Supreme Court Decision In Smith v. Berryhill

     From the syllabus of Smith v. Berryhill, a unanimous Supreme Court decision issued this morning: 

An Appeals Council dismissal on timeliness grounds after a claimant has had an ALJ hearing on the merits qualifies as a “final decision . . . made after a hearing” for purposes of allowing judicial review under §405(g).

The Changing Face Of Social Security's Backlog Problem

     I recently noticed that my firm's database shows that we have more cases awaiting either an initial or reconsideration determination than we have awaiting action by the Office of Hearings Operations. I don't think I've seen this since the 1980s.

    For good reason, we've had a lot of attention to Social Security's hearing backlog but that one is coming down rapidly. I haven't seen the national figures but even though the number of claims filed is down the state agency backlog seems to be growing.  It's certainly not shrinking. I've personally got a couple of cases stuck at the initial level since last July but I'm now getting cases scheduled for a hearing within six months after the request for hearing. Maybe one reason the hearing backlog is going down so rapidly is the increasing backlogs at the initial and reconsideration levels.

Memorial Day 2019

Why Let The Facts Stand In The Way Of The Story You Want To Present?

     From National Public Radio:

During and after the Great Recession, people turned to disability rolls in large numbers to make ends meet. This accelerated what had been going on for a generation, as the federal government's disability insurance program saw steady growth.

But now, for the first time in decades, the disability rolls are shrinking. More people with disabilities are returning to work and holding on to their jobs. With unemployment at a nearly 50-year low, companies are struggling to find workers. And that means people who had trouble finding a job in the past are suddenly in demand. That includes people with disabilities. ...

It's still unusual for people to leave the disability program and return to work. Less than 1% of recipients do so each year. But the numbers have been growing as the job market has improved. In 2017 more than 51,000 people traded disability checks for paychecks, up from about 32,000 four years earlier. ...

At the same time, aging baby boomers are moving from disability into retirement, and the government has made it harder to qualify for disability benefits. ...

When jobs evaporated during the Great Recession, many people turned to disability as a kind of de facto unemployment insurance. By 2013, nearly 1 out of every 4 workers in parts of Alabama was collecting a disability check. ...

Click on image to view full size

     NPR presents it as a fact that Americans are leaving Social Security disability benefits to go to work but then presents evidence that, in fact, very few people are leaving Social Security disability to go to work. There's been an increase but it has had only a trivial effect. They then present it as an established fact that during the Great Recession people turned to disability benefits as "de facto unemployment insurance" with no proof. Their own graphic demonstrates there's been almost no change in the labor force participation rate by disabled people over the years which completely undermines the story they're presenting. It's like they gathered the evidence about what happened and then decided to ignore it in favor of the simplistic story they wanted to present.

     I mean, just look at their chart! How do you look at that and then say that disabled people are streaming back to work?

At Least He Had A Good Reason

     From the Sacramento Bee:

A 97-year-old Arizona woman was last seen in December 2018 — and now local authorities have figured out where she went.

Daniel Shannon, 66, buried his mother Leonie Shannon in the backyard of a San Tan Valley home after the woman died on Dec. 21 rather than reporting his mother’s death, according to a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office news release. That meant that he could keep collecting his mother’s VA and Social Security benefits even though she had died, deputies said.

Shannon was arrested Wednesday on charges of fraud and concealment of a body, though he could face further charges in the ongoing investigation, deputies said.

“Shannon told detectives that he needed to keep getting the benefits to help pay for the patent on his invention,” authorities said.

Asked what the patent was for, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Navideh Forghani wrote “here is the invention” in an email to McClatchy and shared a link to a 2008 news article with the title “Man invents self-closing toilet.”

That article in the Loveland, Colorado, Herald-Reporter said that Shannon “created a self-closing, self-contained toilet seat, the Smart Lid, which is powered by kinetic energy from lifting the lid, requires no electricity and can be installed like any standard toilet seat.” ...

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article230757574.html#storylin

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article230757574.html#storylink=cp

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article230757574.html#storylink=cpy

On This Day In History

Benjamin Cardozo, author of Helvering v. Davis

     On this day in 1937 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act.

Black Nomination Advances

     The Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously yesterday to report out favorably the nomination of David Black to become the Deputy Commissioner of Social Security. I have no idea what the schedule will be for consideration by the entire Senate of this nomination or that of Andrew Saul to become Commissioner of Social Security. That's up to the Senate Majority Leader.

Black Nomination Advances

     The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a meeting today to consider reporting out the nomination of David Black to become Deputy Commissioner of Social Security.