Alleged SSI Fraud Found During A Terrorism Investigation

     From the Buffalo News:

When FBI agents searched Ari Elias Baum's Facebook page, they were looking for evidence of a terrorist in training.

They already knew about Baum's posting of a photo depicting a couple dressed in military garb and holding weapons, with the caption, "Husband and wife fighting for Islam. The most beautiful photos I have ever seen."

The FBI also knew about the Buffalo man's travels to Yemen and Facebook friendship with a man whose inflammatory posts had come to the attention of terrorism investigators.

Baum was never charged with any terrorism crime but he will stand trial later this month for Social Security fraud, and the government would like to resurrect the terrorism claims as part of its prosecution.

That was until a federal judge said no. ...

He ordered prosecutors to stay away from any mention of the terrorism investigation but allowed them to get into Baum's travels overseas, as well as make general references to his religion. ...

Baum is charged with Social Security fraud and making false statements, and the evidence against him was uncovered as part of the FBI's terrorism investigation. The evidence includes an alleged Facebook conversation between Baum and his stepfather while Baum was traveling overseas.

"How is your money holding out?" asks his stepfather, Dr. R. Bruce Baum.

"Life is cheaper here but I will lose the SSI eventually if I stay here because they will find out that I am out of the country," Baum replied. ...

The FBI's investigation into Baum became public shortly after his arrest on fraud charges three years ago. The four-count indictment against him claims he stole $4,277 in Social Security disability benefits over a four-month period in 2013. ...

     To explain, while benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act, that is, benefits based upon FICA contributions, are payable to those who are traveling or living outside the U.S. (with one rare exception), Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are not supposed to be paid in a month in which an individual is outside the United States (except in one extremely rare circumstance). These rules are not well understood by SSI recipients. I don't think a prosecution would be common for something like this because there would be no proof that the SSI recipient was intentionally breaking the law. In this case, maybe there is proof of what lawyers call scienter.

What Does This Mean?

     From the testimony of Bea Disman, Acting Chief of Staff, Social Security Administration, to the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee:

... To ensure our decisions remain accurate, we are developing a new Occupational Information System (OIS) that will be the primary source of occupational information used in our disability adjudication process. We are working closely with the DOL’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and will have our first complete set of occupational data in 2019 after BLS completes its third year of data collection. We plan to implement the OIS in 2020 with the introduction of a Vocational Information Tool that adjudicators will use to decide claims. Working with us, BLS will immediately begin a new data collection cycle that will allow us to update the OIS at regular five-year intervals. 

Parallel to our efforts to develop the OIS, we are working on updating our Medical-Vocational Guidelines, which were issued in 1978. At step five of our sequential evaluation process, we evaluate an individual’s ability to adjust to other work that exists in the national economy. The Medical-Vocational Guidelines are a crosswalk used by adjudicators when considering an individual’s RFC in relation to age, education, work experience, and work that exists in the national economy. We are currently considering potential evidence-based approaches to updating these guidelines to ensure we remain current with changes in medical and vocational practice, technology, and the workforce. We are closely coordinating any potential changes to how we consider vocational efforts with our development of the OIS....

     Here are some questions I'd like asked of Ms. Disman:

• There have been endless, unexplained delays in developing the OIS. Why? 
• Is Social Security allowing BLS to collect the data and see what it shows or is Social Security pressuring BLS to massage the data so that it meets pre-determined goals set by Social Security? 
• What would an "evidence-based" approach to updating the Medical-Vocational guidelines look like?

Actually, This Shows SSA Is Doing Good Work

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

Each month, the VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] furnishes SSA [Social Security Administration] with automated death records. Before SSA terminates benefit payments or records death information on the Numident [a major SSA database], SSA employees must independently verify the VA death information. In April 2016, we obtained data from VA identifying approximately 17 million deceased individuals. We matched the VA data against SSA’s payment records to identify potentially deceased beneficiaries in current payment status. ...

SSA issued payments to 3,925 beneficiaries who had dates of death in VA’s records. Our audit results indicated that at least 11 percent of these beneficiaries were alive, and death information in VA’s records was erroneous. However, our audit results also indicated that at least 19 percent of these beneficiaries were deceased , and death information in VA’s records was accurate....

