Another Old Overpayment Story

     Another day, another story about Social Security trying to collect on an ancient overpayment. The claimant involved says he was told years ago that it had been taken care of but the computer says he owes $14,000 so Social Security is planning to just seize his benefits for the next year and a half to make it up. It's up to a very sick claimant to sort it out.

     Yes, I know he can ask

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Was It What You Expected?

     FedSmith visits a Social Security field office.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

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Social Security Offices To Be Closed To Public On Friday

     Social Security has just announced via its Twitter feed that its offices will be closed to the public on Friday. I'm not aware of any prior announcement. In recent years, Social Security has completely closed its offices on the Friday after Thanksgiving. That wasn't done this year, probably because of the government shutdown in October.

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Social Security Gets A/A For Plain Writing

     The Center for Plain Writing is giving the Social Security Administration a grade of A/A for plain writing, higher than any other agency. The first A is for following the requirements of the Plain Writing Act and the second A is for following its spirit.

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Distilling The Right Wing's Frustration Over Social Security Into One Title

     Title of a blog post by Gary Galles of the Ludwig von Mises Institute: Killing The "We Paid Our Taxes; We Earned Our Benefits" Social Security Ponzi Meme.

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Gotta Collect Those Overpayments

     From The Missoulian:


A Corvallis man was floored last week when he received a letter from
the Social Security Administration saying he has to pay nearly $2,000 by
Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, due to a clerical error nearly 40 years
ago.

Rudolph Weiglein said he was notified by the SSA that the
agency had overpaid him on a claim, and he needs to pay back $1,995 to
the government.

“

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Interim Assistance Reimbursement NPRM

     From a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) posted in the Federal Register today:


We reimburse States that provide interim assistance to
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claimants under our interim
assistance reimbursement (IAR) program. We provide this reimbursement
from the SSI recipient's initial retroactive SSI payment. On November
20, 2010, we began using an electronic Interim

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What?

     From a notice to appear in the Federal Register tomorrow:


Under our current, long-standing policy, we do not purchase genetic testing to evaluate disability. However, we do consider all evidence in the record, including genetic testing and other genetic medical evidence, when we make a determination or decision of whether you are disabled. We are requesting information regarding how we

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No Statute Of Limitations On Overpayments

     From the Contra Costa Times:



For
Vietnam War veteran Thomas Testerman, a letter he recently received from
the Defense Department was a reminder of the mistreatment his
generation of soldiers faced.

Landing in his mailbox two days
before Veterans Day, the letter informed him that he owes nearly $500
because of checks the Social Security Administration mistakenly sent him
in 1972

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Getting Hosed By COLA

     Danny Vinik at Business Insider argues that Social Security recipients are getting hosed by the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) even without chained CPI. He thinks Congress should require the use of the CPI-E (with E standing for Elderly) for the COLA instead of the measure being used now, CPI-W. The CPI-E would result in significantly higher benefits for those staying on Social Security

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Eunuchs Who Receive Crazy Checks: A Preview Of The Debate On The Social Security Disability Trust Fund

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It Looks Different From The Top

     CEOs with 1,200 times your retirement savings want to cut Social Security.

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November 22, 1963

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Will President Nominate New Commissioner Now That Filibuster Is Off The Table?

     The Senate has voted to end filibusters on executive branch nominations.
     The Social Security Administration has had an Acting Commissioner since February of this year. So far there has been no nomination to the position.
     The Senate's action has to make it more likely that the President will nominate a new Commissioner and that the Senate will act promptly on that nomination. For

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Privacy At Social Security Offices

     One person writing a letter to the editor of The Post Standard in Syracuse, NY thinks there's no privacy in the Hillside Commons Social Security field office.

     I'm aware of a not dissimilar situation at the Roanoke Rapids, NC remote hearing site. The walls are so thin there that anyone in the waiting room could hear anything said in the hearing room. The solution has been to play a

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Yesterday's Oversight Hearing

     I had a chance today to listen to the recording of yesterday's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Social Security disability while I ate lunch and did some other things. I'd like to compliment the chairman of the Subcommittee, James Lankford, and the Subcommittee members for holding a hearing without partisan rancor, a hearing directed at informing the

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The Growth In The Number Of People Receiving Disability Benefits Is Almost All Demographics

     The abstract of a study by Social Security's Office of Retirement and Disability Policy:


We find that three factors—(1) population growth, (2) the growth in the
proportion of women insured for disability, and (3) the movement of the
large baby boom generation into disability-prone ages—explain 90 percent
of the growth in new disabled-worker entitlements over the 36-year subperiod (1972–

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Today's Congressional Hearing

     I was unable to watch today's hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee because I'm a practicing attorney with clients to represent. Here are some excerpts from the written remarks of Patrick O'Carroll, Jr. Social Security's Inspector General, listing some ongoing reviews:

Trends Associated with Cases Decided by High-Denial Outlier ALJs , in which we

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NPRM On Hematological Disorders

     The Social Security Administration has posted a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) in the Federal Register to revise the hematological Listings. This is only a proposal. The public is allowed to comment on the proposal and Social Security must consider those comments before adopting a final rule. 

