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Attacks On Chief Actuary Continue

Stephen Goss

     Senator Grassley, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is continuing his attacks on Stephen Goss, Social Security's Chief Actuary. Goss had the temerity to do his job and give truthful answers to hypothetical questions about a possible policy alternative. The President had proposed doing away with the F.I.C.A. tax that supports the Social Security trust funds and had proposed no replacement. Goss was asked what would be the result. Of course, he answered that the trust funds would quickly run out of money. What is Goss supposed to do -- refuse to answer the question because it would make Trump look bad? Goss's answer isn't the problem. The problem is what the President said.

     If Trump loses, I fear that there will be major acts of retribution before Inauguration Day. I hope that Goss is not at risk.

Biden Social Security Plan

      I had earlier posted Joe Biden’s plan for Social Security disability benefits. Here’s his plan for Social Security retirement benefits:

• Put Social Security on a path to long-run solvency. ... The Biden Plan will put the program on a path to long-term solvency by asking Americans with especially high wages to pay the same taxes on those earnings that middle-class families pay. ...
• Provide a higher benefit for the oldest Americans. At advanced ages, Americans become more vulnerable to exhausting their savings, sometimes falling into poverty and living a life of hardship. The Biden Plan will provide the oldest beneficiaries – those who have been receiving retirement benefits for at least 20 years – with a higher monthly check to help protect retirees from the pain of dwindling retirement savings. 
• Implement a true minimum benefit for lifelong workers. ... Under the Biden Plan, workers who spent 30 years working will get a benefit of at least 125% of the poverty level. 
• Protect widows and widowers from steep cuts in benefits. ... The Biden Plan will allow surviving spouse to keep a higher share of the benefits. This will make an appreciable difference in the finances of older Americans, especially women (who live longer on average than men), raising the monthly payment by about 20% for affected beneficiaries. 
• Eliminate penalties for teachers and other public-sector workers. Current rules penalize teachers and other public sector workers who either switch jobs or who have earned retirement benefits from various sources. The Biden Plan would eliminate these penalties by ensuring that teachers not eligible for Social Security will begin receiving benefits sooner – rather than the current ten-year period for many teachers. The Biden Plan will also get rid of the benefit cuts for workers and surviving beneficiaries who happen to be covered by both Social Security and another pension. These workers deserve the benefits they earned. 
•      I don’t think that Donald Trump has any coherent plan for Social Security other than to end the F.I.C.A. tax.
  

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NADE Newsletter

     The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), a voluntary organization of personnel involved in making initial and reconsideration determinations on Social Security disability claims, has released its most recent newsletter. One thing I noticed is that it says that the Disability Case Processing System (DCPS), a set of software programs, is now "official" even though it has not yet been rolled out at every Disability Determination Service. DCPS has been controversial. I hope   they've got the bugs out of the system.

Guilty Plea In White Powder Case

      From a press release:

Jason Pantone, age 34, of Hyde Park, New York, pled guilty today to conveying false information and hoax letters in connection with envelopes containing white powder he mailed to federal offices throughout Upstate and Central New York, and the Southern Tier. ...

As part of his guilty plea, Pantone admitted that beginning on February 21, 2019 and until his arrest on February 27, 2019, he mailed envelopes containing white power to Social Security Administration offices in Binghamton, Plattsburgh and Utica, New York.  He also mailed white powder letters addressed to the United States District Court in Syracuse, Binghamton, Albany, Plattsburgh, and Utica.  Each of the envelopes contained a typed note, which read “ANTHRAX.”  Some of the letters included a smiley face with X’s in place of the eyes.  All samples of the white powder were tested and yielded negative results for anthrax or other hazardous material. ...

Appellate Decision On Application Of Windfall Offset To Canadian Social Security Benefits

      From the Indiana Lawyer:

A split 7th Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a grant of summary judgment to the Social Security Administration on Monday in a class-action suit brought by a Canadian woman with dual citizenship who alleged her U.S. Social Security benefits were wrongly reduced based on similar benefits she receives from Canada.

Lorraine Beeler, a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, has established nearly 20-year careers in both countries and receives monthly retirement benefits from the Canada Pension Plan, that country’s equivalent to U.S. Social Security. She also worked at jobs on which she paid Social Security taxes in the United States.

Beeler’s earnings in Canada were not subject to Social Security taxes, and her earnings in the United States were not subject to Canada Pension Plan taxes. But Beeler ran into a problem after she alleges her Social Security benefits were wrongly withheld. She then sued the Social Security Administration in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in the class action case of Lorraine Beeler v. Andrew M. Saul, 19-2099. 

There, Beeler asserted that the reduction of her U.S. benefits is a violation of two Social Security provisions: The Windfall Elimination Provision and the U.S.-Canada totalization agreement. The class claims that both the statutory language of the WEP and the terms of the agreement prohibit the reduction of Beeler’s benefits. ...

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals split in affirming the district court’s decision, with the majority concluding the agency correctly ruled that plaintiffs’ Canadian employment was noncovered under the Social Security Act, and thus the provision applied to reduce their Social Security benefits. ...

But Circuit Judge Amy St. Eve dissented from the majority’s opinion, finding that its analysis “rests on an unsupported premise to exclude Beeler’s work from the definition of employment. ...

     I'm a little surprised that we're just now getting litigation on this issue. I suppose the reason there hasn't been litigation is that most of the time the U.S. Social Security Administration cannot apply the offset because it has no knowledge that a claimant is receiving foreign social security benefits.

     By the way, I think it would have been better if this case had not been brought as a class action. When there were more class actions against Social Security than there are now, the practice was to win an individual case and THEN bring the class action in another case with a different named plaintiff so that Social Security could raise nothing other than procedural defenses. Don't put all your eggs in one basket until you have to.

Guilty Plea In $500,000 Telephone Scams

      From a press release:

Husband and wife Mehulkumar Manubhai Patel and Chaitali Dave have pleaded guilty to laundering over $500,000 on behalf of India-based phone scammers.  ...

According to [the U.S. attorney], the charges, and other information presented in court: Criminal India-based call centers defraud U.S. residents, including the elderly, by misleading victims over the telephone utilizing scams such as Social Security and tech support scams.

As part of their Social Security scam, India-based callers pose as federal agents in order to mislead victims into believing their Social Security numbers were involved in crimes.  Callers threatened arrest and the loss of the victims’ assets if the victims did not send money.  The callers directed victims to mail cash to aliases used by other members of the fraud network, including Patel and Dave. ...