      You can see Social Security's problem. They're receiving a lot of bad information from VA. Mistakenly declaring someone dead when they're not is a very bad thing. Not only are their Social Security benefits ceased, their bank accounts and credit cards are frozen and they can no longer receive medical care. Social Security has to independently confirm that the person has died. That can take a little time and mistakes will be made. In the end, even though Social Security received 17 million death reports from VA, OIG could only identify 19 cases where individuals had died but benefit payments were continuing. Nineteen out of 17 million is actually a pretty good record. That's an error rate of 0.00011% if my math is correct. Of course, the right wing Washington Times accuses Social Security of incompetence.

Cynical Move

     There's a Congressional hearing tomorrow on the enormous backlog of Social Security disability claims awaiting adjudication. This afternoon, Social Security adds three extremely rare conditions to its "compassionate allowance" list. The "compassionate allowance" list is and always has been meaningless. It's just a list of rare conditions for which a disability claim would be approved anyway. The list has always been a way of pretending to do something about the backlogs while actually doing nothing of consequence. The compassionate allowance list is just a fig leaf for Social Security and Congress to hide behind. If you work at Social Security and you think otherwise, you either don't understand the situation or you're fooling yourself.

Judge Posner Retires

     Judge Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has announced a sudden retirement.  Posner  wrote several major Social Security opinions. He was widely hailed for his fine writing.

Most Retirees With Dementia Lack A Representative Payee

     Three researchers associated with the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College have taken a look at representative payees and retirees with dementia. Representative payees help those who can no longer manage their money. Usually, representative payees are family members or friends.

     It turns out that while over 10% of retirees have dementia, only 1.5% have a representative payee. The report notes that many of those without a representative payee receive help anyway. For those with mild cognitive impairment 85% have some help and 95% of those with dementia receive help. As a personal aside, I'm familiar with how this happens. I've ended up handling the financial affairs of two relatives with dementia who have since passed away. In neither case was I appointed representative payee.

Study On Disability Claims By Homeless Individuals

     From NC State News:

A recent study of homeless adults finds that women are at a significant disadvantage compared to men when it comes to accessing disability benefits. The study also finds that medical records are key to accessing disability benefits, which poses a problem for many homeless adults.

... This study focused on SSI and SSDI applications completed with the assistance of the SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) program, which was created by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. SOAR is designed to facilitate access to those disability benefits and primarily assists homeless and low-income adults. ...“

Prior reports found that homeless adults had only a 10-15 percent success rate when applying for disability programs without assistance. Since SOAR was implemented in 2005 and 2006, that success rate has risen to 65 percent.” ...

[W]omen were 30 percent less likely than men to have their applications approved. And applicants who were already on public assistance were 20 percent less likely to get approved.

“The most important of the critical components was the inclusion of medical records with an application,” Lowder says. “Applications with medical records were twice as likely to be approved compared to other applications.

On the other end of the spectrum, applicants who were required to get a consultative exam were two times more likely to be denied – and it took an average of 43 additional days for their applications to be processed. ...

An Old Overpayment

     From WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, MI:

More than a decade after the Social Security Administration overpaid a Hesperia couple, they’re being told they owe the federal government nearly $22,000.

Janet and Edward Marshall said they were floored when they got a letter last week telling them to repay the money within 30 days. They have no idea how they’re going to come up with the cash.

“I’m almost died. My husband almost died. Couldn’t believe it,” Janet Marshall told 24 Hour News 8 Thursday. “I mean, after 15 years you send a letter? And what part of disability don’t they understand?”

In each check sent to the Marshalls between 2002 and 2005, Social Security overpaid them by roughly $600.

“(In) 2004, he was receiving $1,038 and he should’ve only got $463.60,” Marshall said, reading the letter from Social Security.

In all, they got an extra $21,970. ...

     I post from time to time about how unfair it is that there is no statute of limitations on the collection of Social Security overpayments by setoff. This sort of case is why I think the lack of a statute of limitations is wrong.