Hearing On IG Nomination

     The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a hearing for 2:00 on Thursday, September 13 on the nomination of Gail S. Ennis to become Social Security’s Inspector General. She was nominated almost 11 months ago.

SSI Income Deeming Problems

     From a recent study by Social Security’s Office of Inspector General:

From a sample of 100 recipients we reviewed who had manually deemed income, SSA [Social Security Administration] did not correctly compute SSI [Supplemental Security Income] payments for 46. This occurred because SSA did not correctly develop all income information when the deemors reported it or it became available from other sources if the deemors did not report it timely, did not consider the correct family members in the household, or made various other errors. Further, SSA’s policy did not require that a second employee review manually deemed computations. 

SSA improperly paid the 46 recipients $136,569. Specifically, SSA overpaid 12 recipients $33,375, underpaid 9 recipients $7,734, and both over- and underpaid 25 recipients $95,460. Accordingly, we project SSA improperly paid approximately $105 million in SSI payments to 35,200 SSI recipients with manually deemed income.

Won’t Be Seeing Eric Again Anytime Soon

     Eric Conn has been sentenced to 15 years for his pathetic attempt to escape justice by fleeing to Latin America. This is on top of the 12 year sentence he received for the underlying crime.

Senators Object To Reinstating Recon

     Ten Senators have written the Acting Commissioner of Social Security to urge that she not reinstate the reconsideration step in the disability appeals process. If they’re successful, I hope they’ll also urge that recon be ended in those states where it remains in effect. I think it’s time for the process to be the same in  all states using.

OIG Study Of CDR Recons

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) did a recent study of delays in processing requests for reconsideration for disability claimants who are being threatened with benefit termination due to medical improvement. Generally, the claimants receive continuing benefits as their appeals continue through the hearing level so delays cost the agency money. 

     The thing about this is that almost all the causes of delay discussed in this report also apply to those applying for benefits and have the same underlying cause, lack of sufficient personnel to get the work done in a timely manner. The OIG report discusses these delays as if they have been caused by bungling, when for the most part, the fault lies Congress and the White House, which have failed to give the Social Security Administration adequate administrative funding.

     I hope that OIG isn't implying that Social Security should prioritize cutting people off benefits over processing new claims for disability benefits but that does seem to be the attitude of Congressional Republicans.

I Keep Making The Same Boring Point: An Inadequate Operating Budget Wastes Money

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

... SSA [Social Security Administration] conducts redeterminations, which are reviews of SSI [Supplemental Security Income] recipients’ non-medical factors of eligibility, such as income, resources, and living arrangements. The redetermination process is a way of detecting any unreported changes in circumstance that would affect a recipient’s SSI eligibility. Redeterminations are scheduled annually if a change in circumstance is likely or once every 6 years if a change in circumstance is unlikely. We identified 53,744 SSI recipients (from 1 of 20 segments) who had not had a redetermination completed in longer than 10 years. We analyzed a random sample of 275 cases. ...

We estimated about 1.1 million SSI recipients — about 1 in 8 recipients — had not had a redetermination completed in longer than 10 years because SSA only did a limited number of redeterminations each year based on its budget. As a result, we estimate d about 77,060 SSI recipients might be overpaid approximately $381.5 million because SSA had not completed a redetermination in longer than 10 years. ...

     I keep making the same point again and again: Failing to adequately fund SSA costs money. An adequate administrative budget would at least pay for itself by reducing overpayments. Instead, Republicans pursue a wasteful "starve the beast" strategy. It’s ideology over common sense.

OHO Caseload Analysis Report

     From the newsletter of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR), which is not available online to non-members:

Click on image to view full size

     Note the continuing decline in receipts and backlogs. I can't see the national picture but I know locally that one reason for this is that cases are piling up at  the initial and reconsideration levels. You can't ask for a hearing until you've been denied at initial and reconsideration. Increased backlogs at that level, at least where I am, has led to decreased backlogs at the hearing level. 

     Note also the large amount of overtime used as well as how highly variable overtime usage is from month to month. I'd say that such heavy usage of overtime in a program that deals with only very minor seasonal fluctuations in workload is bad management. I think that if they were honest that Social Security managers would agree but would blame it on the uncertain budget situation they face. 

     By the way, I think it's time to change the caption on this report from "ODAR Workload and Performance Summary" to "OHO Workload and Performance Summary". It's been quite some time now since they changed the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) to the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO).

Kavanaugh Would Hold That Social Security Commissioner Is Unconstitutional

     Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has no history of rulings directly in Social Security cases as best I can tell. There just aren't that many Social Security cases arising in the D.C. Circuit where he has been a judge. However, he has opined on an issue that could directly affect the Social Security Administration. He believes that it is unconstitutional to have an independent agency with a solitary head, such as the Social Security Administration. He's a fan of the "unitary executive" theory who believes that we're all safer if the President has largely unlimited power over the Executive Branch. Since the President can't simply fire a confirmed Commissioner of Social Security, the agency, as presently constituted, would be unconstitutional in Kavanaugh's view. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, expect litigation over the constitutionality of the Social Security Commissioner, assuming a Commissioner is also confirmed.