Acting Commissioner's Message On Harvey

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2017 10:22 AM
Subject: Our Thoughts Are With Texas

A Message to All SSA and DDS Employees

Subject: Our Thoughts Are With Texas

As we experienced over the last few days the absolute devastation of Hurricane Harvey, we are pleased to report that all SSA and DDS employees in Texas and Louisiana are safe and accounted for, though many sustained property damage and have evacuated from their homes.

Please keep those affected by the flooding in your thoughts and prayers as this storm continues.  We will provide additional information as it emerges.

Nancy A. Berryhill
Acting Commissioner

Proposed Changes To Musculoskeletal Listing

     The Social Security Administration has asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House, to approve proposed changes to its listings on musculoskeletal disorders. If OMB approves the proposal, it will be published in the Federal Register and the public will be allowed to comment on the proposal. Social Security must then consider the comments before sending proposed final regulations back to OMB for final approval. 

     This is the first regulatory proposal from Social Security since Donald Trump became President.

Declining Labor Force Participation Not Caused By Social Security Disability Benefits

     From Kathy Ruffing at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities:

Labor-force participation — the share of adults 16 and older who are working or looking for work — peaked at just over 67 percent in 1996-2000 and has fallen since then. Some analysts observe that the number of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries grew steeply after 2000, and assume the two trends are related. But evidence for that connection is weak. ...

Rising SSDI receipt and falling labor-force participation aren’t affecting the same age groups. SSDI receipt has grown modestly among older people, especially older women (see graph) — but so has their labor-force participation, as older workers postpone retirement. The drop in labor-market activity is concentrated at younger ages, particularly men, where SSDI receipt has not risen.

      I'd call that chart a definitive answer to the question.

Daugherty Sentenced To Four Years

     From the Washington Post:

A former administrative law judge has been sentenced to four years in prison for taking bribes from a Kentucky lawyer in a $600 million Social Security fraud case. 

Eighty-one-year-old David B. Daugherty of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, pleaded guilty in May to taking more than $600,000 in bribes in cases involving clients of Eric C. Conn, who is now a fugitive and was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison. ... 

SSA Office Space Declining

     From a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has reduced its physical footprint and expanded delivery of services remotely, including online. SSA reduced the total square footage of its facilities by about 1.4 million square feet (or about 5 percent) from fiscal years 2012 to 2016, according to GAO's analysis, by applying new standards for determining the size of offices and consolidating facilities. ... SSA has also expanded the services it offers remotely, and online use has increased for certain services such as disability and retirement applications. Despite this increase, in-person contacts at field offices have not changed substantially, with about the same number in fiscal year 2016 as in fiscal year 2007 (approximately 43 million). This may be due to growing demand for services as well as certain services not yet being fully available online. ...

SSA is taking steps to make remote services easier to use, for example by adding new features to its website and offering alternate approaches for accessing services, but does not consistently evaluate them, which could limit its ability to shift more services online and further reconfigure its footprint. For example, SSA has added features allowing online customers to interact directly with SSA staff. However, SSA does not track staff follow-ups to deal with any errors in online benefit applications in order to improve them, as called for by federal internal control standards. To enhance access to remote services, SSA has introduced alternate service approaches such as videoconferencing in third-party sites; however, it does not have performance goals for these approaches. GAO has previously identified performance goals as a best practice, which may help agencies improve their customer service. ...

No Survivor Benefits For Children Conceived 11 Years After Death Of Wage Earner

      From MacNeil v. Berryhill (CA2) decided on August 24, 2017:

... Sharon MacNeil (“MacNeil”) brought suit ... challenging a decision by the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration that her children—twins conceived via in vitro fertilization eleven years after her husband died—were ineligible for survivors’ insurance benefits. The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Sharpe, J.) affirmed the agency’s decision, concluding that under the applicable provisions of New York’s Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (“EPTL”) the children were not entitled to inherit under New York state intestacy law, and so were not children of the deceased wage earner within the meaning of the relevant Social Security Act provisions. We agree and accordingly AFFIRM the district court’s judgment. ...

I Wish I Could Help

     The conclusion of a lengthy message sent to me today by a stranger using the contact form on this blog:

... I'm sending this to you because you are the commissioner I'm hoping that you will get back with me my records are so messed up and I've been overcharged and I do not believe this is so security's way of doing business and I don't think you'll agree with that either ...

     I get these sorts of messages fairly often. I wish these folks well but I don't respond because I'm not who they think I am.

Huge Information Technology Conracts

     From Fed Scoop:

The Social Security Administration tapped three companies to handle its information technology services Aug. 21, awarding the trio a combined $7.8 billion contract.

The agency — which projects it will have to process benefits for an additional 70 million Baby Boomers over the next decade — selected Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and CGI Federal Inc. to handle its IT operations. ...

The indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract may last up to 10 years —it has four two-year options to extend — and will cover software and web lifecycle opportunities, database administration, software engineering and management support, and systems administration and security support.

Northrop Grumman took the lion’s share of the contract’s value, netting a $3 billion award in potential task orders, followed by CGI Federal’s $2.4 billion and Lockheed Martin’s $2.3 billion, if all options are exercised.