     I have not had time to study the NPRM but I can quickly tell that it follows what has

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Preparing For Today's Congressional Hearing

     Apparently, Social Security is preparing for today's hearing before the Energy, Health Care and Entitlements Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform by publicly announcing via an "Emergency Message" goals for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) redeterminations.

     I wonder if the proposal sent over to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to require

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Wedge Issue?

     The idea of raising Social Security benefits is increasingly becoming a favorite among more liberal Democrats. Senator Warren just came out in favor of the idea. This is not going to happen while Republicans control the House of Representatives. Theoretically, control of the House could change next year but it would take a Democratic landslide. More realistically, raising Social Security

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Congressional Hearing Tomorrow

     The Energy, Health Care and Entitlements Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing tomorrow, November 19, at 10:00 on "Mismanagement of Federal Disability Programs." That title might be a tipoff to what to expect. Social Security's Inspector General will testify.

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Washington Post Doesn't Like Idea Of Increasing Social Security Benefits

     The Washington Post editorial board doesn't think that raising Social Security benefits would be a good idea because the money should be spent on younger people. The Post doesn't explain exactly how the money should be spent on younger people. Maybe someone can help me out by telling me how the Post wants to spend more money on younger people.

     .I wonder if the bigger problem for the

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Most SSA Employees Satisfied With Their Jobs

     According to a new Office of Personnel Management survey, 65% of Social Security employees express satisfaction with their jobs. While this is down considerably from 2010 when 74% of Social Security employees expressed job satisfaction, it is still higher than the government wide employee satisfaction rate of 59%.

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Try Collecting 700,000 Signatures On A Petition To Address The Real Social Security Issues

     The McClatchy newspaper chain's Washington bureau reports that "chained CPI is on the table" in budget negotiations. Sure, it's on the table, as long as Republicans allow tax increases to be "on the table" which means chained CPI isn't on the table and won't be on the table.

     There's a lot of silly huffing and puffing about chained CPI that I don't understand. Current political

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All Relevant Evidence From Any Source In Its Entirety

     You may have noticed the extensive comments on my post about Social Security's plan to make attorneys responsible for obtaining "all relevant evidence
obtained from any source in its entirety" concerning a disability claim. I had posed the hypothetical of a claimant who had received treatment for infertility. Some people thought that was irrelevant to a disability claim. Others felt it was

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Astrue Trashes Democratic Candidate At House Hearing

     Former Commissioner of Social Security, Michael Astrue, testified before some House subcommittee yesterday. The article I'm getting this from says it was the "Health Subcommittee" but the House Ways and Means Committee site doesn't show its Health Subcommittee having a hearing this week. Anyway, Astrue was there to trash Donald Berwick, who is running for governor of Massachusetts. Berwick

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NPRM On Obtaining And Submitting Evidence Coming

     From the description -- and a short description is all that's available now -- of a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that Social Security has sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval:


We propose to require claimants to inform us about or submit all
evidence known to them that relates to their disability claim, subject
to two exceptions for privileged

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Why Eliminating The Cap On Earnings Taxed By FICA Is A Great Idea In One Chart

Effect of eliminating  cap on wages subject to FICA. From Office of Chief Actuary, SSA

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Why Chained CPI Is Almost Pointless In One Chart

Effects of beginning chained CPI in December 2014.  From Office of Chief Actuary, SSA

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Veterans Day

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Fee Payment Update

Social Security has issued updated numbers on payments of fees
to attorneys and some others for representing Social Security
claimants. These fees are withheld and paid by Social Security but come
out of the back benefits of the claimants involved. The attorneys and
others who have their fees withheld pay a user fee for this privilege. Since these fees are usually
paid at the same time that

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NADE Issues Newsletter

     The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE), a membership organization of state agency personnel responsible for making initial and reconsideration determinations on Social Security disability claims, has issued its Fall 2013 newsletter.

