From a June 28 letter from Social Security’s Chief Actuary Stephen Goss to Senator Marco Rubio:
I am writing in response to your request for estimates of the long-range financial effects on Social Security of Senate Bill S. 744, as reported out by the Judiciary Committee, amended, and passed by the Senate on June 27. …
We estimate that enactment of this Bill would increase asset
I’m hearing reports that Social Security’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) offices nationwide are experiencing telephone difficulties today. It’s not clear to me whether this is affecting other parts of Social Security as well.
I wrote last week that Social Security seemed unprepared for the decision of the Supreme Court holding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. Some agencies were prepared for this decision. See the memo from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued just a day after Social Security issued staff instructions to hold all claims filed by those in same sex marriages.
There is a report of delays in direct deposits of Social Security benefits in the Wichita, KS area. If this report is accurate, the fault lies not with Social Security but with the Department of the Treasury which processes the direct doposits — but Social Security will get the calls.
The Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) has posted updated figures
for the number of employees at Social Security.These figures do not
show the effects of reductions in overtime at Social Security.
March 2013 63,777
December 2012 64,538
September 2012 65,113
June 2012 65,282
March
2012 65,257
December 2011 65,911
September 2011 67,136
June 2011 67,773
March 2011 68,700
December
I think this chart from a recent Urban Institute report is interesting. (DI = Disability Insurance):
Social Security has sent out its first staff instruction on what to do with same sex marriages in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. The instruction is to “Take and hold all claims by individuals who are filing for benefits that are dependent upon the existence of a same-sex marriage.” This is not just for those who have moved
From an AP piece:
Driven to reduce a huge backlog of disability claims,
Social Security is pushing judges to award benefits to people who may
not deserve them, several current and former judges told Congress
Thursday.
Larry Butler, an administrative law judge from Fort Myers, Fla., called the system “paying down the backlog.”
A former Social Security judge, J.E. Sullivan, said,
Some excerpts from the written statements of witnesses at today’s hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee:
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Larry Butler (31% reversal rate): “The Social Security disability programs are bankrupt. … Is SSA managing the disability system for the primary benefit of genuinely disabled individuals and taxpayers or has the disability
Here’s the witness list for tomorrow’s hearing before the House Oversight Committee, with the reversal rates for each of the Administrative Law Judges in parentheses after their name:
The Honorable Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Oklahoma), Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs,
The Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevented the Social Security Administration and other agencies from recognizing same sex marriages, has been found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Unfortunately, this leaves open the question of whether Social Security can recognize same sex marriages when the married person has moved to a state that refuses to recognize same sex
From a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) set to appear in the Federal Register tomorrow:
To better utilize our limited resources and make our hearing process more efficient for all claimants, we propose to modify our rules so that we would notify a claimant earlier in the process, before an ALJ is assigned or a hearing is scheduled, that he or she has the right to object to
