To Infinity And Beyond! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

SSI Awards Fell By 26% At Start Of Pandemic In Pennsylvania

    From the Pennsylvania Capital-Star:

... Research released by Community Legal Services of Philadelphia shows that Supplemental Security Income awards, one of two key funding streams, fell [in Pennsylvania] by more than a quarter (26 percent) between 2019 and 2020, the steepest decline of all 50 states. ...

[A] decade-plus of underfunding has “made it extraordinarily difficult for people to access the vital benefits they need to survive.”

That underfunding issue was exacerbated by the pandemic, which saw the U.S. Social Security Administration shutter offices, choking off the flow of aid so badly that the federal agency issued a half-million fewer SSI awards than at pre-pandemic levels, researchers found. ...

GAO Report On Covid

    The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report titled Social Security: Remote Service Delivery Increased During COVID-19, But More Could Be Done To Assist Vulnerable Populations. It's primarily a history of how Social Security reacted to Covid making it not too interesting to those of us who have lived and worked through it. The recommendations were pretty much worthless other than one to develop online applications in Spanish. That has nothing to do with Covid directly but certainly needs to be done.

Social Security Not Taking Claims In Columbus?

     From WCMH in Columbus, OH:

Kathleen McGovern’s husband, Gilbert, died in September. In October, McGovern began the process of settling his affairs, including finances.

“As I understood it, I was eligible to collect my husband’s social security because his was more than what mine was,” said McGovern.

About $600 more. So, McGovern called the social security office in Worthington, to apply for widow’s benefits. She spoke with a representative, who told McGovern that she couldn’t apply online. 

“And she said, ‘No, you can’t do it online either. You have to come in with an appointment to our office, and make your application here,'” said McGovern. “I can’t do it at any other office either. Just that one.”

But McGovern said the representative also told her that wouldn’t be possible, at least for a while, because as of that day, the office was not taking any more appointments. McGovern said she was told to call again, in case that changed. She did, but said she could never get through. ...

Unsure of what to do, McGovern called Better Call 4. We spoke on October 20. I reached out to the Social Security Administration on October 26, and that same afternoon, got a call from a representative, asking for McGovern’s contact information.

The next day, McGovern called Better Call 4 again, to tell us that the agency called her, and took her application over the phone — adding that a lump sum settlement would be deposited in her bank account the following day. ...

    I don't know whether there's a systems limitation that prevents filing a claim online in this situation. There shouldn't be but maybe there is. I don't think agency employees are ever supposed to say they can't make an appointment. She should have been able to take care of her business over the telephone at the least and she should be able to deal with any Social Security field office. 

    If you're a Social Security employee, don't say it couldn't have happened as this woman has described it. I've talked with too many Social Security employees who tried to BS me. It doesn't happen often but it happens and it probably happens a lot more frequently with claimants than it does with an attorney like me.

Florida Man Tries To Rob Bank After Social Security Benefits Cut

    From the Villages-News in Florida (where else?)

A 74-year-old Villager has been arrested after allegedly attempting to rob a local bank claiming he had been “cut off” by Social Security.

Joseph Vincent Albanese ... walked into the Wells Fargo bank on U.S. Hwy. 441 in Lady Lake at about noon Monday and slipped a pre-written note to a bank teller ... The bank teller removed $700 in cash from her drawer and placed it into a pillow case carried in by Albanese.

He “kept apologizing” and sat down in the main lobby area. Bank employees quickly evacuated customers out of the lobby.

When deputies arrived at the bank, Albanese was still sitting in the lobby. He said Social Security just “cut him off.”

They Wouldn't, Would They?

     From Michael Hiltzik writing for the Los Angeles Times:

You may have thought that the drubbing Republicans received in the recent election would have prompted party leaders to think more warily about promoting policies that nauseate the voting public.

You would be wrong. We know this from an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal under the name of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). The piece appeared Nov. 10, two days after the vote, when congressional leadership was still up in the air. ...

Nevertheless, Romney again teed up the traditional, and discreditable, Republican shibboleth of attacking Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as “entitlements” that have been causing inflation.

With the Democrats having retained their Senate majority, the chances of wholesale hacking away at these programs’ benefits have receded, for the moment.  

But since Republicans have regained their majority in the House, the possibility that they will try to hold the U.S. economy hostage to force some sort of compromise on the programs, inimical as it might be for the general public, still looms. ...

[W]hat the GOP hopes will be its leverage in any debate over social insurance benefits [is]: the federal debt ceiling, which will need to be raised early next year to avert a possible shutdown of government functions or even an unprecedented default on treasury securities. ...

Kim Receives Award

     Grace Kim, Social Security's Deputy Commissioner for Operations, has been awarded the Presidential Rank for Distinguished Service. This award was given to 48 federal civil servants across all agencies.

    Kim is in charge of much of Social Security operations providing service to the public. The service is terrible. Why give her an award? I don't know enough about what Kim has done to say whether she deserves the award but poor service was inevitable given the serious underfunding of agency operations. It's possible to do a better or a worse job of dealing with a difficult situation. It's certainly stressful to do a better job of handling a disastrous situation that's not of your own making.

Kijakazi Calls For Greater Administrative Funding

    From Think Advisor:

On Wednesday, Acting Social Security Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi offered the opening remarks at a retirement equity forum held by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and the Economic Policy Institute. ...

Kijakazi says her focus is now squarely on advocating that Congress pass President Joe Biden’s proposed fiscal 2023 budget, which would direct about $14.8 billion to the Social Security Administration, an increase from the agency’s $13.3 billion budget for fiscal 2022.

According to Kijakazi, the SSA is currently operating with one of its lowest levels of staffing on record, and the SSA’s staff are grappling with significant backlogs and challenges, especially when it comes to the review and approval of Social Security disability claims. ...