This Year's COLA May Hit Ten Year High

     From the Motley Fool:

... While nothing is set in stone, given that we don't even have data from the three months that actually count (July-September), as an early glimpse I'd suggest that there's a good chance [Social Security's Cost Of Living Adjustment or COLA] could be the biggest raise since 2012, with a slim possibility of it being the largest raise in a decade. ... 

According to the May inflation data release from the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics], which primarily tracks the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), the CPI-W has increased exactly 3% on a trailing-12-month basis. ...

The CPI-U inflation data, which is similar to the CPI-W, shows that energy has been the primary driver of higher prices. On an unadjusted 12-month basis, aggregate energy prices have risen by 11.7% as of May 2018, with gasoline and fuel oil costs up by 21.8% and 25.3%, respectively. Shelter and transportation services also saw increases of 3.5% and 3.8%, respectively. Meanwhile, new and used vehicles are the only line items to have observed year-on-year deflation over the past 12 months. 

With the summer driving season kicking into full swing, and prices at the pump soaring in the wake of four-year highs for crude oil prices, energy commodities have a really good shot (at least right now) of carrying Social Security's 2019 COLA above the 3% mark. Keep in mind that hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which disrupted production and refining capacity throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern U.S. last year, played a critical role in lifting COLA by 2% for 2018. If this hurricane season is anything like last year's, any extended disruption in the domestic refining industry could give Social Security's COLA an outside chance of eclipsing 3.6%, as it did in 2012, ultimately pushing it to a 10-year high. ...

OMB Asked To Approve Final Regs On Attorney Advisor Program

     The Social Security Administration has asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve final regulations to make the attorney advisor program permanent.

Is It Any Different In The U.S.?

     From The Local Europe Italy AB:

Italy needs more migrants in order to pay for the population's pensions, the country's social security chief said Wednesday, drawing the ire of anti-immigration interior minister Matteo Salvini. 

If we halved migratory flows "in five years we would lose population equivalent to that of Turin", Boeri said referring to the country's important northern industrial hub.

If immigration were reduced to zero we would lose "700,000 people under 34 years of age in the space of one parliamentary mandate", he told the lower house of parliament.

Italy is suffering a demographic decline with one of the lowest birthrates in Europe. Boeri said he was concerned that "no one seems to care" about this decline in Italy and recommended maintaining a flow of legal migration, which alone, he said, could ensure the balance of Italy's pension fund. ...

Social Security Administration Fairness Act

     Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced the "Social Security Administration Fairness Act." Here are the chief provisions of Sanders' proposed Act:

• Automatic appropriation to the Social Security Administration of an amount equal to 1.5 percent of expected annual benefits and payments administered by SSA to pay for all administrative costs incurred by SSA in fiscal years 2019 and thereafter. 
• Eliminate the 5-month waiting period for Social Security disabled worker benefits and disabled surviving spouse benefits.
• Eliminate the 24-month waiting period for Medicare coverage for individuals who have become entitled for Social Security disability benefits. 
• Create a temporary moratorium on the consolidation of SSA field offices and hearings offices.

      Sanders asked the Office of the Chief Actuary at Social Security to determine what effects the proposed Act would have on the Social Security Trust Funds if enacted. The actuaries found that the proposal would not change the exhaustion date of the combined Trust Funds. That date would stay at 2034.

     This can't get passed until there's a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. That's unlikely to be the case next year but it's not out of the question. Whenever Democrats get the majority on both Houses of Congress, I predict there will be Social Security legislation. Sanders' proposal could easily be part of it. It's not that costly.
     While we're talking about Senator Sanders, he was able to get new staffers for Social Security field offices in Vermont.

Happy Independence Day!

For Real Experts Only

     What's a "smartmand case"? I'm seeing that term show up on an SSA-831 that was issued more than six months after a request for hearing. If it helps, the claimant has died. I don't even see any determination indicated on the SSA-831 but the claimant's survivors say they have been told by the field office that the claim has been approved.

Offended By Washington Post Editorial

     From Dean Baker writing for the Center for Economic and Policy Research:

The paper owned by the man who got incredibly rich by avoiding state and local sales taxes is upset because workers are getting Social Security disability payments that average less than $1,300 a month. Since the U.S. has one of the least generous disability programs of any wealthy country, this might seem like a strange concern. Here's the picture from the OECD.

Click on image to view full size

Of course the Post is also a paper that gets hysterical over the prospect that truck drivers will get pay increases. In short, these are folks who practice crude class war. They are okay with some crumbs for the poor, but anything that is good for ordinary workers means giving up money that could be in the pockets of the Bezoses of the world.

Schumer Asks For Better Staffing At Social Security

     From the Syracuse Post-Standard:

The nearly two-year wait for a Social Security appeal hearing in Syracuse could get even longer if the federal agency does not beef up its staff soon, Sen. Charles D. Schumer, D-NY, warned today.

Congress included an addition $440 million in the federal budget approved in March to help Social Security address chronic delays that have plagued the agency for years.

Schumer said the agency's Syracuse field office should get some of that money first because its hearing office has 9,028 pending cases, the biggest backlog in the state. He discussed the issue at a news conference at the Cicero Senior Center. ...

     Unfortunately, as I'm sure Senator Schumer knows, that $440 million isn't enough to do much good. It's going to take budget increases well over a billion dollars a year to noticeably improve service at Social Security.