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Bombarding This Blog

     If you read the comments posted on this blog you might come to the impression that everyone knows that:

Social Security employees do most of their "work" from at home but they don't really work because they're all lazy. The agency has way too many employees.
Social Security's Administrative Law Judges are particularly lazy. They approve Social Security disability claims because they're

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Anybody Can Make A Mistake

     The House Ways and Means Committee staff', controlled by Republicans, sent out a press release claiming that the chained CPI method of computing Social Security's Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) would have resulted in a 1.7% COLA this year instead of the 1.5% COLA that beneficiaries actually received. Wow, who says chained CPI would hurt Social Security recipients? There's just one little

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Is Social Security Regressive

For Social Security


     Eduardo Porter writes in the Economix column at the New York Times that this chart shows that Social Security is regressive, that instead of helping poor people it hurts them because wealthier people live longer. The problem with Porter's argument is that he's basing it on race-ethnicity. The average age of whites is 41, African-Americans 30 and Hispanics is 27. What

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Senate Hearing Postponed Due To Coburn Cancer

     From the Huntington, WV Herald-Dispatch:


Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn has had a recurrence of prostate cancer and
is undergoing further evaluation and treatment, according to spokesmen
for the conservative Republican.



Spokesman John Hart said in a brief statement to The Associated Press
that the 65-year-old lawmaker will be out for the rest of the week but
will be back "as soon as

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There Goes The Old Profit Margin

     John Uptain, an Alabama non-attorney who wants to represent Social Security disability claimants, is offering his services for 20% of the claimants past due benefits instead of the usual 25%. Uptain had previously worked for Social Security for 25 years. He attributes his ability to offer reduced fees to low overhead and not having to pay off student loans.

     Over the years I have often

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A Blogger Writes About His Father's Experience With Social Security Disability

Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest 


     A blogger writes about his experience when helping his severely depressed father apply for Social Security disability benefits. He was surprised to find that "We could actually get people on the phone when we called, and when we
arrived, we didn't have to wait long to be set up with a caseworker, who
was respectful, and very

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What's The Matter, Kansas? You Got What You Voted For

     The residents of Pittsburg, Kansas are up in arms that they're losing their local Social Security field office. Social Security management explains to them that they have to close offices because of lack of funding. Pittsburgers complain that they weren't consulted. Social Security management doesn't give the obvious answer so I'll give it. Kansas is a solidly Republican state, giving 60%

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Social Security Paid Dead People!

     Social Security paid out 0.006% of benefits to dead people. Does that sound like a big deal?

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User Fee Capped At $89 In 2014

     The user fee cap will be $89 in 2014. This is the limit on the amount that Social Security can charge attorneys and some others for withholding their fee from and the past due benefits of clients that have represented before the Social Security Administration. It's the amount charged in most cases. It's a simple one-quarter computation. By contrast, payroll companies charge $.80 to $2.00 to

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It's Tough To Get On SSI Child's Benefits

     The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) child's benefit program. Despite what you've heard, it's tough to get on benefits. How tough? So tough that most Social Security attorneys refuse to take on any SSI child case.

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"You Can't Change The Rules"

     Older Americans really, really don't like the idea of changing Social Security. However, removing the cap on wages covered by the F.I.C.A. tax does appeal to them.


"I contributed to it. It's my money," said Joan McDonald, 65, of
Annapolis, Md., who retired as an accountant this year and began
collecting Social Security. "The plan was, 'Contribute this and you get
this.' You can't

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Is Raising Social Security Benefits An Idea That Has Entered The Political Mainstream?

     The Pacific Standard reports on Duncan Black, who blogs under the name Atrios. According to the Pacific Standard, Atrios has introduced into the political marketplace the startling notion of increasing Social Security benefits.

     For obvious reasons, I like to think that bloggers can make a difference. However, I'm not sure that the notion of increasing Social Security benefits was ever

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Save For Retirement -- Yeah, Right

     From a press release:


... [M]ore than half the middle class (59%) are very clear that their top
day-to-day financial concern is “paying the monthly bills,” an increase
from 52% in 2012. Saving for retirement ranks a distant second place, with 13% calling it a “priority,” as four in ten middle class Americans (42%) say saving and
paying the bills is “not possible.” As a result, 48% are

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Get Out Of The Bubble, Ina

     Proving that she lives in a bubble, Ina Jaffe reports on NPR, with amazement, that many older people rely almost exclusively on the income from their Social Security benefits, something that's hard to do. If you find this amazing, all I can do is recommend that you look around a bit. These days few people have defined benefit pensions or significant retirement savings.

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Social Security Works Getting Weird

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Fox News Wants To Correct The Record -- Republicans Did Too Vote For The Ponzi Scheme Known As Social Security

     Could this be a faint ray of light from the right? Fox News has a story about how Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel got it all wrong when he said that the Social Security Act passed in 1935 without any Republican votes. As Fox News correctly points out, there were lots of Republican votes for Social Security in 1935. Is Fox News proud that Republicans voted for creating a dole, welfare,

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