User Fee Goes Up

     The Social Security Administration has posted the official list of cost of living and other adjustments for 2020.  Of interest to attorneys and others who represent claimants is the fact that the cap on the user fee goes up to $97 next year. Of course, there will be no increase in the cap that attorneys may charge.

     I’m reminded of what happened with attorney fees for representing claimants for VA benefits. That fee was capped at $10 in 1864 and stayed at that level until 1988. Of course, it didn’t take long for all attorney representation to cease at VA. There may be some who envision such a future for Social Security.

New Occupational Information System To Be Tested Soon?

     From a summary of remarks made by John Owens, Associate Commissioner, Office of Disability Determination, Social Security Administration at a conference of the National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE):

... The replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) is nearing completion. This new version, the Occupational Information System (OIS) is a collection of occupational-related data from multiple sources, which will be accessed through an online platform called the Vocational Information Tool (VIT). Testing of the OIS/VIS systems will begin in October 2019 with a focus group using the data in the development of vocational assessments in 5,000 that will be reviewed as part of a case study. ...

     I would caution readers that Social Security has been promising for years that a new OIS is just around the corner. Later in the same issue of the NADE newsletter, there’s this from a summary of remarks made by Gail Ennis, Social Security’s Inspector General:

... Ennis reported on the upcoming Vocational Information Tool. The initial implementation was targeted for fiscal year 2020. She noted a prior report on SSA's actions in updating the Department of Labor's Dictionary of Occupational Titles. She reported that a company had been contracted to build a Vocational Information Tool that would house Occupational Information System. She stated that SSA did not accurately capture all information needed for disability determinations, including the mental demands of work, as well as the current diverse occupational fields. SSA plans to update the system in FY 2024 and at that time, this information should be included. SSA intends to update the Occupational Informational System every five years. ...

Congressman Demands Relief For Former Clients Of Eric Conn

     From WYMT:

U.S. Representative Hal Rogers demanded Thursday that the Social Security Administration immediately reinstate the benefits taken from former clients of Eric C. Conn. 

"While I am grateful that the SSA, by virtue of court order, has recently reinstated benefits to some 200 former Conn clients, many individuals remain without benefits. The uncertainty and delay surrounding reinstatement continue to add to the injustice experienced by the former clients," wrote Rogers. "I urge the SSA to immediately reinstate all benefits to all former clients, especially those whose redetermination hearing have been ruled unconstitutional." 

About 800 people went nearly three years without their benefits in the wake of Conn's disability fraud scheme, and those who are still going without are waiting for a new class-action lawsuit that was filed in late September. Earlier this month, more than 200 former clients started receiving their benefits and back pay from the SSA. ...

     Rogers is a senior Republican Congressman. Until the change in the control of the House after the 2018 election he had been Chairman of the House Appropriation Committee.  

And Now The Problem Will Be Solved In 24 Hours

     From Forbes:

Mrs. Jimmy Rogers of Houston, Texas, was disabled in 1996 in an aircraft accident while working for American Airlines. To this day she is unable to sit, stand, or walk for more than thirty minutes without extreme pain. After the accident, she applied for and received Social Security disability benefits. Four years later, she was able to work a few hours per day in her husband’s business doing some administrative tasks, always earning less than the substantial earnings amount that would disqualify her for receipt of those benefits. 

Starting in 2007 and for four of the following five years, Jimmy received [A1] shareholder distributions from her ownership of stock in her husband’s company. As Social Security Administrative Law Judge Timothy Suing recently confirmed, these payments were not labor income, but simply income from assets – no different than income Jimmy might have received had she owned government bonds.  

But in 2007, Social Security mis-instructed Jimmy, who understood very little of the distinction between asset income and labor income, to revise her tax return and report these shareholder distributions as taxable labor earnings. Jimmy did as she was ordered, but, on the advice of her husband, filed an appeal. 

Compliance with Social Security’s incorrect order triggered an unbelievable bureaucratic nightmare that is surely causing Franz Kafka to writhe in his grave.  

Over the past 13 years, Jimmy and her husband, Larry, have, thanks to Social Security’s acknowledged mistake, been deprived of tens of thousands of dollars in Social Security disability and spousal benefits. Jimmy has been forced to pay extra Social Security payroll taxes she didn’t owe. Jimmy has been forced to pay extra federal income taxes she didn’t owe. Jimmy and Larry’s company has been forced to pay extra FICA taxes they didn’t owe[LR2] . Jimmy retroactively lost her Medicare healthcare coverage and is now being told to pay for years of healthcare treatment coverage. But the icing on the cake is that Social Security has been and is still, to this day, sending Jimmy and her husband a bill for over $120,000 for disability and spousal benefits that they rightfully received (before their benefits were incorrectly terminated), but were falsely told that shouldn’t have received, even though Social Security’s own Administrative Law Judge says the benefits were properly paid (although slightly higher than what they should have been due to the downward adjustment in Jimmy’s income after the shareholder distributions were no longer included in her earnings record). ...

Our Lives Are So Much More Fragile Than We Want To Imagine

     Going from being a college professor to being on Social Security disability to being homeless. It took this man nine years.

What More Can They Do?

     Senator Collins believes that Social Security isn’t doing enough to combat the current wave of fraud involving telephone callers pretending to be Social Security employees. What, exactly, does she think they should be doing that they aren’t?

Not Keeping Up With Inflation

     Average Social Security attorney fee per case by year:

• 2010 -- $3,492.40
•  2011 -- $3,196.81
•  2012 -- $3,036.62
•  2013 -- $2,923.30
•  2014 -- $2,944.49
•  2015 -- $3,040.05
•  2016 -- $3,110.89
•  2017 -- $3,239.28
•  2018 -- $3,309.93

LOL

     All I can say about this thread on the ALJ Discussion Forum (scroll down) is LOL! Take a look at my post that they think shows I must have paid someone at Social Security. The link is to something  the agency posted. All I did was go to the trouble of looking at what the agency posts.  

     I think the only thing I ever got from the ALJ Discussion Forum that I posted here was the bizarre story several years ago about Social Security telling ALJs to not report any work done in the last week of a fiscal year because it would mess up their stats. That one led to a Congressional hearing and considerable embarrassment to the agency but who would deny they had that coming?