An announcement just issued by Social Security:
Due to worldwide IT outage, local Social Security offices are closed to the public today. Longer wait times on our national 800 number are expected. Some online services are unavailable at this time. We appreciate your patience while we work to restore services as quickly as possible.What about hearing offices?
Yesterday, we heard that Social Security was increasing the amounts of SSI benefits that could be authorized by appropriate employees at agency field offices without approval from a supervisor. This cuts down on the number of times that a "second signature" is required before a payment can go out. That helps but I think the bigger problem has been with Disability Insurance Benefits and other benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act. Individual benefits authorizers at the Title II payment centers can only approve so much without obtaining a "second signature" and if the amount goes even higher a "third signature" is required and that can take several months. They never announce these limits but I think the "third signature" threshold has been something like $50,000. A claimant with a high Primary Insurance Amount can get up to this limit with only a little over a year of back benefits. Is something being done about the Title II problem? The situation with the "third signature" cases is terrible. With inflation and higher agency backlogs there are more of the "third signature" cases. These cause severe backlogs. If you're going to do something about the SSI cases you certainly ought to do something about the Title II cases.
... Underpayments, typically back payments from the time of applying for SSI to the date the application is approved, represent money we owe for months past. People waiting on approval of SSI can experience economic insecurity while they wait for a decision.
In fiscal year 2024, our agency prioritized addressing the barriers that prevent timely payment of underpayments, not a large share of the total payments we administer under the SSI program (less than 1% annually). Overall, the SSI program has released $901 million in underpayments as of June 2024, which includes $209.1 million of our most complex and aged underpayments to roughly 81,000 people, who count on SSI as a vital lifeline. We are committed to finding solutions to challenges, such as peer reviews and installment and dedicated account processes, that have hindered timely payments.
This year we updated a policy that required underpayments over $5,000 to be reviewed by another employee – a peer review – before we released the underpayment. In March 2024, we increased the amount from $5,000 to $15,000. Underpayments less than $15,000 can now be released without peer review. This policy change means the time it takes for SSI recipients to receive their first installment is now dramatically reduced. ...
I wish I could say that I'm seeing improvement in this situation but I'm not. I've got a ton of backed up SSI cases awaiting payment and I see little movement. If your case gets even the least bit off the tracks, it's almost impossible to get it back on the tracks. We can't get the field offices to answer the phone. When they do answer the phone, we tell them about the problem but then nothing happens. It's a frustrating situation for us but horrific for the claimants. I'm sure it's discouraging for Social Security employees as well.
From Emergency Message EM-24033 Disability Collateral Estoppel Policy – Change of Position
This emergency message (EM) announces the agency’s change of position (CoP) on the use of collateral estoppel to adopt prior disability determinations and decisions. ...
Beginning 7/13/2024, we will adopt our prior favorable finding of disability in a subsequent claim by the same individual for a different disability benefit or SSI payments if, in our prior final determination or decision, we have already decided that the individual is disabled for the period in question and all of the following criteria are met:
1. Both the prior determination or decision and new claim require application of the same statutory definition of disability.2. We have not made an intervening medical determination or decision finding that the individual’s disability ceased.
3. The individual has not engaged in substantial gainful activity since the prior established onset date (EOD).
4. The EOD in the prior claim is on or before the date when the nonmedical requirements for entitlement are last met in the new claim.
5. The record with the prior favorable disability determination or decision is not in terminated status.
6. We do not have reason to believe that the prior disability determination or decision was wrong. ...
I don't have the energy today to try to explain the concept of collateral estoppel in the Social Security world. If you don't already know you probably aren't interested in this change anyway. I'll just say that this is a modest change that helps a few claimants and which saves some work at Social Security. I never knew any reason why the policy was changed before other than generalized hostility to Social Security disability claimants.
You can now schedule a video conference with Social Security to discuss your business with the agency. The big catch is that you have to call Social Security to schedule the video conference. As you may have heard or experienced, that's hard to do.
A television station in Milwaukee reports that "The Social Security Administration field office in downtown Milwaukee will be temporarily closed to the public during the Republican National Convention – Monday, July 15 through Friday, July 19."
From what must be a press release:
... SSA recently released the eSignature/Upload Documents initiative nationwide. This end-to-end secure service allows customers to electronically submit some frequently used forms, such as appeal requests (SSA-501 and SSA-561) and waiver of overpayment recovery (SSA-632). Customers can also submit evidence, including the VA Disability Rating Verification, medical and school records, bank statements, tax forms and many more.
Social Security employees initiate the request by sending an email to customers with the required form. In turn, customers review the request, electronically complete, then sign the form (if a signature is required) and submit directly to SSA. ...
I guess they must be going nationwide for what had earlier just been an experiment in the Boston region. Why does this have to be initiated by a Social Security employee?
