Have you decided what days you're going to take off around Christmas?
Is it just me or does this seem bizarre, almost abusive? It's certainly unnecessary.
Below is an illustration from the testimony of Katherine
Zuleger of Wausau
, WI. President, Chicago Social Security Management Association, Executive Committee Member, National Council of Social Security Management Associations to the Senate Finance Committee on June 18, 2024 on Work and Social Security Disability Benefits (I can't help thinking that some of this looks like an illustration from a sex education textbook!):
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| Click on image to view full size |
Government Executive has out a piece titled Martin O’Malley is on a one-year sprint to save Social Security. The title comes from Government Executive, not O'Malley. I'm sure that O'Malley hasn't claimed that he can "save" Social Security in any time frame, much less in a year.
The primary thrust of the piece is O'Malley's call for additional budget resources for his agency. However, there's also crowing about O'Malley's accomplishments as Commissioner. O'Malley has certainly changed the tone at the agency and has some important accomplishments in his first six months as Commissioner but I'm pretty sure that the main accomplishment claimed in this piece -- improvement in 800 number answering -- isn't much of an accomplishment.
Those on the inside can confirm or deny this but I think that the improvement in 800 number answering has been achieved by calling upon additional backup for the agency's Teleservice Centers (TSC's). The backup comes from the Program Service Centers (PSC's) whose primary responsibility is computing and paying benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act. This has gone on to some extent for many years. I've heard it referred to as "spiking," as in asking the PSC's to step in to handle overflow when there's a spike in call volume. It's not hard to improve 800 number phone answering if all you have to do is to shift the boundary for what's considered a "spike." Of course, the problem is that this causes degradation in the primary PSC workload of computing and paying benefits, which I have seen. Doing a better job of answering the phones is great but asking claimants who have already been approved to wait an extra month for the benefits they are owed isn't so great. Also, changing the spiking policies so that the PSC's give more help to the TSC's isn't sustainable. The payment backlogs will eventually become their own crisis.
Finding ways to make yourself look better comes naturally to a seasoned politician like O'Malley. It's not a bad thing for the agency. At the least, it gives members of Congress confidence that if they give the Social Security Administration additional operating funds that they will be well spent. There is another side to the coin, however. Some members of Congress can say "Look, it's what we've been telling you. Social Security doesn't need more operating funds. It just needs better management."
The Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing at 10:00 today (June 18) on Work and Social Security Disability Benefits: Addressing Challenges and Creating Opportunities. You can watch it online. Here's the witness list:
From Job Incidence Numbers in Social Security Disability Claims: A Case Study and Analysis by Kevin Liebkemann, 44 J. Nat’l Ass’n Admin. L. Judiciary 15 (2024) .
... The case survey results suggest that the SSA’s current vocational evidence system is broken in ways that can hurt disability claimants. Some variance in VE [Vocational Expert] job incidence number testimony may be reasonable. However, survey results document that VEs frequently gave markedly different national job incidence numbers for the same job around the same time, which indicates that the VE’s methodologies employed were inconsistent and thus unreliable. Further, study of cases involving other frequently cited DOT job titles could help determine how widespread this problem is. Some courts have already taken notice of such discrepancies regarding VE testimony of job incidence for other DOT titles. ...
SSA does not currently have adequate rules or enforcement in place to protect the public from the problem documented in the study data, namely VEs giving extremely disparate job incidence numbers for the same DOT title. The study data and case review found that SSA ALJs accepted those disparate numbers. The SSA’s Office of Inspector General that is charged with searching for and reporting systemic weaknesses in SSA programs has not yet issued any investigation reports on the reliability of VE methodologies for determining job incidence numbers. ...
Talk about being elite and out of touch! Most people don't wait until full retirement age now to start their Social Security benefits. There's no sign that's changing. Blue collar workers can rarely go on working until they're 70. Their health won't permit it. I think that Mr. Tammy hasn't yet experienced any of the ill effects of the aging process. It's coming for you too, buddy, whether you believe it or not. The odds are high that even highly motivated white collar workers don't make it until 70. Private savings? Does Mr. Tammy know anyone with an annual income below $100,000? Apart from their homes, if they're lucky enough to have them, most Americans near retirement age have only modest savings at best.
Right wing "thinkers" keep telling us that the key to all retirement problems in the U.S. is lowering the tax bills paid by wealthy Americans. It's what they're paid to write.
