Union Decries Micromanagement

    From Government Executive:

Members of the nation’s largest federal employee union on Wednesday rallied outside of the headquarters of the Social Security Administration near Baltimore, demanding more funding and staffing for the agency, as well as reform of agency leadership and workforce policies. ...

Union officials on Wednesday described an agency in a vicious cycle, where insufficient funding amid growing workloads has led managers to micromanage overworked and underpaid employees, burning them out until they quit, further increasing the output expectations on the dwindling workforce that remains. This is exacerbated, they said, by a refusal to act to modernize the agency’s workflows or provide workplace flexibilities that have become the norm not just in the private sector, but elsewhere in the federal government. ...

According to a survey of union members commissioned by AFGE Council 220, 43% of respondents reported that they were planning to leave the agency within the next 12 months, including 26% of respondents who said they were strongly considering it. And 76% of respondents said that the volume of their workload is an impairment to their ability to perform their duties. ...

Delay Even For A Terminally Ill Claimant

       From KALB in Cottonport, LA:

Hundreds of thousands of people applying for Social Security Disability benefits are having to wait up to 10 months to hear back on the status of their application. That wait is wasting time and money for families dealing with health concerns that could ultimately be the difference between life and death.

Dr. Peter Lemoine, an attorney specializing in Social Security Disability law, said he fears that number will only double given the lack of manpower and efficiency in the Social Security Administration. One of his clients, Jalisa Johnson, is a 33-year-old single mother of four children battling stage four colon cancer. Lemoine said an application for disability benefits was sent out back in March, for a family in desperate need of financial and medical support. They have yet to receive an update and yet to receive thousands of dollars worth of assistance. ...

Johnson was placed on hospice over a month and a half ago in her fight against cancer. While still waiting for her approval from social security, many community members have helped raise money for her and her children. ...

    I had posted about this earlier on Twitter. Immediately I received replies that tried to place the blame for the delay on the attorney. That's ridiculous. There's no reason to suspect that the attorney failed in any way. 

    I've recently had a case of a terminally ill client whose case was pending at the reconsideration level. We kept calling about it and were eventually told that the problem was that the claimant hadn't returned his work history report! In case you don't know, that's absurd. That form is unnecessary when the claimant is dying. By the way, we don't intentionally take on cases of terminally ill claimants. We tell them that they won't need us. In the case I've talked about the diagnosis of terminal cancer came after we took on the case.

Hardly A Surprise But Really Dumb

    From the Washington Post:

Two senior Social Security officials who exposed massive, unprecedented fines imposed on disabled and poor elderly people — prompting multiple inquiries and halting the practice — now say they’ve faced ongoing backlash from their supervisors for speaking out.

Joscelyn Funnié and Deborah Shaw, veteran attorneys in the Social Security Administration’s inspector general’s office, were removed from their jobs and placed on paid leave after expressing concerns about the fines, then eventually reinstated.

But since returning to work under Inspector General Gail Ennis, they said they have been excluded from meaningful assignments, given tasks below their experience and abilities, shut out of meetings and collaboration with colleagues, and denied opportunities for advancement. Their claims are echoed in contemporaneous emails with management officials and backed up by two senior officials familiar with their work climate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. ...

    How could OIG leadership not foresee that retaliation would draw further negative publicity? By this point, I may be more concerned that OIG leadership lacks common sense than anything else.

More COLA Numbers

     Social Security has published its complete Cost Of Living Adjustments. There's more than individual COLA adjustments to be computed. Here's some key numbers for 2023:

• Attorney user fee: $113
• FICA wage base: $160,200
• Quarter of coverage amount: $1,640
• Substantial gainful activity amount (non-blind): $1,470
• Trial work period threshold: $1,050
  

Union Seeks Additional Funding For SSA

     From Federal News Network:

Social Security Administration employees are back in the office, but understaffing and a restrictive telework policy are making them less productive, according to one of its unions, and may lead to an exodus of more employees.

The American Federation of Government Employees Council 220, which represents SSA employees who work in field offices and teleservice centers, is asking Congress for $16.5 billion in “emergency funding” to support SSA for the rest of fiscal 2023. ...

