Disability Claims Filed And Approved Continue To Decline

 

     Social Security has posted updated statistics showing the number of disability claims filed and approved through the end of September. Here are the numbers of claims received at Disability Determination Services (DDS) by quarter this year:

• Q1 -- 325,683
• Q2 --  306,518
• Q3 -- 296,974

 And here are the numbers of awards at all levels:

• Q1 -- 196,386
• Q2 -- 163,629
• Q3 -- 149,909

     There is a very important footnote to these stats telling us that:

Because the application data are tabulated on a weekly basis, some months include 5 weeks of data while others include only 4 weeks. This weekly method of tabulation accounts for much of the month-to-month variation in the monthly application data. This method also occasionally causes quarterly data to have either 12 or 14 weeks of data instead of 13 weeks, annual data may include an extra week of data.

      Despite the footnote, it seems clear that there has been a big decline in the number of disability claims filed and approved over the course of 2020. If you were of the opinion that the number of disability claims is strongly related to the unemployment rate, you've been proven spectacularly wrong, at least for this year. And don't try to say the decline in disability claims filed is due to the special Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Those ended on July 31. If that was what was holding down the number of disability claims we should have seen a dramatic increase in claims filed after it ended but, instead, they kept going down.

     I think that the number of claims filed is down due in large part to the increased difficulty that people have filing claims. I don't know what else it could be. Some people need more help than others.

EM On Representation Of Claimants

      For whatever reason, Social Security has seen the need to issue an Emergency Message reminding its staff that claimants often have representation and that there are statutes, regulations and policies concerning the agency's dealing with those representatives. Perhaps some may have thought that due to the pandemic the basic rules could be ignored. 

     By the way, for those who don't know, Social Security "Emergency Messages" don't normally address emergencies. Of course, by this point we don't know what most of the "Emergency Messages" do address. So far this year, the agency has released at least 49 Emergency Messages to its staff but has released only 4 of those to the public. Government in the sunshine? Not so much at Social Security.

Attorney User Fee Goes To $98 Beginning In December

      Social Security earlier announced the 1.3% COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) for benefits for 2021. Tomorrow the agency will publish a more complete notice about all of the COLA adjustments in the Federal Register tomorrow. Perhaps the item on that list that will attract the most attention, at least from one group, is the increase in the maximum user fee charged to attorneys and others who represent claimants before the agency. That amount goes up to $98 beginning in December. The user fee is deducted from the fees that the attorneys receive. 

     Of course, no adjustment was made in the maximum fee that attorneys may charge their clients under the fee agreement process. My understanding of Social Security's position on that is that they will consider raising that amount once it is reliably reported to them that representation has disappeared. We may be in a situation comparable to that which once existed for representation of veterans. In 1864 Congress passed a $10 cap on attorney fees for attorney representation in veterans benefits matters. That may have been reasonable at the time. However, no adjustment was made in that cap for 120 years! That cap protected veterans so well that attorney representation in veterans benefits cases disappeared apart from pro bono representation. I imagine that there are those at Social Security who would be happy to see the same thing happen at Social Security.

But Will They Have Enough People To Answer The Phones?

     From a press release:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has chosen Verizon to provide Unified Communication (UC) and Contact Center (CC) services to more than 62,000 SSA employees at 1,300 locations through The Next Generation Telephony Project (NGTP). This project focuses on converging three existing systems to provide an enterprise-wide CC and UC solution upgrade for the SSA.

Verizon will provide a customized UC/Customer Experience platform that will help the SSA transform customer service as part of its long-term IT modernization plans. The project includes complete operational support services including management, maintenance, training, help desk, network operations center, security, recording and analytics. It also enables the SSA to analyze operations more effectively, improve customer experience and better serve the public across channels, whether in-person, video, phone or online. ...

Verizon will also play an instrumental role in replacing SSA’s national 800 number teleservice platform, which supports over 10,000 agents and field office employees who respond to citizen inquiries regarding their SSA benefits.

Personnel News

      From Federal News Network:

Rajive Mathur, the Social Security Administration’s deputy commissioner and chief information officer, is leaving after more than two years in the role.

Federal News Network has confirmed Mathur’s last day as CIO [Chief Information Officer] will be Oct. 26. SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul said in an email to staff, which Federal News Network obtained, that until his departure at the end of the year, Mathur will work in the commissioner’s office as a senior advisor.

Saul also said Sean Brune, currently the assistant deputy commissioner and deputy CIO, will be the deputy commissioner and CIO starting on Oct. 26 when Mathur moves to the commissioner’s office. ...

Saul also announced two other personnel changes at SSA.

In the Office of Analytics, Review and Oversight, the improper payments function moves from the Office of the Deputy Commissioner to the Office of Anti-Fraud Programs — which is now renamed the Office of Program Integrity.

In the Office of Operations, Travis Dodson, currently the center director for Disability and Programs Support in the Dallas Region, will begin an assignment as the acting deputy regional commissioner, Dallas.

SSAB Recommendations On Disability Claims Improvement

      In 2018 the House Social Security Subcommittee requested that the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) examine Social Security's reinstatement of the reconsideration stage of appeal in disability claims and to recommend improvements at the initial and reconsideration stages. SSAB is only now getting back to the Subcommittee with a full report.

     SSAB assembled five panels to discuss possible improvements. What the panels recommended mostly seems vague to me. For instance, one recommendation is "Simplify SSI eligibility for children." That's certainly a worthy goal but if you know any history of SSI child disability, you know that if you want "simplification" you'd better say exactly what you have in mind -- and then duck because whatever you have in mind will be extremely controversial. Recommendations that are more specific, such as "Simplify the SSI program by eliminating the living arrangement eligibility requirement, windfall offset, dedicated accounts, and in-kind support and maintenance" can only happen if there are major changes in the political environment. We'll see about that after November 3.

Social Security And The Wealth Gap

      From  No, the New Deal Wasn't Racist by Samuel Hammond:

... Without counting Social Security, the median-earning white Baby Boomer has 7.3 dollars in wealth for every dollar held by their Black counterpart. Account for Social Security, and that ratio falls to 2.2 — a spectacular two-thirds reduction in the effective racial wealth gap. ...

I Think They Have A Point

      From a press release:

U.S. Reps. French Hill (R-AR) and Steve Womack (R-AR) joined their home-state Republican colleagues in seeking changes to a federal policy requiring Arkansans to turn over primary identification documents, such as a driver’s license, to obtain a new copy of their Social Security card.

“We write to request that you alter Social Security Administration (SSA) policy that forces our constituents to choose between violating the laws of the State of Arkansas or forgo driving themselves to important destinations, such as to work or to the doctor,” wrote Rep. Hill, Rep. Womack, and U.S. Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Bruce Westerman (R-AR) in an Oct. 8 letter sent to SSA Commissioner Andrew Saul.

According to the members’ letter, the SSA is remote-only in Arkansas due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and requires that a driver’s license be presented to apply for a replacement Social Security card. Specifically, Arkansas SSA officials are requiring individuals to mail in their driver’s licenses for processing. ...