Oral Testimony Of AFGE At Senate Hearing

Below is the transcript of the testimony of Witold Skwierczynski, President, National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals, American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO given at the Senate Finance Committee hearing on May 8. I am sorry this is all in caps, but that is how it came to me. I have bolded some paragraphs that seemed particularly interesting to me.

THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS THE COMMITTEE REGARDING THE IMPORTANT ISSUE OF SSA SERVICE DELIVERY PROBLEMS.

STAFFING CUTS DUE TO INADEQUATE APPROPRIATIONS CERTAINLY HAVE HAD AN ADVERSE EFFECT ON SSA’S ABILITY TO PROCESS ITS WORK. DECISIONS BY CONGRESS AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO ADD WORKLOADS TO SSA SUCH AS MEDICARE PART D PRESCRIPTION DRUGS SUBSIDY DETERMINATIONS, MEDICARE PART B GRADUATED PREMIUM APPEALS, MORE STRINGENT SOCIAL SECURITY CARD EVIDENTIARY STANDARDS, E-VERIFY AND NO MATCH WORKLOADS WITHOUT PROVIDING
FUNDING FOR ADDITIONAL STAFF IS PARTIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CURRENT CRISIS IN SSA WHERE THE DISABILITY APPEALS WORKLOAD HAS A 750,000 BACKLOG AND THE PROCESSING TIME FOR AN APPEAL IS OVER 500 DAYS.

THE AGENCY THIS YEAR WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO PROCESS LESS THAN 50% OF THE SSI REDETERMINATIONS THAT WERE PROCESSED IN 2003 AND ONLY ABOUT 355 OF THE MEDICAL CONTINUING DISABILITY REVIEWS THAT IT PROCESSED IN 2004.

LARGER APPROPRIATIONS AND MORE STAFF IS ESSENTIAL TO ALLOW SSA TO FUNCTION NORMALLY AND PROVIDE THE SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC THAT THE PUBLIC DESERVES.

AFGE RECOMMENDS THAT $11 BILLION BE APPROPRIATED BY CONGRESS FOR FY 09. AFGE ALSO RECOMMENDS THAT CONGRESS CONSIDER TAKING THE ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES OFF BUDGET SO THAT CONGRESS CAN EVALUATE SSA’S RESOURCE NEEDS WITHOUT THE PRESSURES OF OTHER COMPETING INTERESTS.

HOWEVER, TODAY I’D LIKE TO ADDRESS 2 SERVICE DELIVERY ISSUES THAT HAVE FALLEN UNDER THE RADAR SCREEN WHILE CONGRESS JUSTIFIABLY EXPRESSES ITS CONCERN ABOUT THE OBSCENE PROCESSING TIME OF THE DISABILITY HEARINGS WORKLOAD. THESE 2 ISSUES ARE THE READY RETIREMENT INITIATIVE AND ITS VEHICLE THE INTERNET SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFIT APPLICATION AND ENUMERATION OR CARD CENTERS.

USING STAFF SHORTAGES AS AN EXCUSE, SSA HAS DECIDED TO IMPLEMENT A POLICY WHEREBY CLAIMANTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO FILE CLAIMS ON THE INTERNET WITH THE GOAL OF ELIMINATING ANY SSA REVIEW OF SUCH CLAIMS.

SSA HAS ALREADY IMPLEMENTED THE 1^ST STEP OF ACHIEVING THIS GOAL OF RADICALLY REDUCING THE LEVEL OF SERVICE FORMERLY PROVIDED TO SSA CUSTOMERS BY SSA EMPLOYEES. IN FEBRUARY SSA INSTITUTED POLICIES, WITHOUT NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC VIA RULEMAKING, ELIMINATING PROOF OF AGE AND CITIZENSHIP REQUIREMENTS IN MOST CASES.

SINCE FEBRUARY ANYONE WHO LIED ABOUT THEIR AGE WHEN THEY APPLIED FOR AN SS CARD AND USED THE SAME FALSE AGE WHEN THEY FILED FOR RETIREMENT BENEFITS WILL GET AWAY WITH SUCH FRAUD SINCE SSA NO LONGER WILL DEMAND ANY POA.

SO ANYONE WHO MADE THEMSELVES OLDER WHEN THEY APPLIED FOR A CARD TO GET A JOB WILL BE ABLE TO RECEIVE RETIREMENT BENEFITS EARLIER AS LONG AS THEY REPEAT THE LIE WHEN THEY FILE FOR RETIREMENT BENEFITS. THIS FRAUDULENT WINDFALL COULD BE FOR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.

IN MARCH AFGE REQUESTED FROM SSA ANY VALIDATION STUDIES THAT WERE DONE TO JUSTIFY THIS EVIDENTIARY CHANGE SO THE PUBLIC WILL UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL LOSS IN TRUST FUND REVENUE BASED ON FRAUDULENT DOB ALLEGATIONS. SSA HAS NOT RESPONDED TO THE UNION’S REQUEST.

