Social Security stopped a man’s benefits benefits because they say he’s in prison but a TV station found him at home saying he’s never been in prison. He couldn’t get the agency to restore his benefits. Twenty-four hours after the TV station starts asking Social Security about the case, the benefits are resumed. Funny how that happens.
Oct 13, 2019
Oct 12, 2019
Support For GAO Report On Organizational Rep Payees
From the Ripon Advance:
U.S. Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) welcomed federal recommendations and urged their adoption to strengthen the U.S. Social Security Administration’s (SSA) monitoring of and reliance on organizations like non-profits or nursing homes that help beneficiaries manage their benefits.
“SSA should adopt these recommendations promptly,” said Rep. Reed and U.S. Rep. John Larson (D-CT), ranking member and chairman, respectively, of the U.S. House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, in a joint Oct. 4 statement.
The new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, Social Security Benefits: SSA Needs to Improve Oversight of Organizations that Manage Money for Vulnerable Beneficiaries, makes nine recommendations for SSA, including that the agency assess requiring background checks for organizational payees; and establish timeframes for, and conduct revisions of the accounting form required annually for most organizational payees, according to the lawmakers’ statement. ...
Oct 11, 2019
How Much Effect Will This Have At Social Security?
The President issued an executive order on Wednesday on "guidance documents" that has slipped below the radar but which will certainly have effects at federal agencies including Social Security. Here's the relevant language:
... [I]t is the policy of the executive branch, to the extent consistent with applicable law, to require that agencies treat guidance documents as non-binding both in law and in practice, except as incorporated into a contract, take public input into account when appropriate in formulating guidance documents, and make guidance documents readily available to the public. Agencies may impose legally binding requirements on the public only through regulations and on parties on a case-by-case basis through adjudications, and only after appropriate process, except as authorized by law or as incorporated into a contract. ...
“Guidance document” means an agency statement of general applicability, intended to have future effect on the behavior of regulated parties, that sets forth a policy on a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue, or an interpretation of a statute or regulation, but does not include the following:
(i) rules promulgated pursuant to notice and comment under section 553 of title 5, United States Code, or similar statutory provisions;(ii) rules exempt from rulemaking requirements under section 553(a) of title 5, United States Code;(iii) rules of agency organization, procedure, or practice;(iv) decisions of agency adjudications under section 554 of title 5, United States Code, or similar statutory provisions;(v) internal guidance directed to the issuing agency or other agencies that is not intended to have substantial future effect on the behavior of regulated parties; or(vi) internal executive branch legal advice or legal opinions addressed to executive branch officials. ...
Within 120 days of the date on which OMB issues an implementing memorandum under section 6 of this order, each agency shall review its guidance documents and, consistent with applicable law, rescind those guidance documents that it determines should no longer be in effect. ...One can argue that the vast majority of Social Security's policy issuances describe how the agency is supposed to behave, not how the public is supposed to behave. Still, I can think of areas where the agency has sought to bind the public without adopting rules through the notice and comment procedure, such as:
- Material included in the notice of final rulemaking on regulation of attorney conduct that was not in the regulations themselves;
- Material in the agency's POMS manual on trusts;
- Materials in the HALLEX manual and Emergency Messages on the ways the Conn cases will proceed;
- Materials in HALLEX and POMS on attorney fees.
Oct 10, 2019
These Stories Are Becoming Too Common
From a press release:
A former Social Security Administration (SSA) employee pleaded guilty today to a federal criminal charge for stealing more than $176,000 in Social Security benefits designated for elderly and disabled beneficiaries.
Rowena Isabel Lokeni, 36, of Garden Grove, pleaded guilty today to one count of wire fraud. Lokeni was hired as an SSA service representative in 2008 and worked in the administration’s field office in Fountain Valley. She resigned from SSA shortly after her September 6 arrest on a federal grand jury indictment in this matter.
From her work cubicle, between April 2017 and August 2019, Lokeni accessed the SSA computer databases and queried the records of 10 Social Security beneficiaries, according to her plea agreement. Once she accessed the victims’ records, Lokeni fraudulently changed each victim’s direct deposit bank account and routing numbers to instead reflect her personal bank account’s routing and account numbers, the plea agreement states. ...
United States District Judge John F. Walter has scheduled a January 6, 2020 sentencing hearing, at which time Lokeni will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. ...
1.6% COLA
It's official. Social Security's Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) will be 1.6%. It was 2.8% last year.
Overtime Hours Down But OHO Backlog Continues To Decline
This report on operations of the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO), mistakenly identified here by its old acronym, ODAR, was obtained from the Social Security Administration by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and published in its newsletter, which is not available online to non-members.
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Oct 9, 2019
$446,000 Employee Fraud Scheme
From a press release:
Martin Hernandez, 45, of Selma [CA], pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain unauthorized Social Security benefit payments, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.
According to court documents, Hernandez met Social Security benefit recipients through his employment at the Social Security Administration. Hernandez recruited certain recipients to receive fraudulent payments in addition to the benefits that they were entitled to receive. These recipients agreed to return a substantial amount of the money they received from the fraudulent payments back to Hernandez. Hernandez electronically initiated the payments from his workstation at the Social Security Administration offices where he worked. After Hernandez caused the beneficiaries to receive the fraudulent overpayments, he would instruct them to meet him in person to give him cash. During the course of the scheme, Hernandez caused the Social Security Administration to make unauthorized payments of over $446,000. ...
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