Disability Claims Projected To Soar

 

From Social Security's Budget Projections

Budget Projections

       Some excerpts from Social Security's budget projections (bolded) with my comments:

     "The Budget would increase staffing for frontline operations including State DDSs by over 6 percent." -- You say that as if frontline staffing is your real priority but if the agency gets what's proposed, its funding goes up by almost 10% but staffing only increases by 6%.

      "Over $2.7 billion for current staff, additional hiring, and other expenses for the State DDSs to make our disability determinations. This amount includes funding for 1,300 additional employees we are hiring in FY2021, an increase of about 10 percent." -- OK, so DDS staffing goes up 10%, which corresponds with the 10% increase in the budget. However, "frontline staffing" which includes DDS only goes up 6%. If I'm doing the math correctly, this means that "frontline staffing" apart from DDS goes up by a lot less than 6%. 

     "More than $2.1 billion for IT services funding to help us maintain and continue modernizing our large IT infrastructure, as well as increase our digital and automated services." -- The FY 2021 IT number was $1.9 billion so the projection is for an 11% increase which is a bit above the approximately 10% overall budgetary increase. However, contrast this with the 6% increase in frontline staffing and you get an idea of management priorities.

     Overtime:

• FY 2020 (actual) 1801 FTEs 
• FY 2021 (projected) 1,155 FTEs 
• FY 2022 (projected) 1,800 FTEs

 -- They expect to get a nearly 10% increase in funding but overtime will be slightly less in FY 2022 than in FY 2020. How do they expect to work off the backlogs at their field offices and payment centers? As we'll see below, the answer, at least for the payment centers, is that they don't expect to work off the backlogs.

      Disability claims receipts:

• FY 2020 (actual) 2,213
• FY 2021 (projected) 2,491
• FY 2022 (projected) 3,111

-- I don't understand the FY 2021 number. There have been far fewer disability claims filed in the current fiscal year than the last so why are they saying it's up? Anyway, they're projecting a 25% increase in disability claims in the next fiscal year. That's as good a guess as any but nobody knows. It could easily be a good deal more or less than that.

     National 800 number: Average speed of answer projected to go down from 15 minutes to 12 minutes. -- That still sucks

     Office of Hearings Operations Production per Workyear: 

• FY 2020 (actual) 93
• FY 2021 (projected) 80
• FY 2022 (projected) 103

-- I don't know what these numbers mean but if the are meaningful, they're saying that productivity at the hearing offices has taken a major hit during the pandemic but will soar in the next fiscal year. If these numbers mean anything, OHO employees should knock off the talk about how they've been just as productive working from home. Also, it would be nice if we had productivity numbers for other agency components.

     "We plan to hire ALJs by the end of FY 2022 to ensure we have adequate resources in our hearings operations." -- I think you may need them sooner but I'm glad you're planning for this. I hope you haven't forgotten that you need additional staff to go with those ALJs. Also, remember it takes time to hire and train people.

     "In FY 2022, we plan to reduce the PC backlog from 4.2 million actions to 4.14 million actions." -- That's almost no improvement in the backlog. Sounds like the payment centers aren't your priority.

     In FY 2022 the agency expects to " Begin nationwide rollout of the modern HACPS that increases the accuracy and efficiency of disability case processing for our hearings offices and Appeals Council." -- What is HACP? How does it increase accuracy and efficiency?

House Social Security Subcommittee Finally Schedules A Hearing

     From a press release:

 House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John B. Larson announced today that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Equity in Social Security: In Their Own Words,” on Tuesday, June 15, at 2:00 PM EST.

     Note that it appears that this is not an oversight hearing. It sounds like there would be no witness from the agency.

More On Budget

     From CNBC:

President Joe Biden’s 2022 budget could give the Social Security Administration a $1.3 billion — or 9.7% — boost in funding. ...

The money would allow the Social Security Administration to pursue a host of improvement efforts, Social Security Administration Commissioner Andrew Saul said in the agency’s budget overview. ...

The money could help reduce the hearings backlog, bringing the annual average processing time for a decision down to 270 days in fiscal year 2022 from 386 days in fiscal year 2020 , according to the Social Security Administration’s estimates.

It could also help increase the number of initial disability claims completed by 720,000 – to 2,757,000 in fiscal year 2022 from 2,037,000 in fiscal year 2020.

The 800 number wait times could also drop to 12 minutes in 2022 from 16 minutes in 2020. ...

More than $5 billion of the proposed $14.2 billion budget would go to payroll costs for frontline employees who work at the administration’s field offices, 800 phone number and processing centers, according to the Social Security Administration.