SINCE FEBRUARY ANYONE WHO ASSERTED THAT THEY WERE BORN IN THE USA WHEN THEY FILED FOR A SS CARD WILL NOT REQUIRE TO SUBMIT PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP IF THEY ALLEGE US BIRTH UPON APPLICATION FOR RETIREMENT BENEFITS. THUS IF AN UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT LIED ABOUT UNITED STATES BIRTH WHEN THEY FILED FOR A SS CARD AND REITERATED THAT LIE WHEN FILING FOR RETIREMENT SINCE SSA DOESN’T REQUEST PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP THE LIE WILL NOT BE DETECTED. IN SUCH A SITUATION THE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT COULD RECEIVE UP TO HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN BENEFITS THAT THEY WERE NOT ENTITLED TO RECEIVE. (BEFORE 1981 SSA DID NOT VERIFY AGE AND/OR CITIZENSHIP FOR SSN APPLICANTS.)

AGAIN IN MARCH AFGE REQUESTED THAT SSA PRODUCE ANY STUDIES THEY CONDUCTED SHOWING THE NATURE OF THE POTENTIAL TRUST FUND LOSS FROM FRAUDULENT CITIZENSHIP ALLEGATIONS. AGAIN SSA HAS NOT RESPONDED.

SSA ALSO ELIMINATED LAG WAGE DEVELOPMENT FOR THE MOST RECENT YEAR OF EARNINGS WHICH TYPICALLY IS USED TO INCREASE A RETIREMENT APPLICANT’S BENEFITS. THIS WILL RESULT IN MILLIONS OF RETIREMENT APPLICANTS BEING UNDERPAID UNTIL IRS NOTIFIES SSA OF THE WAGE EARNER’S MOST RECENT YEAR OF EARNINGS AND THE SYSTEM RECOMPUTES THE BENEFIT.

EVEN MORE DISTURBING IS THE PLAN THAT SSA HAS TO IMPLEMENT THE SCHEME DEVISED BY ANDREW BIGGS, THE REJECTED BUSH NOMINEE FOR SSA’S PRINCIPAL DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, WHO IS FROM THE CATO INSTITUTE WHO ESPOUSED THE ELIMINATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY. ACCORDING TO BIGGS, SSA SHOULD NOT PROVIDE THE APPLICANT WITH ANY ADVICE REGARDING THEIR RETIREMENT DECISION SINCE THE APPLICANT IS BEST SITUATED TO MAKE THEIR OWN RESPONSIBLE ECONOMIC DECISIONS.

THE AGENCY PLANS TO ELIMINATE THE LONG STANDING ROLE OF SSA EMPLOYEES EXPLAINING TO CLAIMANTS THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF FILING FOR WIDOWS OR RETIREMENT BENEFITS AND WHEN WOULD BE THE MOST ADVANTAGEOUS TIME TO ELECT TO START BENEFITS WHEN THE AGENCY INTRODUCES THE NEW INTERNET APPLICATION IN SEPTEMBER, 2008.

CURRENTLY CLAIMANTS CAN AND DO FILE INTERNET BENEFIT APPLICATIONS. ALL SUCH APPLICATIONS ARE REVIEWED BY SSA CLAIMS REPRESENTATIVES. AFGE RECENTLY SURVEYED CLAIMS REPRESENTATIVES WHO REVIEW INTERNET APPLICATIONS. MOST EMPLOYEES RESPONDING TO THE SURVEY INDICATED THAT THE MAJORITY OF APPLICANTS ON THE INTERNET CHOOSE TO START THEIR RETIREMENT AND/OR WIDOWS BENEFITS IN A DISADVANTAGEOUS MONTH. THIS WOULD RESULT IN THE LOSS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN LIFETIME BENEFITS. 86% OF SSA EMPLOYEE SURVEY RESPONDENTS OPPOSE ELIMINATING ADVICE TO THE CLAIMANTS ON WHICH MONTH OF ELECTION IS MOST ADVANTAGEOUS.

SSA IS ALREADY REQUIRING EMPLOYEES TO ENGAGE IN A CAMPAIGN TO ENCOURAGE THE PUBLIC TO FILE FOR BENEFITS ON THE INTERNET. 87% OF SSA EMPLOYEES RESPONDING TO THE AFGE SURVEY STATED THAT THE QUALITY OF CURRENT INTERNET CLAIMS IS SO POOR THAT OVER 75% OF CLAIMANTS MUST BE RECONTACTED DUE TO CRITICAL MISSING INFORMATION, CLEARLY DISADVANTAGEOUS DECISIONS OR INCONSISTENT INFORMATION ON THE APPLICATION. 71% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS STATED THAT OVER 90% OF INTERNET CLAIMANTS MUST BE RECONTACTED BY SSA.

