Some Thoughts On The New Commissioner

     I hope that the new Commissioner, Martin O'Malley, doesn't suffer from the illusion that his management skills will rescue the Social Security Administration. I'm not knocking his management skills which may be excellent. It's just that for literally decades Social Security's leadership labored under the belief that good management could overcome appropriations that declined in real dollars. They tried ever more desperately as service declined. The peak of this management hubris was former Commissioner Barnhart's ill-fated "plan" to overhaul the agency's hearing functions and make everything vastly better without additional funding. It sold well to Congressional committees who were happy to hear Barnhart promise to pull a rabbit out of a hat but her "plan" wasn't much of a plan to begin with -- more of a plan to develop a plan. Such as the "plan" was, it made no sense. All she was able to accomplish was to delay the complete collapse of her "plan" until after she left office. Let's not repeat that disaster.

    Please, Commissioner O'Malley, don't fall into the trap of believing that your management abilities will make a world of difference. They won't. 

    However, there is something O'Malley can do that would help, and that's lobbying. I have read the book written by the first head of what is today the Social Security Administration, Arthur Altmeyer, on The Formative Years Of Social Security. I don't recommend the book. I was expecting accounts of how a huge agency was built from the ground up, creating systems that to some extent must still exist. How did they make sure everyone got a Social Security number? How did they handle data processing at a time when the finest data processing equipment available (and there was some) was at the caveman level? How did they hire all the people needed? How did they record all the wages? How did they compute benefits? There is almost none of that in the book. Instead, the book is mostly a dry account of how Altmeyer lobbied Congress for legislation needed to complete the Social Security Act with additional benefits. Altmeyer was quite successful at this, although not successful enough to get disability benefits, which were added after he left office. Altmeyer must have mostly delegated actual management of the new agency to others while he did what was most needed and what he was best at. 

    There is no law requiring that a Social Security Commisisoner spend his or her time tied down with day to day operations. Let others who know the agency better do that. O'Malley should spend most of his time lobbying within the Administration and with Congress for better operational funding. That's where he's needed and where his skills can make a difference.

Operating Stats From Office Of Hearings Operations

 

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DeSantis Alleges "Massive" Social Security Disability Fraud

     From Florida Politics:

[Florida Governor] Ron DeSantis is sympathetic to people determined to be disabled by the Social Security Administration, but he’s not accepting all claims at face value.

“Either you’re disabled or you’re not,” DeSantis said Sunday in Iowa [where he was campaigning for President]. ...

“There are some people that will kind of fake being disabled then work and then they should, you know, whatever. But I do think that if somebody has a disability and it prevents them from reaching their full potential and they’re eligible fine. But if, then they can do some type of employment that could supplement, you know, I don’t think that that would be a bad thing and I think that’s a good incentive.’ ...

“Now there’s a lot of fraud in the program and I think that’s been a huge issue,” DeSantis said, calling the problem “just massive.”  ...

 

Social Security’s Immigration Problem

      You often hear about the terrible problems that immigrants cause for Social Security. They just GIVE them Social Security as soon as they cross the border! It’s killing Social Security! 

     The Motley Fool has an article up about the immigration problem that’s hurting Social Security — not enough immigrants.

Backlog Of ALJ Decisions

     Over the last few months there's been a dramatic increase in the wait time to receive a decision from an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) here in North Carolina. It affects multiple hearing offices. 

    I can't tell. Is this a national problem? Regional?

    What's behind this problem? I know that some decision writers were detailed to work with Disability Determination on the huge backlogs of initial and reconsideration determinations but this new backlog to receive an ALJ decision seems far beyond anything that could be explained by that.

    Why are they scheduling ALJ hearings if they can't get out decisions?

What Can Social Security Do About Overpayments If It Really Wants To?

     Recent press reports about the harshness of Social Security's treatment of overpayments remind me of the character Inspector Javert from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. In the novel, Inspector Javert ruthlessly pursues the fugitive Jean Valjean. Javert's actions are strictly speaking legal but fundamentally unjust as a less rigid man than Javert would realize. 

    I think the attitude at the Social Security Administration has been that there's nothing they can do about overpayments other than to do everything possible to collect them and to put nearly the entire burden on claimants to appeal the overpayments or to seek out repayment schedules or waiver but what could they do if they really wanted to make overpayments less harsh? Below are some ideas that occur to me. They boil down to telling the agency to stop trying to be Inspector Javert. You don't have to administer the Social Security Act in the most harsh manner possible.