Sherry Jackson, AFGE Council 220’s second vice president and legislative action coordinator, said during a virtual town hall Thursday that SSA is running with 4,000 fewer field office and teleservice center employees than it did 12 years ago. ...

The emergency funding request amounts to a $1.7 billion increase above the Biden administration’s fiscal 2023 budget request for SSA. Congress passed a continuing resolution that lasts through Dec. 16 and is still working out a comprehensive spending deal for the rest of FY 2023. ...

Covid And Retirement

      From How Does COVID-Induced Early Retirement Compare to the Great Recession?, a study by Anqi Chen, Siyan Liu, and Alicia H. Munnell for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College:

The paper found that:

• Self-reported poor health did not lead to increased claiming during COVID, a story consistent with the Great Recession. 
• The booming stock market associated with COVID induced early claiming among those with retirement assets, a stark difference from the Great Recession where workers remained to replenish depleted balances. 
• On the other hand, generous UI benefits reduced early claiming for workers in the two lowest earnings terciles, a stark difference from the Great Recession where the lower paid continued to retire earlier than the well paid. 
• In the end, and in contrast to the Great Recession, the competing effects more than canceled each other out and resulted in an actual decrease in early claiming during the COVID Recession and slightly higher monthly Social Security benefits.

Coming In From The Cold

     From some television station in Indianapolis:

“It’s insanity.” Stephanie Curbeaux was fed up. She was cold from spending the better part of two hours on Wednesday morning standing in a line outside the Social Security office in northwest Indianapolis. The temperature was in the mid-30s. But Curbeaux stood there, needing to get her name changed with the agency.

“I got divorced. I’ve been needing to get it changed. They wanted me to mail my official documents which I wasn’t going to do.” And now that they’re open. This is the third I’ve been up here. God, it just makes me so mad.”

Two placed behind Curbeaux in the line was Susan Taylor, who is recently widowed.

“My husband passed away and I’m here to collect the benefits, as his widow. They won’t make appointments online. Even when I call to make an appointment, they won’t allow you to make an appointment. So, I have to just stand in line in the cold.”

Another two placed behind Taylor was a woman holding a place in line for a friend. Gabriel James says his spinal pain is so bad the longest he can stand at one time is five minutes. ...

We checked back in this morning when the office opened and an interesting thing happened. 36 people were allowed to walk through the door. The line which had been a persistent presence outside the building disappeared. The line did not reappear when checked throughout the day.

False Claims Lawsuit Over CEs

     From KSHB:

When additional medical evidence is needed to approve a disability benefits application with the Social Security Administration, the agency requires applicants to get a consultative exam with a doctor.

In the Kansas City region, Midwest CES is one of several contractors working with the government to provide the exams.

Shiron Norah visited one of Midwest CES’s locations in 2018 during her application process. The lifelong Kansas Citian says she can no longer work because of a series of ailments, including carpel tunnel in both wrists, hip surgery, pain in her neck and back, constant migraines and arthritis.    

Norah said the doctor at Midwest CES spent less than 10 minutes with her and did not ask her a single question. The doctor’s report cited Norah’s ability to “use her fingers and hands to button and unbutton a shirt,” but Norah says she was not wearing a shirt with buttons during her exam. ...

Kyle Sciolaro, an attorney at BurnettDriskill, says he’s found roughly 250 other people in Norah’s shoes. They visited Midwest CES for a consultative exam and subsequent reports had similar language about buttoning their clothing or turning doorknobs - even though the exam rooms at Midwest CES’ North Kansas City office doesn’t have doorknobs.

In a series of civil lawsuits against the Social Security Administration, Midwest CES and doctors conducting exams, Sciolaro and his team allege fraud. ...

A lawsuit under the False Claims Act allows BurnettDriskill to file a case on behalf of the United States and its taxpayers. It alleges the Midwest CES knowingly submitted false information for payment. ...

President of Midwest CES Jake Johnsen responded to the claims. He calls the exams his company completes “a critical service” that helps prevent fraud. Johnsen pointed out Midwest CES does not know which results will lead to approval or denial of a claim. The government pays contractors like Midwest CES the same whether an applicant qualifies for benefits or not. ...