_3^RD PARTY PUSH_

IN CONJUNCTION WITH SSA’S PLAN TO IMPLEMENT THE ANDREW BIGGS PHILOSOPHY OF ELIMINATING THE ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE THAT TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED SSA CRS HAVE GIVEN THE PUBLIC FOR OVER 60 YEARS, SSA INTENDS TO INCREASE THE ROLL OF 3^RD PARTIES. IN FILING APPLICATIONS AND ADVISING SSA CUSTOMERS. THE IDEA IS TO REDUCE THE ROLE OF EXPERT, EXPERIENCED AND UNBIASED SSA EMPLOYEES AND SUBSTITUTE 3^RD PARTIES WHO WILL CHARGE A FEE
FOR THEIR SERVICES.

SSA PLANS TO ALLOW 3^RD PARTIES CREATED ACCESS TO THE SSA DATABASE. THE OPPORTUNITY FOR FRAUD AND IDENTITY THEFT IS AN INCREASING AFGE CONCERN. EXPANDED 3^RD PARTY ACCESS TO THE SSA COMPUTER SYSTEM WILL IN ALL LIKELIHOOD LEAD TO FUTURE IDENTITY THEFT SCANDALS. SSA EMPLOYEES WHO REVIEW CURRENT 3^RD PARTY INTERNET FILED CLAIMS REPORT THAT 3^RD PARTY ERROR RATES ARE AS HIGH AS THE ERRORS BY CLAIMANTS THEMSELVES.

IT IS THE BELIEF OF AFGE THAT THE ANDREW BIGGS READY RETIREMENT SCHEME AND ITS INTERNET APPLICATION TOOL IS AN ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE SSA AS A GOVERNMENT AGENCY THAT HAS A COMPREHENSIVE NETWORK OF COMMUNITY BASED OFFICES WITH AN EXPERT WORKFORCE OF TRAINED EMPLOYEES DEVOTED TO HELPING RETIREMENT, DISABILITY, SURVIVORS AND SSI APPLICANTS RECEIVE THE MAXIMUM BENEFITS TO WHICH THEY ARE ENTITLED.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THESE PROPOSALS WILL RESULT IN A REDUCED WORKFORCE, MORE OFFICE CLOSINGS AND AN EMERGENCE OF A PLETHORA OF 3^RD PARTY PRIVATE INDUSTRY COMPANIES WHO WILL CHARGE THE PUBLIC FOR SERVICES AND ADVICE THAT THEY NOW RECEIVE FROM THE GOVERNMENT WITHOUT COST. EVENTUALLY WE CAN ENVISION PRESSURE TO PRIVATIZE THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SERVICE DELIVERY ROLE OF SSA.

ALTHOUGH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WAS UNSUCCESSFUL IN PRIVATIZING SSA BENEFITS, IT IS MOVING SWIFTLY TO ELIMINATE THE SERVICE ROLE THAT SSA HAS PROVIDED SINCE ITS INCEPTION AND SUBSTITUTE CLAIMANT RESPONSIBILITY AND 3^RD PARTY FOR PROFIT ASSISTANCE.

WE URGE CONGRESS TO TAKE ACTION TO INVESTIGATE THIS ATTEMPT TO IMPLEMENT THE BIGGS PLAN AND RADICALLY CHANGE THE NATURE OF SERVICE DELIVERY IN SSA.

CARD CENTERS HAVE BEEN OPENED IN NY, LAS VEGAS, PHOENIX AND ORLANDO. THE COMMISSIONER PLANS TO OPEN UP TO 20 MORE. CARD CENTERS ARE EXCLUSIVELY FOR SS CARD WORK. IN PHOENIX, ORLANDO AND LAS VEGAS THE CARD CENTERS HAVE A SERVICE AREA THAT EXTENDS UP TO 200 MILES FROM THE OFFICE. CLAIMANTS ARE REQUIRED TO GO TO THE CARD CENTER IF THEY LIVE IN THE CARD CENTER SERVICE AREA AND HAVE AN SSA CARD ISSUE SUCH AS NEEDING A REPLACEMENT CARD OR RESPONDING TO AN E-VERIFY NO MATCH. IF A CUSTOMER INSTEAD GOES TO THE4IR LOCAL COMMUNITY BASED OFFICE, THEY WILL BE TURNED AWAY. IF THEY HAVE MULTIPLE BUSINESS WITH SSA, THEY WILL HAVE TO GO TO 2 OFFICES SINCE CARD CENTERS ONLY DO SSA CARD WORK. THIS YEAR WAITING TIMES IN CARD CENTERS HAVE BEEN UP TO 4 HOURS. THE CENTERS ARE UNDERSTAFFED. EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN REASSIGNED TO CARD CENTERS AGAINST THEIR WILL. THE PUBLIC IS FORCED TO GO TO A CARD CENTER AGAINST THEIR WILL AND WHEN THEY ARRIVE AT THE CARD CENTER THEY ARE FREQUENTLY SUBJECTED TO LENGTHY WAITING TIMES.

