Social Security Reviewing SSI Reductions Due To Covid Financial Assistance

     From a recent new posting to Social Security's Covid-19 page:

We recently changed our rules about what financial assistance can affect your eligibility for SSI or your monthly SSI payment amount. Specifically, we no longer count the financial assistance listed below against your eligibility or payment amount. We are reviewing SSI claims and other SSI records going back to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to restore SSI payments for people whose SSI was affected by receiving any of the assistance listed below. ...

• Economic Impact Payments (EIP)
• State Stimulus Payments (Some exclusions may apply.)
• Unemployment Assistance (also includes regular unemployment)
• Paycheck Protection Program (PPP): Loan Forgiveness to Employers and Self-Employed Individuals
• Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program: Loans/Grants to Employers and Self-Employed Individuals /Grants
• Coronavirus Food Assistance Program – Direct Payments to Farmers and Ranchers
• COVID-19 Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program
• COVID-19 Funeral Assistance
• Emergency Rental Assistance Fund
• Emergency Assistance for Rural Housing/Rural Rental Assistance
• Homeowner Assistance Fund
• Housing Assistance and Supportive Services Programs for Native Americans
• Tribal Payments from the Coronavirus Relief Fund and the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
• Supporting Foster Youth and Families
• Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund
• Emergency Assistance to Children and Families through the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund
• Farm Loan Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers
• USDA Assistance and Support for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, Ranchers, Forest Land Owners and Operators, and Groups ...

Visitors To Federal Offices Must Be Vaccinated Or Show A Negative Test Result -- Except That Doesn't Apply To Social Security

      From a set of questions and answers for federal agencies issued by the White House:

... Visitors to Federal buildings should be asked to provide information about vaccination status. ... Visitors who are not fully vaccinated or who decline to provide information about their vaccination status must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test from no later than the previous 3 days prior to entry to a Federal building. ...

Agencies should provide visitors with the Certification of Vaccination form when they enter a Federal building or Federally controlled indoor worksite. ...

Individuals entering a Federal building, Federally controlled indoor worksite, or Federal land to obtain a public service or benefit do not need to complete the form or show documentation of a negative COVID-19 test result. However, if they are not fully vaccinated, they must comply with all relevant CDC guidance and safety protocols, including mask-wearing and physical distancing requirements. ...

    This is nuts. First, you say that visitors to federal offices must provide information about vaccination status or show proof of a negative test result but a few paragraphs later you say that doesn't apply if the visitor is there to "obtain a public service or benefit." Is keeping Social Security employees safe not as important as keeping other federal employees safe? Are you trying to make it hard to reopen Social Security offices? Why are we appeasing the anti-vaccine nutjobs?

Where Is The Trustees Report?

      The ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Mike Crapo, is asking why we haven't yet seen the annual report of the Social Security Trustees. It's now more than four months overdue. I don't know if the report has ever been this late before. Crapo's staff has been informally asking about the report but not getting answers so Crapo is now writing a letter to the Trustees and issuing a press release. I suppose the delay is related to the pandemic in one way or another but this is getting ridiculous. Senator Crapo certainly deserves an answer.

Joondeph Named SSAB Chair

     From a press release:

President Joe Biden has named Bob Joondeph Chair of the Social Security Advisory Board. Joondeph replaces Kim Hildred, who was designated Chair by President Donald Trump in July 2017.  ...

Joondeph has a 25-year plus tenure as Executive Director of Disability Rights Oregon, a state protection and advocacy organization. Joondeph graduated from Brown University and Case Western Reserve Law School.

Social Security Reopening Plan Pending At OMB

      FCW (which used to be called Federal Computer Weekly, I think) has a piece up on labor relations at Social Security. It's mostly union griping that there hasn't been enough change since Trump and Saul left office. However, buried 20 paragraphs down is the news that Social Security submitted its reopening plan to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on July 26. Previously, we knew that Social Security had obtained an extension of time to submit a plan but we didn't know when it was due. It's apparent from the FCW piece that the unions know nothing about the reopening plan. They would have preferred to negotiate it before any plan was submitted to OMB and still hope to negotiate it after a plan is approved.

New Vulnerable Populations Liasions

      From Emergency Message EM-21035 REV:

... The Social Security Administration is working diligently to ensure that we continue to provide the same level of service to all our customers, including People Facing Barriers (PFBs, formerly referred to as Vulnerable Populations), as offices remain open by appointment only for limited, critical situations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the purpose of this EM, PFBs are limited to the aged; children with disabilities; individuals with limited English proficiency; individuals experiencing homelessness; individuals diagnosed with mental illness; individuals recently released from incarceration; and veterans.

As of June 26, 2021, SSA selected Claims Technical Experts or Claims Representatives for the Vulnerable Populations Liaison (VPL) position in Field Offices (FOs) across the country. The VPL will ensure that SSA provides quality and compassionate service to the most vulnerable communities who experience challenges in contacting SSA due to physical or language barriers, medical conditions, or inadequate access to the internet. ...

     How do I find out who the VPL is for a field office? Will they be any less difficult to reach than other field office employees?

So True

      From The Tax Time by Annie Lowrey in The Atlantic about what she calls " 'time tax'—a levy of paperwork, aggravation, and mental effort imposed on citizens in exchange for benefits that putatively exist to help them": 

... American benefit programs are, as a whole, difficult and sometimes impossible for everyday citizens to use. Our public policy is crafted from red tape, entangling millions of people who are struggling to find a job, failing to feed their kids, sliding into poverty, or managing a disabling health condition. 

The United States government—whether controlled by Democrats, with their love of too-complicated-by-half, means-tested policy solutions; or Republicans, with their love of paperwork-as-punishment; or both, with their collective neglect of the implementation and maintenance of government programs—has not just given up on making benefits easy to understand and easy to receive. It has in many cases purposefully made the system difficult, shifting the burden of public administration onto individuals and discouraging millions of Americans from seeking aid. The government rations public services through perplexing, unfair bureaucratic friction. And when people do not get help designed for them, well, that is their own fault. ...

The Case For Updating SSI

      Jonathan M. Stein and Chi-Ser Tran have written a piece for Common Dreams giving a strong argument for updating Supplemental Security Income. 

     I think there's good reason for hope that the budget reconciliation bill the Senate will consider later this year will contain positive SSI provisions, although probably not all that's really needed.