Supreme Court Holds That Denying SSI In Puerto Rico Is Constitutional

      Earlier this week I had noted that 16 of the 19 of the cases argued before the Supreme Court around the same time as U.S. v. Vaello-Madero, the case presenting the issue of whether it is constitutional to deny SSI to U.S. citizens who reside in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, had already been decided. My point was to expect a decision soon. The decision was announced today in U.S. v. Vaello-Madero. In an 8-1 decision the Court held that it is constitutional to deny SSI benefits in U.S. territories. Justice Sotomayor was the only dissenter. This issue goes back to the political arena. 

    Social Security has dodged a bullet. The agency would have had a terrible time dealing with an avalanche of SSI claims from Puerto Rico. If Congress does change the law so residents of U.S. territories can get SSI, the agency will have time to fully plan and staff up for the change and the change can be phased in.

ALJ Hiring Coming?

     Some Social Security Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are saying that they hear that their agency may be advertising new ALJ positions in the near future. It's been a long time since any were hired. Attrition has really diminished the ALJ corps so this seems credible to me.

350,000 Federal Student Loans Discharged In Data Match With Social Security

     From Forbes:

Last year, the Biden administration announced a new initiative to streamline student loan relief for certain disabled borrowers. By allowing the Social Security Administration to share data with the Education Department about borrowers who were receiving Social Security Disability benefits, the administration could identify borrowers who would qualify for the TPD discharge program, and then cancel their student loans automatically.

Today, the administration announced that through this data sharing initiative, the Education Department has cancelled approximately $7 billion in federal student loan debt for 350,000 borrowers. ...

The Department anticipates that another 15,000 to 20,000 borrowers may receive TPD discharges every quarter going forward via the same data sharing program. ...

Hanging Fire

     The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in nineteen cases in October and November 2021. By this time, opinions have been announced in sixteen of the nineteen cases. One of the three still awaiting an opinion is U.S. v. Vaello-Madero, on the constitutionality of denying SSI to U.S. citizens who reside in Puerto Rico. I don't know what we can infer from the delay other than that there probably won't be a unanimous opinion.

I Think This Is Mostly Aimed At You, Social Security

    From a blog post by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is part of the White House:

Long forms, long lines, and lots of documents – these are the hurdles that can make it difficult and frustrating for individuals and communities to access government programs and services.

Today, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is taking action to cut down on these “administrative burdens” by issuing new guidance for Federal agencies to help them better understand, identify, and reduce the burdens people experience when accessing public benefits programs. The guidance outlines how agencies should apply the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), which governs how Federal agencies collect information, including the forms and paperwork people have to fill out when accessing government programs. ...

The memo directs Federal agencies in two key areas:

• Identifying administrative burdens. The PRA already requires agencies to document, analyze, and justify the information they collect on each form and gather public input on these points. This memo calls on Federal agencies to further engage with the public to fully understand their experience when applying for or submitting information to a benefits program. The memo also directs agencies to consider how other burdens in the process impose time, financial, and psychological costs on people.

• Reducing administrative burdens. The guidance also instructs agencies to consider policy, communication, technological, and design reforms that can make it easier for the public to access services. While there are no one-size-fits-all answers because of the unique purposes and populations served by each program, the memo encourages agencies to follow leading practices to reduce the challenges we already know make it harder for people to access services. ...
  

Happy Easter

 

Equity Action Plan Talks About Attorney Fees

      A press release:

Today, the Social Security Administration released its first Equity Action Plan, supporting President Biden’s whole-of-government equity agenda to advance equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity for all.

On January 20, 2021, The President signed an Executive Order, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. The Executive Order requires all Federal agencies “to pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and other people who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.”

“Social Security’s programs touch the lives of nearly every American, providing income security for the diverse populations we serve, including people facing barriers, people with disabilities, people who are widowed, retirees, and their families,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “Systemic barriers may prevent people who need our programs the most from accessing them. Our Equity Action Plan will help to reduce these barriers and ensure people have access to our services.”

Social Security’s Equity Action Plan includes:

• Increasing collection of race and ethnicity data to help understand whether programs are equitably serving applicants and beneficiaries,
• Revising policies and practices to expand options for service delivery,
• Ensuring equitable access for unrepresented claimants in the disability application process,
• Decreasing burdens for people who identify as gender diverse or transgender in the Social Security number card application process, and
• Increasing access to research grant programs for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions and procurement opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses.

To learn more about the actions outlined in the Equity Action Plan, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/open/materials/SSA-EO-13985-Equity-Action-Plan.pdf. For more information about efforts to redress systemic barriers in policies and programs to advance equity for all, visit www.whitehouse.gov/equity.

    Here's a little from the Equity Action Plan that will be of immediate interest to some readers: 

... Some claimants get attorney or non-attorney representatives to assist with this process. However, representatives’ fees are based on awarded back benefits. This is a disincentive for representing SSI Disability applicants in favor of DI applicants, whose benefits are typically higher. There is evidence that although African American people are more likely to have a disability, they are less likely to be approved for disability benefits than White people. Considering this, we will assess whether African American claimants are less likely to have a representative than White claimants, research whether claimants who have representatives are more likely to receive disability benefits, reach out to claimants who do not have representatives to prepare them for their disability hearings and inform them of their right to representation, and work with professional associations of representatives to create incentives to increase their representation of disability program applicants. ...

[W]e are evaluating whether the current maximum fee of $6,000 that attorney and non-attorney representatives receive under the fee agreement process is enough. ...

    And on another topic:

... [W]e will: 

Explore establishing a Customer Experience (CX) office that reports directly to the Office of the Commissioner. ...

    That doesn't sound like an ombudsman or even a customer service office but it could be a step forward. Social Security has expended much effort telling the public how it must do business with the agency and more or less blaming the public for lousy service at the agency, as in telling the public that if they'd only just use online services, their service would be so much better, without noticing that the agency's online services are, on the whole, lousy and that many members of the public wouldn't be able to use them even if they were terrific. Quit blaming the customer.

A Question

      About a month ago, Congress finally passed an appropriations bill covering the Social Security Administration. In normal times the passage of a new appropriations bill means a lot of overtime at Social Security which is used to help catch up on backlogs. However, this appropriations bill was deeply disappointing. It did not give the beleaguered agency nearly enough additional operating funds to cover the rate of inflation since the last appropriations bill. 

    My question for Social Security employees is: "Have you seen additional overtime since the appropriations bill was passed?"