Union Complaints About Training

     From Government Executive:

... Rich Couture, president of AFGE Council 215 and the union’s chief negotiator with Social Security management, said a poor “self-taught” training model employed by the agency is leaving new hires unprepared for their duties and already looking for work elsewhere. Council 215 represents Office of Hearing Operations staffers.

“We have folks leaving the agency, because the training stinks,” Couture said. “I’d use another word, but we’re in polite company, but the training is terrible. The mentoring, based on an agency focus group report we just got last week, it looked like it was written by us, saying all the same things [we’ve been saying]. There’s not enough time; there’s not enough accommodation to make sure that it actually works. So instead, our folks are telling us, and they’re telling management when they leave, ‘I feel unsupported, I feel unprepared and I feel set up to fail.’ ” ...

A Sad But Familiar Story

    A television station in Denver presents the now all too familiar story of a disabled person becoming homeless because of delays in processing their Social Security disability claim. Here's a quote from the claimant's attorney:

"We had to re-fax the same paperwork six times over a period of about six months," the attorney explained. "But it's not just the faxing. It's calling, 'Did you receive the fax? No, we haven't received the fax,' Even my staff, when they call into the field office, they will wait on hold for sometimes an hour — if the call is even answered at all."

    This isn't just happening in isolated cases. It happens all the time. How is this acceptable?

Turning 18 Doesn't Make You Healthier

     Mark Betancourt writes for Mother Jones about the problems caused by kicking large numbers of disabled people off SSI when they turn 18. Here's the key quote:

... Youth who lost benefits at 18 were twice as likely to be charged with a crime as they were to hold a job. Compared with those who stayed on SSI, they were 60 percent more likely to be incarcerated. Most were charged with income-generating crimes like theft, fraud, or prostitution. And they didn’t just commit crimes at a higher rate immediately after losing their checks but did so over the ensuing two decades. The study also found that increased spending on policing, adjudication, and incarceration nearly erased any government savings from reduced payouts; the added expenses far outstripped the savings when victims’ costs were included. ...

SSI Child's Disability Disappearing

     National Public Radio has a new piece out about the dramatic decrease in the number of people applying for and receiving Supplemental Security Income for disabled children.

    SSI is disappearing before our eyes, destroyed by antiquated income and resource rules and inadequate resources for the Social Security Administration to do much other than cut people off benefits.

Juneteenth 2023

 

This Won't Get Enacted But It Shows You Where The GOP's Heart Is

     From The New Republic:

Republicans have claimed over and over again that they are not trying to cut Social Security and Medicare. Heck, Joe Biden got them to agree they would not make cuts to the programs in a memorable verbal maneuver during his State of the Union speech earlier this year.

And yet, the Republican Study Committee (of which some three quarters of House Republicans are members of) just released its desired 2024 budget in which the party seeks to, you guessed it, cut Social Security and Medicare. ...

The proposed budget would effectively make cuts to Social Security by increasing the retirement age for future retirees.  The document seeks to assure people that there would only be “modest adjustments,” but does not list what Republicans think the new retirement age should be.

On Medicare, Republicans propose requiring disabled Americans to wait longer before getting benefits and turning Medicare into a “premium support” system, a long-floated Republican idea that essentially turns the government program into a voucher scheme. ...

13% Of Female Employees At Social Security Say They Experienced Sexual Harrassment In 2021

     From Government Executive: 

Social Security Disability Startup

     From Forbes:

Previously, much has been written about the dangers posed by AI and algorithmic decision-making tools in relation to people with disabilities. ...

[B]rand new tech startup Advocate is not only planning to turn this trend on its head but to achieve this through using a sophisticated mixture of AI and human expertise to address one of the most significant historic pain points afflicting the disability community. Namely, the unbearable delays and complexities involved in navigating America’s burdensome Social Security Disability Insurance system. ...

The fledgling company has just announced $4 million in seed funding to build a technology platform that aims to not only shorten and streamline the process of applying for long-term disability benefits but also provides claimants with a clear view of the strength of their application and chances of success. ...

Advocate CEO Emilie Poteat, an accredited disability benefits advocate herself, has already drafted expert advisors onto the corporate team in the shape of former Commissioner of Social Security, Jo Anne Barnhart and the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin. ...

At the front end, users of Advocate will encounter an elegant and accessible platform that assists them in optimizing their claim by connecting to, prioritizing and synthesizing electronic health records as well as providing a means of filing the paperwork itself. ...

    Why is it that I have a feeling that Jo Anne Barnhart's involvement is a sign that this endeavor is destined to fail? Of course, there's also the fact that this focuses on the application process. Yes, the application process is a barrier but it pales in comparison with the other barriers in the process, such as the long backlogs and high denial rates. A $4 million AI project isn't going to solve those.