Dec 20, 2022
Dec 19, 2022
Centralized Scheduling Of ALJ Hearings To End
I'm hearing from the National Organization of Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) that Social Security has decided to ditch centralized scheduling of Administrative Law Judge hearings. We'll go back to having individual hearing offices scheduling hearings beginning February 1, 2023. This is overdue. Centralized scheduling has been a failure from every point of view. It's one of the endless examples of the longstanding instinct of high level Social Security officials that smaller agency components such as hearing offices are inefficient and the only way for things to get better is to centralize as much as possible. It seems like these centralization schemes always fail. Hearing offices scheduling of hearings wasn't perfect but it wasn't bad. There was never a good reason to expect that centralized scheduling was going to help from any point of view.
Dec 18, 2022
Dec 17, 2022
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
From a press release:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces Justin Skiff, age 36, of Castle Pines, appeared in U.S District Court today to face one count each of wire fraud, social security fraud, and money laundering
According to the information filed in this case, beginning in August 2019 and continuing through September 2021, it is alleged Skiff used his position as a claims specialist with the Social Security Administration (SSA), to fraudulently obtain money from the SSA. Skiff is alleged to have filed fictious claims for benefits using false identities and the identity of an actual individual to collect proceeds from these claims. According to court documents, Skiff’s actions ultimately led to the theft of approximately $310,601.44 from the SSA. …
Dec 16, 2022
An SSI Story
I think I'll just follow up from time to time with stories about the delays in implementing SSI benefits as cases arise in my practice.
Today's story is about a claimant who was found disabled and eligible for SSI on October 19, almost two months ago. The claimant hasn't received any money yet nor has she been contacted by the field office for a PERC interview. When we call to ask what the holdup is, we're told that they need to do an evaluation to determine whether the claimant can handle her own money or needs a representative payee to handle the money for her. When we ask when this might be done, we're told that the matter hasn't been assigned to a field office employee yet. The claimant, like all SSI claimants, has an urgent need for the money. I guess you've also noticed that it's the Christmas season. Are the field office employees mean Scrooges? No, they're just overwhelmed with work.
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