Social Security, the most successful domestic program in our nation’s history, is celebrating its 75th anniversary. …

Today, millions of retirees live in dignity thanks to their monthly Social Security benefit payment. Over the decades, Social Security expanded to not only protect against the risk of poverty in old age, but also the economic risk of career-ending disability and the premature death of a worker. …

As we celebrate 75 years, I reflect on how Social Security was there for my family, how proud I am to work for this remarkable program, and how lucky I am to lead such a talented and compassionate work force.

I have two wonderful children who entered the work force in the past year. One is being called up for active military duty in October and the other will teach inner-city children. It is imperative that they and millions of other young Americans have confidence that we will continue to honor the great inter-generational contract that is Social Security.

It is in this spirit that President Barack Obama established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that in December will make recommendations regarding the future of Social Security. …

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From a letter to USA Today:Dick Armey, chairman of FreedomWorks, is dreaming in his piece “Let’s upend Social Security” (Opposing view, Retirement income debate, Tuesday). Eliminating Social Security and putting it in each worker’s hands would be the scam artist’s bonanza. I get calls every day from scammers peddling precious metals, movie investments, “green” energy and other things. Remember financiers Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford?
If the so-called experts at Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns couldn’t get it right, how would the average Joe who doesn’t have training or expertise in the financial field? And if the economy went south, as it did the past few years, how many workers would spend their retirement instead of investing it?

Marvin Chosky; Bedford, Texas

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Social Security (SSA) has released statistics which track, by state, the numbers of recipients of Disability payments as well as showing other SSA beneficiaries of our important social insurance program. These federal funds support widows, children whose parents have died, retirees and the disabled. For many, this is the only possible access to health insurance thru Medicare.

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The Social Security system remains backlogged and although there is some improvement at the hearing level, one can question whether this is just because more cases are lagging behind at the initial and reconsideration levels of appeal. THe Associate Press takes on this issue here:
“Nearly 2 million people are waiting to find out if they qualify for Social Security disability benefits. It will be a long wait for most, even if they eventually win their cases.

The Social Security system is so overwhelmed by applications for disability benefits that many people are waiting more than two years for their first payment. In Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and other states, the wait can be even longer.

The Social Security commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, says the delays are unacceptable, particularly for people who have paid payroll taxes for years to support the system and now are unable to work because of debilitating medical problems. Astrue has had some success in reducing a case backlog that has plagued the system for years. But a spike in new applications, linked to the economic recession, threatens to swamp the system again.

Claims typically increase in a bad economy because many people who worked despite their disabilities get laid off and apply for benefits.

About 3.3 million people are expected to apply for benefits this year. That’s 300,000 more than last year and 700,000 more than in 2008.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5guw84_hAq02tLZCuigFPyIZg_rKwD9FJDQQG1 See story here:

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This one is worth reading through – a statement by the head of the Union representing staff in Social Security Field offices about the new options for filing and appealing online:

“Commissioner Astrue has testified that iClaims are more accurate than claims taken by SSA employees. What he is not telling Congress is that ALL iClaims are reviewed and corrected by SSA employees before payment can be authorized. In addition, the most common error, incorrect month of election, is not considered an error under Commissioner Astrue’s financial literacy concept. Under this philosophy the client is responsible for determining the best time to begin their benefits and the SSA employee shouldn’t interfere in that decision even if the claimant’s choice appears clearly disadvantageous. This philosophy as led to many claimants making uninformed decisions which will result in thousands of dollars in lost benefits. However, since claimants can’t make errors regarding the month they elect benefits, SSA’s Internet statistics look good.

“SSA does not and will not perform audits on the Internet claims at the point they are submitted by the applicant. Instead, the claim is reviewed after an SSA employee makes the necessary corrections. This creates the illusion that the public completed the claims correctly. …

“The Commissioner announced last year that SSA’s iClaims process would allow claimants to file Internet claims without SSA employee review starting this year. SSA employees and AFGE were shocked and appalled that such changes would proceed, due to the vast number of claims that require correction before decisions about entitlement or payment amount are effectuated. The Commissioner has delayed implementation of a non‐reviewed iclaims filing process. This delay should be permanent. …

“While resources are limited and field/TSC [Teleservice Centers] staffing levels have not increased in relation to additional workloads, SSA management continues to engage in unethical behavior in processing work and measuring the amount of work completed. SSA management engages in a variety of questionable practices which are designed to enhance individual office statistical performance. Such practices include processing claims for individuals who are clearly ineligible for benefits, and padding statistics by taking unnecessary actions such as reissuing Medicare cards to every client in the office whether or not they request such cards. Systems tricks are employed by some managers to reflect inaccurate processing times in order to claim better statistical performance.”

