Self-Selection Of Sex

     From a press release:

Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, announced that the agency now offers people the choice to self-select their sex on their Social Security number (SSN) record. The agency has implemented this policy change and the new option is now available. ...

People who update their sex marker in Social Security’s records will need to apply for a replacement SSN card. They will still need to show a current document to prove their identity, but they will no longer need to provide medical or legal documentation of their sex designation now that the policy change is in place.

The agency will accept the applicant’s self-identified sex designation of either male or female, even if it is different from the sex designation shown on identity documents, such as a passport or state-issued driver’s license or identity card. SSN cards do not include sex markers. Currently, Social Security’s record systems are unable to include a non-binary or unspecified sex designation. The agency is exploring possible future policy and systems updates to support an “X” sex designation for the SSN card application process. ...

    It doesn't matter to the Social Security Administration what a person's gender identity might be. The Social Security Act is gender neutral. Wherever there's a wife's benefit, there's a husband's benefit. Wherever there's a widow's benefit, there's a widower's benefit. There's really no need for the Social Security Administration to even record gender. It's a relic from more than 40 years ago when the Social Security Act was not gender neutral.

It’s Been A Few Years

 

What Do You Think?

 

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e-1696

     Maybe I missed some announcement but I just discovered that Social Security has an online e-1696 form. The 1696 form is the one that claimants sign to appoint an attorney or other representative. It's basic and important for those of us who represent claimants. Social Security processes hundreds of thousands of them a year.

    The only problem I see is that the e-1696 relies upon docusign or something like docusign to get the claimant's signature. I've tried to use docusign for other paperwork and found that it flummoxes my clients. Few of them are able to handle it. I think that may tell you something about the ability of Social Security claimants to handle online systems.

SSI Is Brutal

    From Salon:

After two months of sleeping in the Salvation Army Center of Hope homeless shelter, Margaret Davis has had no luck finding an apartment she can afford.

The 55-year-old grandmother receives about $750 a month from the federal government. She's trying to live on just $50 cash and $150 in food stamps each month so she can save enough for a place to call home.

Davis is homeless even though she receives funds from the Supplemental Security Income program, a hard-to-get federal benefit that was created nearly 50 years ago to lift out of poverty Americans who are older, blind, or disabled.

Davis' job options are limited because she gets dialysis treatment three times a week for kidney failure. As she prepared to spend another night in the crowded shelter, she checked her phone to see whether a doctor wanted her to have her left leg amputated. ...

Falling into homelessness is not a new issue for people who receive supplemental income from the Social Security Administration. But moving recipients out of shelters, crime-ridden motels, and tent encampments and into stable housing has been getting harder, according to nonprofit attorneys, advocates for people with disabilities, and academic researchers. ...

"We are trapping people in a place where dignity is out of reach," said Rebecca Vallas, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank that conducts research on economic equity. "The program started with good intentions," she said. "It is hard for me to see this as anything but willful neglect." ...

Shuart To SSAB Board

     From a press release:

Amy Shuart, of Alexandria, Virginia, has been appointed by the House to the Social Security Advisory Board for a six-year term effective October 9, 2022.

Shuart has over 15 years of experience in Social Security and identity policy. She is currently the Head of North America Government Affairs and Policy Director for Onfido, a technology company that specializes in automated global digital identity verification and authentication solutions. For over a decade, she worked for the Committee on Ways and Means, most recently as the Social Security Subcommittee Staff Director.  She started her career as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Social Security Administration in the Office of Retirement Policy and has also worked at the Office of Management and Budget in the Medicare Branch and the White House National Economic Council. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelors of Arts in Public and Urban Affairs from Virginia Tech, and a Master of Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. ...

Covid Paradox

     There's been another study showing that many millions of Americans have "long Covid" symptoms. Among all adults 1.8% report that their daily activities are limited "a lot" by "long Covid." That's millions of people. Yet, the Social Security Administration has received only a trickle of disability claims based on "long Covid." I can't explain this paradox.

8.7% COLA

     This year's Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) to Social Security benefits is 8.7%.