EXPANSION OF E-VERIFY WILL INCREASE THE WORKLOAD OF THE CARD CENTERS AND FORCE MORE SSA CUSTOMERS TO TRAVEL LENGTHY DISTANCES UNNECESSARILY TO CORRECT ERRORS IN THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY RECORDS.

SSA HAS ALWAYS HAD AN EXTENSIVE NETWORK OF FULL SERVICE OFFICES. NOW IN CARD CENTER AREAS, SSA HAS CREATED SPECIALTY OFFICES FOR NO GOOD REASON THAT INCONVENIENCE THE PUBLIC.

CONGRESS SHOULD INVESTIGATE THIS BAD IDEA OF CARD CENTERS AND DEMAND THAT SSA CEASE ATTEMPTS TO EXPAND THIS CONCEPT.

Someone asked me recently where the AFGE is getting the charge that there is a plan to have third parties provide routine Social Security services such as filing claims for a fee. I do not know. What I do know is that no one at Social Security seems to be responding that this is nonsense, that there is no such plan in the works. That does not make it true, but it does make it plausible.

New POMS On Penal Institutions

The Social Security Administration has issued a new section of its Program Operations Manual Series (POMS) dealing with what constitutes a "penal institution" for purposes of Supplemental Security Income (SSI). A brief summary:

• Privately operated prison: Yes
• Home confinement: No
• Halfway house: Probably
• Juvenile treatment center: Probably

Fraud In Omaha

From KOLN and KGIN in Nebraska:

An Omaha man has been put on five years' probation and must pay more than $50,000 in restitution after being convicted of Social Security fraud.

Jesse Erwin failed to report his asphalt paving business to the Social Security Administration between 2001 and 2007, while the 65-year-old was collecting $54,000 in disability benefits.

VCU Benefits From Ticket To Work

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Virginia Commonwealth University has been awarded a $4.2 million contract to help people with disabilities find jobs that reduce their dependence on government assistance

The three-year contract from the Social Security Administration will allow VCU to provide training and technical assistance for more than 500 so-called community work incentives coordinators ...

Since 2000, the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance National Training Center at VCU has been awarded more than $14 million in federal contracts and provided training and technical assistance to 800 community-based professionals providing service to more than 250,000 Social Security beneficiaries.

And just what did Social Security get for that $14 million? Where are the success stories of Social Security disability recipients being put back to work? I have no doubt that has VCU fulfilled its contracts. The question is whether Ticket to Work has fulfilled its promise and the answer to that is obviously "No." That $14 million could have been better used for other purposes.

AARP Advertising On Social Security Budget

This ad is appearing this week and next in Congress Daily and Congressional Quarterly. Click on it to see it full size.

Aged Cases Report

Courtesy of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR). Click on each image to see it full size.

Why Did This Go In The Federal Register?

From today's Federal Register:

The Commissioner of Social Security gives notice that SSA intends to add a new calculator to its online Benefit Calculators suite. The Retirement Estimator will allow authenticated individuals to calculate estimates of potential retirement benefits in real-time, based in part on their SSA-maintained records and in part on user-entered information, such as the last year of Social Security earnings. In addition to quick estimates of retirement benefits at specific points such as full retirement age, users may also submit a number of ``what if'' scenarios based on information they provide regarding future earnings and retirement dates. The estimates can be printed and saved. The initial release of the Retirement Estimator will not reflect offset due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), or Government Pension Offset (GPO)....

The Retirement Estimator will be released to the public on July 19, 2008.

Lowest Approval Rate In History

From a press release issued by the Council for Disability Awareness (which appears to be a Long Term Disability Insurance industry group):

The number of workers applying for SSDI disability payments increased to 2.2 million in 2007, 2.6% more that in 2006, while the number of disabled workers approved for payments declined to 37.6 percent, the lowest approval rate in the history of the program.

NY Times Editorial On E-Verify

From today's New York Times:

To hear some in Congress tell it, the federal government urgently needs to expand its electronic employment verification system, E-Verify, to all corners of the country and force every business to use it. But a hearing in the House last week raised serious questions about the costs and collateral damage of that expansion, the latest scheme by hard-liners to slam the door shut on unauthorized immigrant workers. ...

Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic representative from Connecticut and president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, warned at the hearing that forcing Social Security to take on the enormous burden of immigration enforcement would be a harmful diversion from its core mission and could strain the bureaucracy to the breaking point.

Lie Detectors For Social Security Claimants?

This is from The Inquirer, a British newspaper, repeat, a British newspaper:

THE GOVERNMENT has put £1.5million up for another round of lie detector test pilots for social security helplines run by local authorities in the UK. ...