Additionally, more than $2.7 billion would be earmarked for disability determinations, including existing staff, new hires and other expenses at state disability determination centers. The administration plans to maintain the 10% increase in staff — or 1,300 additional employees — that it took on in the 2021 fiscal year.

More than $2.1 billion would fund the modernization of the administration’s IT infrastructure.

Another $1.7 billion would pay for the expansion of the anti-fraud disability investigations program, as well as the completion of program integrity reviews.

More than $1.1 billion is slated for payroll costs for employees in the hearings division.

 In addition, $96 million would be dedicated to additional outreach for Supplemental Security Income, or SSI benefits. The goal would be to contact vulnerable people who are eligible for benefits, such as adults and children with disabilities, and the homeless.

Coming Today

      The government's brief in U.S. v. Vaello-Madero, a case pending at the Supreme Court, is due today. The issue in Vaello-Madero is whether it's constitutional to deny Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits to U.S. citizens who reside in Puerto Rico and other territories.

     President Biden has expressed support for legislation extending SSI to territories but there is little hope that legislation will pass. His Administration has not yet taken a position in Vaello-Madero. 

     The traditional principle has been that the Solicitor General, who handles cases for the federal government at the Supreme Court, should defend the constitutionality of any statute. Even before Trump came to office there had been exceptions to this princriple. The Trump Administration completely abandoned the tradition of defending the constitutionality of legislation it opposed. Joe Biden is a very traditional President but this case provides a strong temptation to abandon tradition. 

     The Solicitor General has already obtained two extensions of time to file a brief. In support of the last request for an extension of time, the Solicitor General said that "the brief requires consultation with a number of components of the government." 

     Extending SSI to Puerto Rico would be a big deal. There have been estimates that several hundred thousand people could qualify for benefits. Handling all those claims with no phase in and no time to prepare would be an enormous logistical challenge for the Social Security Administration that would affect operations across the entire country.

     Update: The government hasn't yet filed its brief but the President has released a statement saying that although he believes that SSI should be available in territories that his Administration will follow the conventional practice and defend the constitutionality of the statute.

     Further update: The Solicitor General had finally filed a brief. Don’t expect anything original in the brief. There’s a lot of talk about the income tax not applying to Puerto Rico and stare decisis.

Social Security’s First Home

 

Originally built for Coca Cola, the Candler Building in Baltimore was Social Security’s  first home

I Can’t Quite Figure An Explanation For This One

      From WKMG:

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Social Security Administration claimed a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 was never eligible to receive disability benefits, despite being shot several times and unable to work.

Tony Marrero said the agency sent him letters claiming he had to refund the money, which amounted to $20,792. ...

Marrero said he endured several surgeries and a lot of pain after a gunman stormed the Orlando nightclub on June 12, 2016.

“I got shot four times in my lower back. The muscle was completely shattered and I had a hole in my back,” he said. “My left arm was completely shattered. I was supposed to lose this arm, but I didn’t give up, and I told the doctors to give it some time because I have movement in these two fingers.”

Marrero said his injuries prevented him from going back to work at one of the area’s theme parks.

“I could not work. I was out of work for a year-and-a-half,” he said. “I wasn’t able to walk. I wasn’t able to use this arm properly. Notw only that, I worked at a theme park, so psychologically and mentally, I wasn’t prepared to be around big crowds.” ...

Soon after he was cleared to return to work, Marrero said he started receiving letters from the Social Security Administration, which read: “Our records show you were not entitled to disability benefits.” ...

The agency claimed Marrero owed all of the money back and they also dinged his credit report, which has now prevented him from getting a mortgage. ...

News 6 contacted the Social Security Administration to ask why Marrero was retroactively denied benefits. ...

One day later, the agency contacted Marrero and said they were reopening his case. ...

One week later, Social Security contacted him again and told him they were clearing the $20,000 debt. ...

Hard To Think Of A Title For This One

      From the Bangor Daily News:

New allegations that late artist Robert Indiana sexually abused teenagers in the 1980s came to light during a Waldoboro man’s sentencing for Social Security fraud. 

Wayne Flaherty, 53, claims the unreported income he received from 2000 through 2018 outside of his Social Security checks came as “hush money” from Indiana, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Flaherty pled guilty in January and was sentenced to three years of probation with 240 hours of community service and ordered to pay the Social Security Administration $141,214 on May 20.

Flaherty’s lawyer, David Beneman, said in his sentencing memo that the more than $846,000 Flaherty received during that period was intended to keep him quiet about alleged sexual abuse that started when Flaherty was a teenager in the 1980s, the paper reported. ...