    Make a repayment schedule the default mode for collecting overpayments. One huge problem now is that Social Security's default mode in Title II cases is to seize 100% of the claimant's benefits until the overpayment is satisfied. This leads to disastrous situations for claimants who don't know where to turn. Some end up homeless. Many are subjected to huge amounts of stress. Yes, the notices tell claimants that they can appeal the overpayment and request waiver and also that that they can get a payment schedule but let's face it, a substantial number of Social Security claimants are functionally illiterate or so overwhelmed by their life circumstances that they can't comprehend any notice they receive. Notify claimants that unless they appeal or request waiver that their benefits will be reduced by a certain amount each month. That heads off the worst problems associated with overpayments. The statute says that Social Security must "decrease any payment" to an overpaid claimant but it doesn't say that the decrease must be 100% until the money is recovered. A repayment schedule is certainly a "decrease" in payment. The Title II regulations say that no benefit is payable until an overpayment is collected but gives the exception for cases where "withholding the full amount each month would defeat the purpose of Title II." There is no reason why this exception cannot be applied generally until the regulation is amended. There is nothing in the regulations requiring that an individual apply for a repayment schedule. The regulations say that a notice of an overpayment must include "an explanation of the availability of a different rate of withholding when full withholding is proposed" suggesting that there are cases where the notification will not say that less than 100% of benefits will be withheld.

    Invigorate the application of the statutory provision allowing waiver of overpayments when recovery would be "against equity and good conscience." Social Security has interpreted the "against equity and good conscience" provision almost out of existence. Let's apply it to these situations:

• Overpayments to those who had a representative payee at the time they were overpaid. Try to get the money from the representative payee but quit trying to collect it from those who were minors or under such disabilities that they needed a representative payee at the time they were overpaid. You will notice that many of the media pieces on Social Security overpayments feature those who were overpaid when they were children. These stories get reported exactly because they seem to be against equity and good conscience. Acknowledge that fact and act accordingly. Quit declaring overpayments in the first place to those who had a representative payee. Waive them for all existing cases.
• Very old overpayments. There is no statute of limitations on collection of overpayments by administrative offset. Cases where the Social Security Administration is trying to collect ancient overpayments are often featured in media pieces, again because these cases seem to be against equity and good conscience. Just adopt a policy that the agency regards attempts to collect debts older than 10 years as generally being "against equity and good conscience." Who cares that Congress didn't tell you explicitly that you can do this? They've told you that they expect you to administer the programs in a way that isn't "against equity and good conscience." Act accordingly.

    Give staff more discretion to waive overpayments without the claimant filing an application for waiver. Many times I see a demand that claimants provide detailed information about their financial situation on a waiver form when it's obvious that the overpayments will be waived. The waiver forms themselves are a deterrent to obtaining waiver. They're too long and difficult for many claimants. Dispense with the form when it's appropriate.

 

    I guess that Social Security has been wary of doing anything other than rabidly pursuing collection of overpayments because they've been concerned that the Inspector General (who always conflates overpayments with fraud) will criticize them. Who cares what this Inspector General has to say?

 

    By the way, many Social Security employees say that it's OK to treat overpaid individuals harshly because so many of them failed to properly report work activity. Really? What would make anyone confidant that all those claimants failed to report the work? Most overpaid claimants tell me that they did report the work but nothing was done about their report. Does anyone at the agency believe that records are routinely made of such work reports and that appropriate adjustments are made in a timely manner? I never see that happening. Never. The agency has a mess in its field offices and teleservice centers. Don't pretend that the agency is delivering service as it might have 50 years ago.

Homeless In Atlanta Due To Overpayment

    From WSB in Atlanta:

Denise Woods drives around Georgia strip malls, truck stops, and parking lots, looking for a safe place to sleep each night.

“It’s scary. You just don’t know what each day is going to bring,” Woods said.

Everything she owns is jammed into the back seat of her car.

According to a letter sent by the Social Security Administration, the agency is demanding back nearly $58,000 after determining it was overpaying her.

Because of her disability, Lupus, and congestive heart failure, she can only work part-time and makes just $14 per hour.

 So, the agency is withholding her entire monthly check - about $2,000 per month until February 2026. 

“I still don’t know how it happened,” said Woods, who has requested a waiver and is seeking a hearing. “No one will give me answers. It takes weeks or months to get a caseworker on the phone. They have made my life unbearable.” ...

    You can say that she really needs to work out a repayment schedule but she can't get anyone on the phone. Also, and more important, she doesn't know to ask. Yes, she gets notices but most claimants understand very little contained in any notice they receive from Social Security.

Representation Of Claimants Way Down In 2023

     From Social Security's FOIA Reading Room:

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