The DWP [agency administering British Social Security?] said today in a statement that "initial results" from the seven pilots it has conducted across seven local authorities had been "successful". It provided no other details but said the results justified another round of pilot projects with another fifteen local authorities. ...

The software, licensed through Capita by Digilog UK, which bought the UK licence from Nemesysco, an Israeli software developer, attaches risk scores to people after analysing their voices on the telephone. It will alert a call handler with a "pip" and an on-screen assessment if it thinks it has detected a "high-risk" person. According to Capita, half the people it assesses as high risk turn out to be no risk at all.

Harrow Council said today it had saved an estimated £420,000 in the year since it first installed the software. This was derived from a DWP estimate of the amount a person would typically claim on benefit.

The figure was calculated on the assumption that 132 people who refused to complete the voice-risk analysis assessment would otherwise have tried to cheat the system; and that 500 people who, though they had been flagged as low risk, had declared their personal circumstances had changed and no longer needed benefits would also have otherwise attempted to cheat the system.

Out of 1559 benefits claimants processed by the lie detection system, 118 were flagged as high risk. Just 24 of those, or 1.5 per cent, had their benefits decreased as a result of the intrusion.

Federal Times On Senate Finance Hearing

Some excerpts from an article in the Federal Times:

... [E]xperts warned that unless Congress appropriates more funds to increase field office staff, dire consequences would follow. “We could be going down a cliff if things continue,” [Richard] Warsinskey [of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations] said in an interview after the hearing. “It’s been a steady slide downward. We’re entering a fragile period.”

Added GAO’s [Government Accountability Office's Barbara] Bovbjerg: “Hope for the future is running out.” ...

Pressed by Baucus, McMahon promised to finalize the agency’s annual strategic plan to Congress by July 4.

A goal of the plan is to reduce wait times for visitors to field offices by five minutes to 10 minutes for those with appointments and 10 minutes to 15 minutes for those without them.

Waiting In Rochester

A brief excerpt from an article in the Daily Record of Rochester, NY:

Smith ultimately waited for three years before his appeal was heard by an administrative law judge in Rochester.

The hearing on March 6 lasted about 10 minutes. The judge asked Smith a few questions about his surgery and medical problems, and said that he had already reviewed the materials. Most claimants have to wait 30 to 45 days for a written decision; but this time, Smith was lucky. The judge granted his appeal on the spot.

A Ray Of Light For Galveston

Local efforts to prevent the Social Security Administration from closing its Galveston field office may be starting to get somewhere. The Daily News of Galveston County is reporting that while the office may close, a satellite office may open there in its place. Local Congressman Ron Paul, who is still running for President, is refusing to get involved, however.

Most Popular Baby Names: A Social Security Press Release Worth Reading

The Social Security Administration has released its list of most popular baby names for 2007. This is always a fascinating item, but I have to commend whoever wrote this press release. Included are discussions of the effects on baby naming of popular figures such as Danica Patrick, JaMarcus Russell, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Elvis, the popularity of names rhyming with the word "maiden" and names for girls that reflect spiritual concepts, such as the name "Neveah." You're familiar with the spiritual meaning of the name "Neveah", aren't you? Anyway, here is the top ten list:

Boys:	Girls:
1) Jacob 2) Michael 3) Ethan 4) Joshua 5) Daniel 6) Christopher 7) Anthony 8) William 9) Matthew 10) Andrew	1) Emily 2) Isabella 3) Emma 4) Ava 5) Madison 6) Sophia 7) Olivia 8) Abigail 9) Hannah 10) Elizabeth

ALJ School

An anonymous poster on the ALJ Discussion Forum gives an interesting description of the training that the Social Security Administration gives to newly hired Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). It is worth a read. The Commissioner spoke to the group.

New ALJ Promised For Rochester

From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

A Social Security Administration official has promised to place a new judge in its Rochester satellite office to help ease the backlog of pending disability cases in the area, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said this week.

Legislators and advocates raised concerns last month after Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue announced 10 new administrative law judges throughout New York to help take on the mounting requests for appeals hearings but assigned none to Buffalo. The Buffalo office, which handles most local cases, traditionally had one of the country's longest processing times.

Message To The Troops

This e-mail message went out to many Socal Security personnel on Friday:

This is a message from Linda McMahon, the Deputy Commissioner for Operations, to all Operations employees. You receive these messages from time to time because the DCO wants to communicate her views to you personally.

I waited until now to send this note so I can be the last person to acknowledge you during Public Service Recognition Week. However, I have been thinking about you and the great job you do all week -- and every day before this week as well!

I testified before the Senate Finance Committee yesterday on the challenges we are experiencing in our field offices, and I know those challenges are duplicated throughout Operations. I was proud to talk about your dedication, service commitment and hard work, and I was most gratified when Senator Baucus, Chairman of the Finance Committee, closed the hearing by acknowledging the terrific job all of you do under extremely difficult circumstances.

