Festival of Acronyms: CCD Worried About TTW

     The Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has expressed concern over language in the pending appropriations bill for Social Security concerning the Ticket To Work (TTW) program. The bill would require a report on TTW effectiveness.

     I think there is good reason to question TTW's effectiveness. However, I'm also aware that some Republicans want a more coercive approach to return to work, as in something like time limited disability benefits. That would cause enormous distress for large numbers of very sick people and it wouldn't save money but it wouldn't be all bad. It would create plenty of business for me. There would be lots and lots of people cast off benefits only to get right back on benefits after an appeal or two.

User Fee Remains At 6.3%; Cap Goes Up To $93

     The "user fee" that attorneys have to pay on fees withheld and paid by the Social Security Administration remains at 6.3% for 2018. The "user fee" might more properly be called an excise tax. The cap on this excise tax will be $93 per case in 2018. Basically, because the cost of living goes up each year, net attorney fees have to go down. If that doesn't sound right, it's because you're understanding the situation. Of course, the cap on the total fee an attorney can receive per case in the vast majority of cases remains unchanged at $6,000. Attorneys who represent Social Security claimants lose each year due to inflation.

     If you think we're just a bunch of overpaid whiners, think about this. The Social Security Administration employs thousands of attorneys. Virtually none of them leave their government jobs to enter private practice representing Social Security claimants. It's probably less than 10 per year; maybe way less. I'm talking about a fraction of 1% of the total number of attorneys working for the agency. If private practice were so lucrative, wouldn't you think that there would be a regular flow out into private practice? There are plenty of challenges and satisfactions in being an attorney working for the federal government but wouldn't you think that a significant number of those attorneys would crave the challenges and satisfactions of hanging out a shingle and representing individual clients? Isn't that why most attorneys went to law school in the first place?

Britain Tries A "Presenting Officer" At Disability Hearings

     All developed countries have disability benefits as part of their social security schemes. There are major differences between the plans making cross-national comparisons difficult. However, the British system does afford claimants a hearing on adverse decisions on their disability claims which gives it at least some similarity to the U.S. Apparently, these hearings have been non-adversarial until recently. The British equivalent of the U.S. Social Security Administration has recently started sending "Presenting Officers" to the hearings apparently because they're unhappy that the claimants win a lot of the time. The link I've given is to a message board for those who represent claimants at these hearings. You'll note that they don't seem too concerned about this development. By the way, the salary given for the "Presenting Officers" is £25,631, which is the equivalent of U.S. $34,191.75.

     Also by the way, I keep reminding people that the U.S. Social Security Administration tried adversarial hearings. The trial was a complete failure from any point of view. Specifically, the rate at which claimants were approved remained unchanged. By the way, I can only link to the interim report on the government representative experiment. It was such an abject failure they never did a final report.

NY Daily News On The "Hellscape" Facing Disability Claimants

     The New York Daily News reports on the "hellscape" facing Social Security disability claimants. I don't think blaming it on the lack of a confirmed Commissioner is going to take the GOP very far. If nothing else, it's a signal to any candidate for the job that there're going to be the designated fall guy for the backlogs. Try finding a little more money for the agency, for goodness sake. It's not like anyone thinks you really care about deficits.

Christmas Is Over

Feds Going After Conn's Money

     The Feds are trying to recover Eric Conn's assets. So far, all they've gotten or even seem to know about aren't impressive. If you think Conn made tens of millions of dollars, you're wrong. Even with fraud, I don't see a way to make it that profitable a way to make a living. Conn's efforts at concealment seem to have been equally unimpressive. Bitcoin? Please, even I know that doesn't work.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas