that each job title will be even more of a composite. Composite jobs are broader and can only be described in more amorphous ways. Training on the new occupational information system is supposed to begin sometime in 2016.

     Here's a little something from the newsletter of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (not available online) concerning the organization's conference in Washington in June 2017 where Bea Disman, Acting Chief of Staff of the Acting Commissioner of Social Security, spoke:

Disman also discussed SSA’s work with the Bureau of Labor Statistics to update the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. She indicated that they have ended the first year of a multi-year effort by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to complete an Occupational Requirements Survey SSA can use in a replacement for the DOT.

     Wait, what? In October 2015, the DOT replacement was so nearly done that it could be described, so nearly done that training was scheduled to begin shortly. However, in June 2017, the DOT replacement project had just begun with completion many years into the future. Anybody at Social Security want to explain that one?
     My assumption is that the data collected earlier didn't show what the agency wanted it to show. The unskilled sedentary jobs have disappeared and the unskilled light jobs are dramatically fewer. That's inconvenient for Social Security since that should result in many more disability claims being approved but Congressional Republicans don't want that. The result is that Social Security sits on the updated data and tries to find some way to twist the results into something that will please Congressional Republicans. I don't think I'm alone in this assumption. In fact, does anyone who understands this issue think otherwise?
     Democrats can do little about this now but if they control the House of Representatives after the 2018 election, the agency should expect pointed questions on this subject. Sitting on this for several years won't look good.

Caseload Analysis Report

     This was published in the newsletter of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) (which is not available online).

Click on this to view full size

     Notice the decline in receipts of new requests for hearings. Note that 46% of cases have been pending over a year. Of course, this includes cases where the request for hearing was filed recently. The average processing time is 613 days. That includes a fair number of cases that are quickly dismissed because the request for hearing was filed too late or too early. Take those cases out and the numbers would look even worse.

Who Gets Drug-Tested?

     I saw this contracting notice that Social Security posted:

The Social Security Administration (SSA), as a result of its customer service responsibilities and the sensitive nature of its work, has an obligation to provide a Drug-Free Workplace. Through the agency's Drug-Free Workplace Plan, we offer a comprehensive Drug Testing Program for employees. SSA tests a minimum of 25 percent of each testing designated position on a quarterly basis. SSA has elected to post a Request for Information (RFI) to obtain feedback regarding drug testing services, fees, and other pertinent information regarding services currently available within the Drug Testing industry.

     I didn't realize that any Social Security employees were drug-tested. Who gets tested?

Groundhog Day Coming On Bastille Day!

     From a press release:

House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (R-TX) announced today that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled “Social Security’s Solvency Challenge: Status of the Social Security Trust Funds.” The hearing will focus on the status of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Federal Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds and the effects of delaying action to address Social Security’s future insolvency. The hearing will take place on Friday, July 14, 2017 in 2020 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 9:00 AM.

     I say groundhog day because Republicans on the Social Security Subcommittee schedule one of these hearings every year. It's their annual opportunity to warn that Social Security is running out of money. Their solution for the threat of future benefit cuts is to start cutting benefits right now. Any other solution, such as removing the cap on wages covered by the F.I.C.A. tax, is unacceptable since we can't burden the wealthy, excuse me, "job creators."

Big Backlogs In Florida

     From "ClickOrlando" which is apparently what some television station chooses to call its website:

According to the Florida Disability Benefits Center, 65 percent of the [Social Security disability] applications they receive are initially denied. And in the state of Florida, it can take anywhere from one to two years to get a disability hearing, and even longer to get a decision. ...

According to the FDBC website, it can take anywhere from 376 to 682 days to obtain a disability hearing. It will take an additional 45 to 90 days to receive a decision on the disability claim. ...

In the Orlando, office, which serves the Kissimmee, Lake Mary, Leesburg, Ocala and Orlando field offices, the average processing time is 502 days. In the Fort Lauderdale ODAR office, it takes an average of 376 days to schedule a disability hearing before an administrative law judge. In the Fort Myers office, the wait is 11 months. In the St. Petersburg office, it's 13 months. And the Tampa office is 682 days. ...

So we took our research one step further and searched the Social Security Administration data on average wait times until a hearing is held. According to their records, for the month of May 2017, here's how the averages break down. The shortest wait time is 14 months in Fort Myers. While the longest wait time is 23 months or 699 days for the Miami office. ...