Despite the shortage of resources, the myriad policy changes, and the ever-increasing number of people coming to us for help, you have better than held your own. You have demonstrated through your actions that service is much more than the work one person does for another. It is, in fact, the relationship that you have with the public and with each other. It's obvious to me that you take those relationships seriously, and that is the key ingredient to our success.

I hope you took time this week to appreciate each other and celebrate your contributions. As always, thanks for what you accomplish every day. Happy Public Service Recognition Week!

Linda

ALJ Association Rebuttal

From a statement filed with the House Social Security Subcommittee by the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ), a union which represents many Social Security ALJs (emphasis in original):

For the April 23 2008 hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee on Clearing the Disability Backlog, Commissioner of Social Security Michael J. Astrue submitted a written statement and testified. The Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) believes significant portions of the Commissioner’s statements were incorrect, misleading or irrelevant to the backlog issue. This statement is submitted in rebuttal. ...

It is critical to understand that currently, of the 758,000 total pending cases, 446,000 of them, 59% of the total backlog, are waiting in the hearing offices to be worked up for a judge to review. This is the precise location of the blockage causing the backlog. ...

The Commissioner’s statement that since he took office in early 2007 he has increased the number of support staff from 4.1 to 4.4 is a surprising statement. Of course any attrition in the number of judges would increase the ratio of staff to judge. To increase the ratio to 4.4 would require a net addition of about 300 staff, or approximately 2 per hearing office. It is quite possible that staff personnel have been added in administrative offices, not working on programs, but such personnel cannot legitimately be considered to be staff supporting the work of the judges. This statement needs clarification and supporting data. ...

Smoke and Mirrors
Many of SSA’s highly publicized “Initiatives to Reduce the Backlog” in fact can have little if any effect on actually reducing the backlog. A few examples:

• The National Hearing Center took five judges from several offices and put them together in a new office in Falls Church. Moving five judges does nothing to reduce the backlog.
• As explained above, hiring 175 new judges without adding adequate staff is a hollow gesture. It is equivalent to purchasing 175 new trucks and fuel for 20.
• SSA has expended approximately 50,000 hours of overtime to aid ODAR in getting its work done. The faults are that the money was spent on non-ODAR personnel who do not know the ODAR work and the overtime was viewed as a benefit and thus rotated among field office personnel. The personnel who learned the job this week were replaced the following week by new personnel who did not know the job. With time lost for on-the-job training plus overtime premium, the cost to SSA has been excessive and the production sub-standard.
• Even the initiative to clear out all cases more than 1,000 days old, while commendable, did not reduce the backlog. Dozens of pages in releases and reports have been devoted to hailing this as reducing the backlog when in fact it merely shifted the production effort from one group of claims to another.

SSA’s Public Relations machine is endeavoring to convince Congress and the public that it is reducing the backlog but a review of the initiatives discloses that, while they may give the appearance of reducing the backlog, in fact they do not. ...

(This is not available elsewhere online at this point to the best of my knowledge)

Mother's Day Message From Social Security

From The Star in Shelby, NC, but obviously from a Social Security press release:

"I helped my mom save $3,600 on prescription drugs and you can too."

As millions greet their moms Sunday with a "Happy Mother's Day," the Social Security Administration is using the tagline above to spread the word of how they're helping cut Medicare drug costs for those in need.

Have a parent on Medicare and with limited income? According to Paul D. Barnes, the Social Security Administration's regional commissioner, his office wants to hear from you.

Barnes, from his Atlanta office, said Congress passed a law in January 2006 for Medicare to expand to cover prescription drugs. And when Congress approved that motion, they also allowed Medicare beneficiaries to apply for extra help if they needed it.

The only problem? Not enough people know they're eligible. ..

Actually, I think there is another problem, lack of Social Security personnel to help with Medicare issues.

ACLU Gets involved

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is starting to pay attention to Social Security's backlogs and staffing problems. They put out a press release on April 23. They just put out filed a statement with the Senate Finance Committee yesterday.

Allsup Responds On Its Role As Debt Collector

I posted on April 21 about a Social Security Administration notice in the Federal Register seeking comments on the use of "master" and "sub" accounts as well as pre-authorization of drafts immediately after benefits are deposited as a means of collecting debts out of Social Security benefits. I mentioned that this seemed to me to raise questions about Allsup's "Overpayment Recovery Service." Allsup represents Social Security disability claimants mostly on behalf of Long Term Disability (LTD) insurers.

LTD plans always contain an offset for Social Security disability benefits. Many people win Social Security disability benefits only after a lengthy struggle. In these cases there are large amounts of back benefits. When the back benefits are paid, the LTD insurer has its hand out wanting back what it had earlier paid. Collecting this offset from the insured might be a problem. Allsup describes its Overpayment Recovery Service as "Withdraw overpayment funds directly from claimant’s bank account using our patented electronic process." I cannot say exactly how this "patented electronic process" works, but it seems obvious that the notice that Social Security published has to do, in part, with what Allsup is doing.

