New Disability Claims Filed Up Slightly But Number Awarded Benefits Continues Decline

     Social Security has posted numbers through the end of 2022 showing how many people filed disability claims, how many of those claims reached a Disability Determination Service (DDS) for adjudication and how many were approved. Note that the number of claims filed and the number reaching DDS went up slightly but the number of awards went down. How come? Serious problems at DDS units around the country.

Boring To Most Readers But Essential To Some

      Social Security is changing its rules to centralize acceptance of legal process. To explain, Social Security gets sued many thousands of time a year. The vast majority are appeals in disability cases. If you sue someone, you have to tell them they've been sued. This can be referred to as "legal process." Up to this point, where you sent the legal process depended upon where the lawsuit was filed. Now, they will all be sent to the same place. This has to do with changes at Social Security's Office of General Counsel (OGC) but also with changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This change will appear in the Federal Register (where official federal announcements are published) tomorrow.

You Know, Maybe We Should Do Something About This

      A Cleveland television station reports on the problems that Social Security claimants have getting the agency to work on their cases in Ohio. Hint: It’s not just Ohio. It’s everywhere.

Workforce Decline Continues

    The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has posted updated numbers showing the headcount of employees at each agency. Note that these numbers do not tell the whole story. They don't account for part time employees nor for overtime. Overtime is a huge part of the story at Social Security. A Full Time Equivalent (FTE) report would cover that but we seldom see FTE reports. I'm not sure why. Here are Social Security's numbers as of September with earlier headcount numbers for comparison:

• September, 2022 57,754
  
• June, 2022 58,332
  
• March, 2022 59,257
  
• December, 2021 60,422
  
• September, 2021 59,808
  
• June 2021 59,707
  
• March 2021 60,675
• December 2020 61,816
  
• September 2020 61,447
  
• June 2020 60,515
  
• March 2020 60,659
  
• December 2019 61,969
  
• December 2018 62,946
  
• December 2017 62,777
• December 2016 63,364
• December 2015 65,518
• December 2014 65,430
• December 2013 61,957
• December 2012 64,538
• December 2010 70,270
• December 2009 67,486
• December 2008 63,733

Wonder Why Social Security Is Dragging Its Feet On The Occupational Information System They Say They Want?

    The table below is from the Department of Labor's Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS). This is what Social Security hopes to use as a replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). 

    

    Some things to notice here:

• Less than a third of the workforce has jobs at the sedentary level. Contrary to the instincts of many office workers, they're very much in the minority in the workforce. Count your blessings. Don't assume that the work style you enjoy is available to most people. It's not.
• What part of that 29.1% of jobs at the sedentary level is available to those with only a high school education? What about those with less than a high school education? What? You thought that everyone has a high school education? How naive. Those with lower cognitive abilities often fail to complete high school. Those with lower cognitive abilities also file a lot of Social Security disability claims. You see, if all you had to offer an employer was a strong back, you don't have much to fall back on if you lose the strength in your back. By the way, what do you think the odds are that Social Security already knows the percentage of jobs at the sedentary level performed by those with a high school level or less? Wouldn't giving Social Security an answer to that question have been a simple matter for DOL? They're already collected the data.
  
• Of that 30.2% of jobs that have no minimum educational requirement, what percent do you think would be at the sedentary or even light level? I'd guess not too many. Again, what do you think the odds are that Social Security already knows the answer to this question?
  
• Most workers are exposed to at least moderate noise. Who knew? Not many office workers would guess that.
  
• 78.7% of employees have to interact with the general public. That's one of many work demands that can be tough for those with psychiatric difficulties.

No Social Security For Trump

     I took a look at Donald Trump’s recently released tax returns. Despite being well past age 70, he hasn’t reported Social Security benefit payments. Maybe he didn’t bother to apply. Maybe he didn’t have a history of wages that would qualify him. For that matter, Melania isn’t receiving Social Security benefits either but she’s only 52.

     Trump is so grasping, it would be hard for me to imagine him not reaching out for the income but he’s so incompetent I can suppose it wouldn’t have occurred to him.

     By the way, please, if you’re a Social Security employee, don’t try to look up Trump’s earnings record. You won’t succeed but you will be fired.

     Also by the way, President Biden is receiving Social Security retirement benefits.

An Age Old Question

 

May God Protect Ukraine In The New Year

 

From Ukraine