Still True

OIG Report

     Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has filed its Semiannual Report to Congress. Here's a map from the report showing all of the OIG Cooperative Disability Investigation offices:

Click on image to view full size

     OIG obtained 372 criminal convictions or civil actions in the first half of the fiscal year and many of those did not concern disability benefits.

     By the way, why is it that these are disability investigation offices? Why don't they do investigations of other types of Social Security wrongdoing?

Finding Humor In The Death Master File

     Former Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue gave an interview to This American Life on, of all things, Social Security's Death Master File. The interviewer found the concept of a Death Master File droll.

Forum On Social Security Disability

     The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has scheduled what they call "a conversation with some of the nation’s top disability experts and policymakers" for June 6 in Washington. Two of the speakers have focused their attention on ways to encourage disabled people to return to work. One speaker is a Democratic staffer for the House Ways and Means Committee and another is a career staffer at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Two Senators may speak.

More On SCOTUS Opinion In Smith v. Berryhill

     SCOTUSblog has posted an analysis of yesterday's Supreme Court opinion in Smith v. Berryhill. As usual, it's excellent.

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