Why Is SSA Still Relying On Ancient Occupational Data?

     David Weaver asks why Social Security doesn't do something about its reliance upon the ancient Dictionary of Occupational Titles in making disability determinations. Everyone agrees it's unreliable. People are being approved and denied based upon data collected more than 40 years ago. Why? My guess is that all of us are afraid of what comes next if we drop the DOT.

Where We’re At As A Nation

      From Reuters: 

Fact Check: Biden did not sign executive order to terminate Social Security.

Tidbits On The 800 Number And Overpayments

     WPXI, a television station in Pittsburgh, has been covering Social Security's overpayment problems. Here's some excerpts from a recent story they've run:

... We sat down with the new Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Martin O’Malley. ...

One of the most significant changes went into effect last Monday. It ensures anyone facing a new overpayment has at most,10 percent of their check withheld to recoup overpayment debt, not the 100-percent claw back the agency had been using; however, for the millions of people already facing overpayments, it’s not automatic. Due to staffing challenges, the solution is for beneficiaries to request a waiver or an adjustment by calling 1-800-772-1213. ...

11 Investigates decided to try that 1-800 number. The wait time when we called it was ‘greater than 60 minutes.’ We didn’t clog up the line by waiting to talk to a representative, but we did notice you can now request a call back instead of waiting on hold. ...

Commissioner O’Malley says you can file a waiver as many times as you want. If a beneficiary requests a rate lower than 10 percent to be withheld to recoup overpayment debt, it will be approved if the money can be repaid within 60 months or five years.  ...

    I had not heard about a call back feature for Social Security's 800 number. That might be an improvement. What experiences are others having with this?

    My guess is that the reporter misunderstood O'Malley or that the Commissioner misspoke about filing waiver requests as often as one likes. That requires clarification.

OHO Hearing Backlog At Its Lowest Level In 30 Years

     Posted by Social Security's Commissioner, Martin O'Malley, on Twitter:

Some good news: I’m proud to report that #SSA hit a 30-year low in the number of pending hearings as of last week, thanks to our dedicated staff! This is a major milestone, and I know we can do even more with sufficient, sustained funding

Attorney Fee Cap To Go To $9,200 This Fall And Be Indexed

     From a press release:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) plans to raise the fee cap for claimants’ representatives, from $7,200 to $9,200, when they and their client agree to use what is known as a “fee agreement process.” This will be the first increase to the fee agreement cap since November 2022, when the cap went up from $6,000 to $7,200, after remaining the same for thirteen years.

The fee cap increase is scheduled to take effect this Fall. The agency also plans to tie future increases to the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). SSA will publish notice of this change in the Federal Register in April in advance of the effective date. ...

A New EM On Covid

     The Social Security Administration has posted Emergency Message EM-21032 REV 2 on Evaluating Cases with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). It's a classic Social Security directive to staff that means absolutely nothing. They want to tell you that, yes, they're considering long Covid but there are zero details on what that means in practice and certainly nothing that could be interpreted as a standard that the agency must meet. The first priority is to make sure that no one at Social Security could be said to have failed to abide by the Emergency Message. It's impossible to fail to meet the standard since there is no standard. Is there one person at Social Security whose job it is to draft this sort of pabulum? 

    In the real world everyone with long Covid will be denied at initial and recon and some will be approved at the hearing level.

    I'm still not seeing clients complaining of long Covid. I'm beginning to think that long Covid is definitely a thing but it's mostly a thing for those who are too old to be applying for Social Security disability benefits.

Happy Easter

 

"The Stupidest Thing I Ever Heard"

     From The Hill:

Republicans are battling among themselves over whether to push reforms to reduce Social Security spending, with some conservatives rallying around the idea of raising the retirement age. ...

But others in the party warn that talking about delaying Social Security benefits in an election year is political malpractice and would give Democrats a golden opportunity to accuse GOP candidates of wanting to cut Social Security.

“Horrible idea. Totally opposed to this,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said of raising the retirement age, even for people who don’t plan to retire soon.

“What a terrible idea. If Republicans want to be in the minority party forever, then go ahead and endorse that,” he said. “Republicans are so stupid. If they want to go to working people and say, ‘Congratulations, you have paid into this your whole life — your payroll taxes — and now we’re going to take part of it away from you. We’re going to make you work even longer than we said beforehand,’ I just think that’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.”

Republican calls to reform Social Security got fresh attention when the House Republican Study Committee (RSC), which includes more than 170 GOP lawmakers, released a budget plan this week calling for “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.” ...

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), who is running to become the next Senate GOP leader, said Thursday he’s sympathetic with conservatives who want to raise the retirement age, even though it could blow up in Republicans faces in this year’s election. ...