Don’t Even Think About Doing This

      From a press release:

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced Justin Skiff, age 36, of Castle Pines, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud, social security fraud and money laundering.

According to the plea agreement, beginning around August 2019 and continuing through September 2021, Skiff used his position as a claims specialist with the Social Security Administration (SSA), to fraudulently obtain money from the SSA. Skiff used his knowledge and access to establish Social Security Numbers for ten fictitious children. He then established fictitious records of entitlements for surviving child benefits which he connected to the record of a real deceased individual whose children would receive benefits. These benefits were deposited into a bank account accessible to Skiff through debit cards he directed to be mailed to a P.O. Box to which he had access. Skiff withdrew money and made purchases from this account from October 2019 through September 2021 for a total amount of $324,201.44.

Judge Daniel D. Domenico presided over the change of plea hearing on March 8, 2023. Skiff will be sentenced on June 6, 2023. Wire fraud carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Social Security fraud carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Money laundering carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction. Skiff must also forfeit any property derived from proceeds traceable to the scheme.

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Turmoil In France Over Attempt To Raise Retirement Age

     From CBC:

French unions stepped up their fight against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plans on Tuesday as most trains came to a halt, fuel deliveries were disrupted and schools shut in a sixth day of nationwide strikes.

To increase pressure on lawmakers not to raise the pension age by two years to 64, unions said there would be rolling strikes this time, which could go on for days, including at oil refineries and railways.

Street protests are expected to take place in more than 300 towns and cities. ...

Garbage collectors and truck drivers joined the strike, in a sign the protests were spreading to more sectors. ...

Rallies are planned across France after more than 1.27 million people took part in previous protests on Jan. 31. ...

There were reports of students blocking schools while BFM-TV showed footage of workers abandoning cars on the side of the road near Amiens in northern France as others blocked access to an industrial zone. ...

Public Servants

      While I was at a concert recently, I wasn’t trying to listen in but happened to overheard a snippet of the conversation of the people sitting next to me during the intermission. One of them referred to someone who “retired after a 36 year career as a public servant.” That struck me. That term “public servant” is one you don’t hear much these days. I think it was more used when government employees were held in higher esteem. Why are they held in lower esteem now? I’d say it mostly has to do with Republican attacks on government and government employees. These attacks are often direct and angry  — as in claiming that government is always the source of problems rather than the solution to many problems or that there’s some “Deep State” that frustrates Republican presidents — but they’re also indirect. Underfunded government agencies render poor public service feeding public perceptions that government employees are to blame for frustrating interactions with public employees. It’s an anarchistic approach that claims, in essence, that government is so terrible that we would be better off with no government. If you can’t directly end government, make it function worse and worse to move the public in the direction of your view, mindless opposition to all government.

    We need to honor public servants. They do a super job often under difficult circumstances.

I Demand You Reopen That Field Office

     A New York Congressman demands that Social Security reopen a field office it has closed in his district. I wish they’d get as excited about the agency’s operating budget. That’s what determines how much service that Social Security can deliver.

A Big Batch Of "Proactive Disclosures"

     Social Security FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] Reading Room routinely posts "Proactive Disclosures." Usually, it's just a couple of posts a month but they're starting off this month with a bang. Below is what they've posted so far. I guess this is based about recent FOIA requests they've replied to. It makes you wonder why some of these FOIA requests were made. By the way, this includes a list that purports to tell you the top 500 law firms receiving attorney fees in Social Security cases. I don't know about this list but in the past these numbers have been wildly inaccurate.

	04-13-06 to 10-06-16 Initial Approval Statistics for Asthma Listing
	04-13-06 to 10-06-16 Reconsideration Approval Statistics for Asthma Listing
	12-15-04 to 05-16-15 Initial Approval Statistics for Sickle Cell Listing
	12-15-04 to 05-16-15 Reconsideration Approval Statistics for Sickle Cell Listing
	ACOSS Kilolo Kijakazi Oath of Office
	CY2021 Claimant Representatives Receiving Fees of $225K and Above
	CYs 2017 to 2021 Top 500 Firms by # of Awarded Clients
	FY 2022 ME and VE Payment Rates
	FY2017 to 2022 SSI Terminations Due to Earned Income
	FY2021 Social Security Disability Income Wait Times
	Personal Assistant Position Description - 9E560
	Personal Assistant Position Description - 9E561
	Personal Assistant Position Description - 9E562
	Personal Assistant Position Description - 9E563
	Reader Assistant Position Description
	Social Security Administration Reentry Plan 03302022-10-19-22
	SSA Appointees 08-30-22
	SSA Office of Systems Organizational Charts July 2022
	SSA-8202 - Statement for Determining Continuing Eligibility for Supplemental Security Income Payment

A "Bipartisan" Plan?

     From Semafor:

A bipartisan group led by Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Bill Cassidy, R-La. is considering gradually raising the retirement age to about 70 as part of their legislation to overhaul Social Security, Semafor has learned from two people briefed on their efforts.

Other options on the table include changing the existing formula that calculates monthly benefits from one based on a worker’s average earnings over 35 years to a different formula that’s based instead on the number of years spent working and paying into Social Security.

The plan also includes a proposed sovereign wealth fund (as previously reported by Semafor) that could be seeded with $1.5 trillion or more in borrowed money to jumpstart stock investments, the people said. If it fails to generate an 8% return, both the maximum taxable income and the payroll tax rate would be increased to ensure Social Security stays on track to be solvent another 75 years. ...

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the group, previously said that raising the payroll tax cap was under discussion. Only the first $160,000 of employees' earnings are currently subject to payroll taxes, which help fund Social Security. If Congress fails to step in, retirement benefits will be cut roughly 20% for seniors starting in 2032, per the Congressional Budget Office.

    Are there any real Democrats on this "bipartisan" group? I know that Angus King caucuses with Democrats but he's not a Democrat. 

    None of this has any hope of passage in this Congress.

 

Don't Panic!

     Paul Krugman has an excellent piece in the New York Times about why we should not panic about Social Security. You really should read the whole thing. Here are a few excerpts:

...  The thing about Social Security is that from the beginning it was designed to encourage misconceptions. It looks, on casual inspection, like a giant version of a private pension plan. ...

I’m pretty sure that it was set up to look like an ordinary pension fund because that made it politically easier to sell. But in reality, Social Security has never been run like a private pension plan. ...

For one thing, for the first half-century of the program’s existence it had almost no assets; in 1985, the trust fund was only large enough to pay around two months’ worth of benefits. So it has always operated mainly on a pay-as-you-go basis, with today’s payroll taxes paying for today’s retiree benefits, not tomorrow’s.

I often get mail from people claiming that this makes Social Security a Ponzi scheme. But it isn’t. It’s just a government program supported by a dedicated tax ...

I get a lot of mail from people saying that we should simply eliminate the upper limit on the payroll tax. That would certainly raise a lot of money. But bear in mind that there’s no fundamental reason Social Security has to be financed with payroll taxes — we only do it that way because back in 1935, F.D.R.’s advisers thought it would be a good idea to dress Social Security up to look like a private pension fund. ...

The other idea I hear a lot is that we should raise the retirement age — which has already been increased, from 65 to 67. After all, people are living longer, so they can work longer, right?

Well, some people are living longer. But one key point in thinking about Social Security is that the number of years you can expect to spend collecting benefits has become increasingly linked to the income you earned earlier in your life. ...

[C]alling for an increase in the retirement age is, in effect, saying that janitors can’t be allowed to retire because lawyers are living longer. Not a very nice position to take. ...