Allsup has belatedly responded to my post.

My opinion is that what they are doing is abusive, especially when one considers that they are both trying to represent a Social Security disability claimant and collect a debt from the claimant. This is a hopeless conflict of interest. More directly, what they are doing is a subterfuge to avoid the statute that makes assignment of Social Security benefits illegal:

The right of any person to any future payment under this title shall not be transferable or assignable, at law or in equity, and none of the moneys paid or payable or rights existing under this title shall be subject to execution, levy, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process, or to the operation of any bankruptcy or insolvency law.

No Match Letters To Cause "Massive Disruption Of The Work Force"

From David Hendricks at the San Antonio Express-News:

Letters listing millions of Social Security “no-match” workers are ready to mail to employers.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency personnel are trained and ready. Buses and vans are standing by for raids. Detention facilities have expanded.

All that is lacking is clearance from the courts.

Employers should be prepared in the coming months for immigration raids on scales never before staged by the federal government. ...

Austin lawyers Kevin Lashus and Robert Loughran compare the federal government's preparations for increased worksite enforcement to an army practicing for battle.

“The government expects a massive disruption of the work force,” Loughran said. “A climate of fear is the strategy of this administration.” ...

Lashus, a former ICE official, has been involved in some of the agency's previous workplace raids. Loughran is a longtime specialist in employer sanctions law.

Whereas ICE has routinely conducted about 10 raids a month, the lawyers expect the pace to rise significantly once the Social Security Administration mails the letters. ICE could strike workplaces 20 to 30 at a time in any given city. The agency would pause to process the cases, then begin new rounds of raids, Lashus said.

Homeland Security wanted to implement its plan last fall, but a U.S. district judge blocked Social Security's no-match letters after labor unions and other organizations contended the plan would disrupt companies and harm innocent workers. ...

Homeland Security appealed the judge's decision but in March proposed to go ahead on its plan. Any day now, the Arizona judge must decide whether to lift the injunction or make it permanent.

If the injunction becomes permanent, Social Security will hold the letters while Homeland Security again appeals. If the injunction is lifted, the no-match letters could be mailed within days.

So what happens at Social Security if this "massive disruption of the work force" goes forward? My best guess is massive disruption. Illegal immigrants will not be contacting the Social Security Administration. It will be U.S. citizens whose careers will be jeopardized by errors in databases and the simple failure to notify the Social Security Administration of name changes. These U.S. citizens will be unable to get through on the telephone. They will find impossibly long lines outside the doors of Social Security field offices. If my guess is correct, I think some people may be asking Michael Astrue why he did not give a stark public warning about what was going to happen.

Senator Snowe On Social Security Funding

Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, was present and asked questions at today's hearing. This afternoon, she posted the following on her blog at The Hill:

Both Congress and the Administration have failed mightily to provide the Social Security Administration the resources it needs to assist the millions of Americans who rely on its services. Consequently, the Agency has been unable to hire new employees to replace the 10 percent of its workforce that has retired in just the last two years.

As baby boomers begin applying for Social Security and disability claims increase, it is absolutely critical that Congress provide the appropriate funding to address this shortfall and prepare for future challenges. Our constituents deserve nothing less, and we must not fail to act on this priority.

What Struck Me About Today's Hearing

I have not yet been able to watch all of today's hearing. The thing that struck me most about what I was able to watch was the comments made by Senator Bunning. Bunning had previously been most insistent that Social Security's hearing backlog, at least, had nothing to do with budget. At this hearing Bunning talked about how getting the Social Security Administration $240 million above the President's recommended budget for the next fiscal year is "essential." He browbeat Linda McMahon about why her agency had not been more independent about submitting its own budget to Congress. I have seen Bunning browbeat other witnesses in the past and did not like it. I found his browbeating of McMahon especially unfortunate, since she is not responsible for Social Security's budget submissions. Perhaps I had misinterpreted some comments he made earlier or perhaps he is now seeing the light. Clearly, he now realizes that Social Security has a big budget problem. Perhaps, it is the office closures and the telephones not being answered. It has to be hard for a Senator to ignore that. If a fairly right wing Senator like Bunning is talking like this, things are changing.

Written Statements At Senate Finance Committee Hearing

From the Committee Chairman, Max Baucus:

My staff found that many Montanans who tried to phone the field offices got busy signals for weeks. In desperation, these Montanans gave up trying to telephone the local field offices. They drove hundreds of miles to the offices and back. This is not acceptable.

In 2006, Social Security surveyed people who reached the field offices by telephone. They found that most callers — 51 percent — had encountered busy signals earlier that day.

And the 51 percent figure is only the tip of the iceberg. Social Security could survey only the people who actually got through to the field offices’ automated answering services or to an employee. If you got a busy signal for weeks on end, and never got through, you were not even part of the survey sample. ...

