A Simple Suggestion

     It's been my impression over the years that Social Security always practices "fast tracking" to some extent. By "fast tracking" I'm talking about processing the simplest things first, the ones that take little time, in order to generate good production numbers. 

    "Fast tracking" seems to be out of hand now. Why is Social Security processing retirement claims almost immediately while taking six months to do windfall offsets? I'm seeing workloads of more complex matters at the field offices and payment centers that have been put off and put off in the apparent hope that there will be time later to work on them. Many of these delayed cases became complicated because someone at Social Security made a mistake that needs to be corrected. These delayed cases are now at crisis levels. I don't see a surge of overtime to take care of these cases anytime in the next two years.

    Isn't it time to say "stop!" Delay the routine processing of easy cases a bit. Take care of the horrible backlogs of more complicated matters and then get back to the routine cases. If a retirement claimant has to wait an extra month for first payment of benefits, so what? Why should that retirement claimant have his or her case processed quickly just because it's easy? You can't keep putting off windfall offsets and other complicated matters forever. Sooner or later the field offices and payment centers will have to take care of them. Quit worrying about the stats and take care of the claimants who have waited the longest.  It's the fair thing to do.

The Never Ending Eric Conn Story

     From WYMT:

Victims of Eric C. Conn could see their social security benefits re-instated thanks to an agreement between the Social Security Administration and a local attorney.

Prestonsburg attorney Ned Pillersdorf, who has been advocating for many former clients of Conn’s in their battles with the SSA over the past several years, announced on Facebook Monday night that the “historic agreement” with the administration means that many of the 500 former clients could see their benefits reinstated if they request new hearings.

If the clients prevail in the hearings, they could see up to six years worth of back pay that could collectively total tens of millions of dollars. ...

    When will it be time for Social Security to just throw up its hands on this? The whole thing is an impossible mess created by  agency over-reaching. Of course, there was misconduct by a few people in Kentucky but the Social Security Administration didn't have to throw out all its rules and commonsense in responding to what happened.

OHO Backlog Growing

     Social Security has released operating statistics for its Office of Hearings Operations through the end of 2022. Click on the image to view full size.

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.