Military Criminal Offenses No Longer Excluded From Benefit Suspension

     From a recent change in Social Security's Program Operations Manual Series (POMS):

We are removing the NOTE in GN 02607.001.B,2, based on an Office of General Counsel (OGC) review that determined that the agency only looks to the United States Code and State penal laws for identifying and codifying a civilian’s criminal act. The plain language of the Social Security Act does not carve out an exception for military personnel or suggest that criminal offenses in the Uniform Code of Military Justice are not considered criminal offenses when applying the suspension provisions. Likewise, 20 C.F.R. § 404.468 does not include an exception for military tribunal decisions.

     I was not aware that they had been excluding those imprisoned due to military criminal offenses from having their benefits suspended.

Interview With President Of ALJ Union

     Federal News Network has posted an interview with the president of the union that represents Social Security's Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). It's obvious they're feeling beleaguered. I think they, like others, are in the mode of trying to stall the Trump Administration to prevent irreparable damage until after the election, hoping there will be a new Administration next year which will have a dramatically different outlook. They must also hope that if there is a change in the occupant of the White House next January that Andrew Saul does not try to stay on as Commissioner.

Unlock The 1696!

     I’m finding Social Security's new form 1696, the one a claimant uses to appoint an attorney to represent them, to be a pain. They’ve got it set up so you can’t edit the form. You can’t even delete the two pages of instructions.

     I imagine I'm not the only one who has the packets of forms I ask new clients to sign set up so as one document so that we enter the basic information, such as name, address, SSN, etc. once and it propagates to all the forms. That’s not hard to do with Acrobat Professional. You can’t do that with the new 1696 because it’s locked. You can’t edit the fields in any way or even see their names so you can use the same field names on other forms. It won’t even let you combine the new 1696 with any other forms into a single document. 

     If you're at Social Security can you understand how it saves labor to have the 1696, the 827, a medical release and  a fee agreement combined into one document so that if you enter basic information like the claimant's name once, it propagates to all the forms? In fact, don't you do something similar to this when you send out forms to sign?

     Unless they unlock the 1696, the only way to deal with this problem will be to print out the 1696, scan it and laboriously re-enter the fields. This seems so unnecessary. I can't imagine that having their other forms unlocked has ever caused Social Security any difficulty. Locking the 1696 is pointless.

OHO Backlogs Continue To Dwindle

     Below is Social Security's Caseload Analysis Report for its hearing function as of the end of calendar year 2019. It was obtained from Social Security by the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) and published in its newsletter, which is not available online to non-members. Click on the image to view full size.

What I'm Learning About That New 1696 -- And It's Confusing

     The form SSA-1696 is the form that those of us who represent claimants before the agency must get our clients to sign so that the agency accepts that we have the right to represent them. It's a very basic form for us. Social Security has a new version of the form but there's some serious weirdness about accessing it. Try the link that Social Security has given. If you click on that link with your desktop you get the old version of the form (unless they've already corrected the problem). Click on that link with your cell phone and you get the new version of the form. Can anyone explain that to me? I'm sure that's not what Social Security intended.

     I've used my cell phone to download a copy of the new form and I've uploaded it to a service so you can use this link to download the new form regardless of what computer you're using.

     The new form asks for the attorney or representative's ID, which is different than our Social Security Number. I don't remember ever being supplied with this ID but others tell me that they do remember receiving it. In any case, it's not been something we've used. Apparently, the ID can be found by entering ERE, the online system we use to look at the files Social Security keeps on our clients, but this is confusing. We have one "User ID" we use to sign into ERE but as best I can tell that's not the one Social Security wants. There's a second ID that can be found beside the user's name AFTER entering ERE. At least that ID has the right number of places to fit on the new 1696.

     If Social Security hasn't provided attorneys with a good link to the form or any explanation of how we're supposed to use it, I'm concerned they haven't provided their staff with any explanation either. I'm not going to start using this form until I have confidence that Social Security's staff knows what to do once they receive it.

No Help In Presiden't Budget

     The President's budget for Fiscal Year 2021, which begins on October 1, 2020,  would increase Social Security's funding from $13.30 billion in the current fiscal year to $13.71 billion in fiscal year 2021, an increase which may not be enough to even cover inflation. It's certainly not enough to improve service. It assumes that Social Security's workyears (including Disability Determination Services employees) will decline slightly from 76,142 to 75,725.
     Appropriations must be approved by Congress. The President's budget can be, at most, persuasive to some Republicans in Congress but few if any Democrats care what the President wants. The actual appropriations must be ironed out between the House and Senate and what the President wants doesn't matter that much. For that matter, this budget is far more the wish list of Mick Mulvaney, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, than of President Trump.

Policy Proposals From President's Budget

     From the portions of  the President's proposed budget concerning Social Security:

• ... Reduce improper payments caused by barriers for beneficiaries to report income and assets. The Budget proposes to reduce improper payments in disability programs by targeting administrative resources to the development of a uniform system of reporting in mySocialSecurity. This is in addition to instituting a holistic view that provides all beneficiaries’ data, including income and assets, in one electronic location, while simultaneously developing a network of automated processes across other IT platforms for work-related benefit payment adjustments, work continuing disability reviews, redeterminations, and payments to Ticket to Work providers. In addition, future related legislative changes to address the root causes of these improper payments could include requiring suspension of benefits when beneficiaries neglect to report wages and resources, and instituting mandatory training for beneficiaries on reporting requirements prior to receipt of their first benefit checks. These administrative actions would result in $11 billion in outlay savings over 10 years. ... 

• Increase the overpayment collection threshold for OASDI. The Budget would change the mini-mum monthly withholding amount for recovery of Social Security benefit overpayments to reflect the increase in the average monthly benefit since SSA established the current minimum of $10 in 1960. By changing this amount from $10 to 10 percent of the monthly benefit payable, SSA would recover over-payments more quickly and better fulfill its stew-ardship obligations to the combined Social Security Trust Funds. ... 

• Simplify administration of the SSI program. The Budget proposes changes to simplify the SSI program by incentivizing support from recipients’ family and friends, reducing SSA’s administrative burden, and streamlining requirements for applicants. SSI benefits are reduced by the amount of food and shelter, or in-kind support and maintenance, a beneficiary receives. The policy is burdensome to administer and is a leading source of SSI improper payments. The Budget proposes to replace the complex calculation of in-kind support and maintenance with a flat rate reduction for adults living with other adults to capture economies of scale. The Budget also proposes to eliminate dedicated accounts for past due benefits and to eliminate the administratively burdensome consideration whether a couple is holding themselves out as married. This proposal costs $13 million over 10 years. ... 

• Exclude SSA debts from discharge in bankruptcy. Debts due to an overpayment of Social Security benefits are generally dischargeable in bankruptcy. The Budget includes a proposal to exclude such debts from discharge in bankruptcy, except when it would result in an undue hardship. ... 

• Establish replacement Social Security card fee. The Budget proposes to collect fees on replacement Social Security cards. First-time Social Security cards including cards issued at birth would not be subject to the fee....

Final Regs On Advance Designation Of Rep Payee

     From today's Federal Register:

We [Social Security] are finalizing our proposed regulations specifying the information Social Security beneficiaries and applicants must provide to designate individuals as their possible representative payee in advance of our determination that the beneficiary needs a representative payee. These regulations additionally set forth how we will consider an individual's advance designation when we select a representative payee, and fulfill our obligation under 201 of the Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act of 2018.