Witold Skwierczynski, President, National Council of SSA Field Operations Locals, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) , AFL-CIO

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An excellent article in the Military e-Times explains:
“You probably know that a child can receive Social Security benefits on a parent’s record if the parent is receiving disability or retirement benefits or as the survivor of a parent who is deceased. But did you know that while most Social Security benefits for children end when a child reaches age 18, a child — if blind or disabled — may qualify for benefits as a “disabled adult child” well past that age?

Disabled adult children may include biological and adopted children, and sometimes even a stepchild, grandchild or step-grandchild. To qualify for disabled adult child benefits, the child must be unmarried, at least 18 years old and must have a disability that began before reaching age 22. As long as the adult child was disabled before age 22, continues to be disabled and did not work, the child may be eligible. See full story here:

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1. Internet:       www.regulations.gov.  Search for docket number SSA-2009-0081.
2. Fax:             410-966-2830
3. Mail:             Office of Regulations
Social Security Administration
137 Altmeyer Building
6401 Security Boulevard
Baltimore, Maryland  21235-6401
 
(If comments are mailed, note that they must be “received” no later than March 30, 2010.)

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The new list of compassionate allowances for Social Security benefits includes Alzheimer’s disease, rather unexpectedly. Although the national associations had been lobbying for this for years, what finally tipped the scale was a patient who went to a SSA panel meeting on the compassionate allowances, and spoke from the heart about his 14 month struggle to get benefits after his diagnosis. Sometimes, it pays to be your own advocate.

The list previously had 50 conditions — 25 rare diseases and 25 cancers. The change adding 38 conditions is effective March 1

Here is the story:

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Charles Hall’s excellent blog today posts a note about a request for comments on drug and alcohol addiction as a disability. SSA’s attitudes have veered back and forth on this over the years. In the early 90′s it was a disability, with the hope that people would get treatment if they got benefits. Though treatment was required it was not widely avaialble, so in the mid 90′s that avenue to disability was slammed closed, though sometimes people had mental illness which ould otherwise qualify them.

SO now: from a Request for Comments to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow:

We are requesting your comments about our operating procedures for determining disability for persons whose drug addiction or alcoholism (DAA) may be a contributing factor material to our determination of disability. …

To provide guidance on how we interpret the DAA provisions of the Act, we issued instructions to our employees in an Emergency Message on August 30, 1996.

We are asking for your comments on the procedures we follow when evaluating DAA. In particular, we would like your opinion about what, if any, changes you think we should make to our instructions. For example, do you have any suggestions about:

What evidence we should consider to be medical evidence of DAA?
How we should evalua te claims of people who have a combination of DAA and at least one other physical impairment?
How we should evaluate the claims of people who have a combination of DAA and at least one other mental impairment?
Whether we should include using cigarettes and other tobacco products in our instructions?
How long a period of abstinence or nonuse we should consider to determine whether DAA is material to our determination of disability?
Whether there is any special guidance we can provide for people with DAA who are homeless?
Social Security’s position has been that if it is impossible to separate the effects of DAA from the effects of other psychiatric illness that the combined effect of both may be considered disabling. This situation is frequently present in individuals suffering from bipolar disorder, a psychiatric illness which has a high degree of association with DAA. A change in this policy would be of considerable importance.

Here are the links: Drug Addiction and Alcoholism; Request for Comments ,
4900 [2010-1834]
[TEXT]
[PDF]

Charles says: The talk of whether a period of abstinence should be required before a person could be found disabled is worrisome. The statute does not forbid disability payments to alcoholics and drug addicts. It merely prohibits consideration of alcoholism and drug addiction in determining disability. A person may have a raging substance abuse disorder but be found disabled due to other health problems. This has always bothered some people. They find drug abuse and alcoholism so loathsome that they believe that no one alcoholics or drug addicts should be on Social Security disability benefits even though the statute says otherwise. One interpretation of this notice is that Social Security has a desire to move towards forbidding benefits to anyone with a substance abuse problem.

Our experience is the same as that of Charles. The main thing we look for is whether, absent addiction, the person would still be disabled. In other words, getting clean and sober doesn’t cure AIDS. But it might go a long way toward aleviating depression.

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Social Security (SSA) is in the long process of collecting comments on proposed changes to the Listing of Impairments for Endocrine Disorders. These changes would abolish diabetes as a separate “listing,” which would mean that proving cases of disability based on disabetes would be more difficult.

There is a comment period on the proposed rules that is open until February 12. The changes are based on the presumption that advances in medical care have made diabetes a manageable condition, not one that is disabling. The current regulations allow a finding of disability in advanced cases of diabetes, where conditions such as peripheral neuropathy or loss of a limb can be attributed to the unconrtolled disease, and prevent work.

The Listings were last revised in 1985 and also cover other endocrine disorders such as pituatary disorders and disorders of the adrenal cortex. The link to the proposed regulatory changes and comment section can be found here:

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