Winning The Case But Losing Her Home

     From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Mary Ann Statler, an accountant from Acworth, had battled depression and anxiety for years, but in the summer of 2015 her condition worsened dramatically. ...

“I made a pretty good salary,” said the single parent of three children. “Just as much as I tried to push myself, I couldn’t do it.”

Following her doctor’s advice, Statler applied in August 2015 for disability benefits from Social Security. 

Social Security denied her claim — twice — but gave her the option to schedule an appeal hearing before an administrative law judge. Since then, she has been caught in a backlog of disputed disability claims totalling more than 1 million cases nationwide. And that backlog is only getting worse. ...

In Georgia alone, Statler is one of 28,000 people waiting an average of nearly three years to be heard. During that delay, those waiting often get worse or even die before a decision is made on their benefits, experts say. ...

In the end, the judge gave full approval for her disability claim, but it will be late next month before she sees a penny of her benefits. That’s too late to save her house, which was sold in a bank foreclosure. She has to be out shortly after the new year, she said. ...

If part of the solution is more personnel, I wouldn’t hold my breath. President Trump instituted a hiring moratorium upon taking office this year. Social Security received special permission to do some restocking, but it’s barely kept up with the pace of attrition. ...

Remember

Donald Trump's SSN Is Out There

     From ABC News:

A Louisiana private investigator pleaded guilty on Monday to misusing Donald Trump's Social Security number in repeated attempts to access the president's federal tax information before his election last year.

Jordan Hamlett, 32, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine following his guilty plea in federal court.

Authorities have said Hamlett failed in his attempts to get Trump's tax information through a U.S. Department of Education financial aid website. ...

Merry Christmas

Problem Solved!

     From Mother Jones:

... I have some good news to share. I was browsing through the 2017 Social Security Trustees report, and it turns out that Social Security will be solvent through the rest of the century. Here’s their chart of how things look based on different estimates of economic growth:

As we all know, the official OMB/Treasury estimate of future economic growth is 2.9 percent, which means the trust fund will be flush with cash far into the future. This means everyone can stand down and leave Social Security alone. In fact, it’s doing so well that Congress might want to think about raising benefits. Hooray!

Look, Squirrel!

     In an editorial, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram falls for Sam Johnson's absurd attempt to blame Social Security's hearing backlog on the lack of a confirmed Commissioner for Social Security. Yes, they make some vague mention of "resources and staff" but the thrust of the piece is that the cause of the backlog is that there's no confirmed Commissioner. That's nonsense. The backlog is 100% caused by the failure of Johnson and his Republican colleagues in Congress to appropriate enough money for the agency. No Commissioner could do anything with this impossible budget situation. Blaming the backlog on the lack of a confirmed Commissioner is such an obvious misdirection by Johnson. He must be chuckling at how easily he fooled them.

Waiting In Tampa

     The Tampa Bay Times reports on the effects of Social Security's hearing backlog. Tampa has one of the highest backlogs in the country.

Happy Holidays