By the end of last year, Social Security indicated that there was already a backlog of 1,000 workyears for the workloads that are being deferred. That’s not even including the deferred medical continuing disability reviews and SSI redeterminations. By the end of next year, that backlog is expected to grow to 8,100 work-years.

From the Ranking Member, Charles Grassley:

I recently instructed my staff to begin a comprehensive review to identify ways to reduce administrative complexity and improve program integrity [at Social Security]. This is an ongoing effort that is still in progress. I hope to introduce legislation before the end of this summer.

From Linda McMahon, Deputy Commissioner for Operations (somebody screwed up since her statement still has a "Draft" watermark on it):

Although the President's budget will allow us to process more continuing disability reviews and SSI non-disability redeterminations, we still will be unable to address as much of this important workload as we did just a few years ago. ... Although the [President's proposed] FY 2009 budget will allow us to make important strides in core areas, the backlogs of our less visible work, which is generally performed after an individual is approved for benefits, will continue to grow.

This sounds like she thinks her agency needs more money than the President proposed.

From Rick Warsinskey, Past President, National Council of Social Security Management Associations:

We are very skeptical that any computer program could be designed to fully substitute for the in-depth review and analysis that our Claims Representatives conduct for claimants filing for benefits. Again, we are discussing a quarter of a million dollar worth of benefits and the options on selecting these benefits are varied and can be very complicated. Would individuals turn over investing their own money to a computer without any human analysis? We don’t believe SSA has developed a thinking computer, we are nowhere close. We do believe that new estimating software being produced by SSA can assist in educating the claimants on their choices. But this should be backed up by someone who is an expert at providing this assistance. ...

A key concern we have at this time is that there is intense pressure on our employees to increase internet utilization in SSA at the same time the back end of the product we receive isn’t fully ready for prime time. Once a tested and proven internet claims product that works better is released it would be more appropriate to market and try to increase utilization. But all claimants should have the choice to file a claim on the internet and not be pressured to do so. We are aware of instances where some claimants come into a Field Office to file but are encouraged to go back home and file their claim on the internet. We believe this practice is occurring to meet intense pressure to attain internet percentage goals that are often set at regional and area levels.

From Witold Skwierczynski, President of the American Federation of Government Employees National Council of Social Security Administration Field Operations Locals:

Employees who work on the SSA front lines and interact with the public are assigned impossible workloads. They are expected to increase their productivity, interview more and more claimants, maintain a high level of accuracy, provide friendly and compassionate service when interacting with the public while Congress and the President not only assign more programs and workloads to the Agency but do so while reducing staff. Dedicated veteran employees are fed up with the deteriorating stressful work environment and count the days till they can retire. SSA changes priorities and engages in crisis management efforts to plug the rapidly multiplying holes in the dam. ...

SSA staffing shortages have encouraged 3rd party businesses to fill the void and offer to assist claimants in their interactions with SSA. Such assistance, of course, is for a price. Few claimants attempt to navigate the SSA hearings appeal system without representation. However, SSA has plans to encourage and assist 3rd parties in expanding the menu of services that they offer claimants for a fee. ...

SSA asserts that 2.5 million electronic transactions were completed by the public in FY 07. However, a substantial number of these electronic transactions were problematic to the degree that SSA employees were required to recontact the transactor. SSA employees are very concerned about the direction of the Agency strategy toward unreviewed Internet transactions because few Internet applications are completed accurately and, consequently, require recontact by SSA employees.

Barbara Bovbjerg of the Government Accountability Office also testified. It is impossible for me to copy anything from her report. Read it online, however.

ALJ Summit Being Planned

From a notice of intent to make a sole-source acquisition posted by the Social Security Administration:

Intent to Sole Source – Conference Support Services The Social Security Administration Office of the Chief Administrative Law Judge Summit

The Social Security Administration (SSA) intends to negotiate a sole-source acquisition with the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Hotel, 11111 North 7th Street, Phoenix, Arizona, 85020, for the purpose of providing conference support services including registration space, conference meeting space, office space, and associated support services including A/V equipment, morning and afternoon breaks, dry snacks/beverages and a two working lunches for up to 350 attendees on the dates of June 16th -20th, 2008. ... Main meeting space shall be able to accommodate congregation/flow of 350 daily attendees from Monday, June 16th to Thursday, June 19th. Breakout rooms are required as follows: 10 daily rooms from 7:00 a.m. Monday, June 16th to 5:00 p.m. Thursday, June 19th each with round tables to accommodate seating for 35 participants. 1 Breakout room is required on Friday, June 20th from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with round table seating for 30 participants. Exhibit space shall be provided for 2 (8x10) government-furnished booths.

Senate Finance Committee Hearing Today

This morning at 10:00 EDT.

The subject is "More Work, Less Resources: Social Security Field Offices Struggle to Deliver Service to the Public." The hearing should be available for viewing online, both live and as a recording.