Archive for the ‘Social Security Disability’ Category

Social Security Announces 3.6 Percent Benefit Increase for 2012

Cost-of-Living Adjustment is First Since 2009

Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 60 million Americans will increase 3.6 percent in 2012, the Social Security Administration announced today.

The 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that nearly 55 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2012. Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 30, 2011.

Some other changes that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $110,100 from $106,800. Of the estimated 161 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2012, about 10 million will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum.

Information about Medicare changes for 2012, when announced, will be available at www.Medicare.gov. For some beneficiaries, their Social Security increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums.

The Social Security Act provides for how the COLA is calculated. To read more, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.

In a new video public service announcement, George Takei and Patty Duke are helping Social Security get the word out that the best way to get your benefit payment is to “Go Direct.”

STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Published: Aug 21, 2011

FILE – In this Nov. 15, 2010, file photo Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue responds to questions at a hearing in Akron, Ohio. A Senate oversight committee told Astrue the agency hasn’t done enough to trim its disability claims backlog. Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can’t find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs. Many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File) WASHINGTON (AP) – Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security’s disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.

Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can’t find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.

The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants – many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved – and worsening the financial problems of a program that’s been running in the red for years.

New congressional estimates say the trust fund that supports Social Security disability will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits, unless Congress acts. About two decades later, Social Security’s much larger retirement fund is projected to run dry as well.

Much of the focus in Washington has been on fixing Social Security’s retirement system. Proposals range from raising the retirement age to means-testing benefits for wealthy retirees. But the disability system is in much worse shape and its problems defy easy solutions.

The trustees who oversee Social Security are urging Congress to shore up the disability system by reallocating money from the retirement program, just as lawmakers did in 1994. That would provide only short-term relief at the expense of weakening the retirement program.

Claims for disability benefits typically increase in a bad economy because many disabled people get laid off and can’t find a new job. This year, about 3.3 million people are expected to apply for federal disability benefits. That’s 700,000 more than in 2008 and 1 million more than a decade ago.

“It’s primarily economic desperation,” Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said in an interview. “People on the margins who get bad news in terms of a layoff and have no other place to go and they take a shot at disability,”

The disability program is also being hit by an aging population – disability rates rise as people get older – as well as a system that encourages people to apply for more generous disability benefits rather than waiting until they qualify for retirement.

Retirees can get full Social Security benefits at age 66, a threshold gradually rising to 67. Early retirees can get reduced benefits at 62. However, if you qualify for disability, you can get full benefits, based on your work history, even before 62.

Also, people who qualify for Social Security disability automatically get Medicare after two years, even if they are younger than 65, the age when other retirees qualify for the government-run health insurance program.

Congress tried to rein in the disability program in the late 1970s by making it tougher to qualify. The number of people receiving benefits declined for a few years, even during a recession in the early 1980s. Congress, however, reversed course and loosened the criteria, and the rolls were growing again by 1984.

The disability program “got into trouble first because of liberalization of eligibility standards in the 1980s,” said Charles Blahous, one of the public trustees who oversee Social Security. “Then it got another shove into bigger trouble during the recent recession.”

Today, about 13.6 million people receive disability benefits through Social Security or Supplemental Security Income. Social Security is for people with substantial work histories, and monthly disability payments average $927. Supplemental Security Income does not require a work history but it has strict limits on income and assets. Monthly SSI payments average $500.

As policymakers work to improve the disability system, they are faced with two major issues: Legitimate applicants often have to wait years to get benefits while many others get payments they don’t deserve.

Last year, Social Security detected $1.4 billion in overpayments to disability beneficiaries, mostly to people who got jobs and no longer qualified, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Congress is targeting overpayments.

The deficit reduction package enacted this month would allow Congress to boost Social Security’s budget by about $4 billion over the next decade to invest in programs that identify people who no longer qualify for disability benefits. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that increased enforcement would save nearly $12 billion over the next decade.

At the same time, the application process can be a nightmare for legitimate applicants. About two-thirds of initial applications are rejected. Most of these people drop their claims, but for those willing go through an appeals process that can take two years or more, chances are good they eventually will get benefits.

Astrue has pledged to reduce processing times for applicants’ appeals, and he has had some success, even as the number of claims skyrockets. The number of people waiting for decisions has increased, but their wait times are going down.

“It’s ludicrous to say that the backlog problem is getting worse,” Astrue said. “The backlog problem has gotten dramatically better.”

Patricia L. Foster said she was working as a nurse in a hospital in Columbia, S.C., in 2005 when she was attacked by a patient who was suffering from a mental illness. Foster, 64, said she injured her neck so bad she had a plate inserted. She said she also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Foster was turned down twice for Social Security disability benefits before finally getting them in 2009, after hiring an Illinois-based company, Allsup, to represent her. She said she was awarded retroactive benefits, though the process was demeaning.

“I have to tell you, when you’re told you cannot return to nursing because of your disability, you don’t know how long I cried about that,” Foster said. “And then Social Security says, ‘Oh no, you don’t qualify.’ You don’t know what that does to you emotionally. You have no idea.”

The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) recently announced that it is changing its rules regarding the submission of a new application for benefits while concurrently filing an appeal of a denial of a claim to the Appeals Council. Previously if a claimant’s application is denied at the hearing level, the claimant could both file an appeal of that denial to the Appeals Council and also file a new application for benefits.

However, now SSA “will no longer process a subsequent disability claim if you already have a claim under the same title and of the same type pending in our administrative review process.”

This change took effect on July 28, 2011.

Key provisions of this policy change include:

• A claimant who wants to file a new disability claim under the same title and of the same benefit type will have to choose between continuing with the administrative appeal or declining to pursue administrative review and filing a new application.
• If the choice is to purse the administrative appeal, SSA will not accept the subsequent application.
• Additional evidence reporting a new medical condition or a worsening of existing medical conditions can still be submitted. If submitted to an SSA Field Office, the evidence will be forwarded (in most cases, electronically) to the office handling the claim, e.g., the ODAR hearing office or the Appeals Council.
• If the claimant decides to pursue the first claim and it is pending at the Appeals Council and additional evidence is submitted, the Appeals Council will first determine if the evidence relates to the period on or before the date of the ALJ hearing decision. If it does relate to that period, the Appeals Council will consider it with the rest of the record.
• If the new and material evidence relates to the period on or before the date of the hearing decision and “shows a critical or disabling condition, the Appeals Council will expedite its review of your pending claim.”
• If the additional evidence relates to the period after the date of the ALJ decision, the Appeals Council will return the evidence to the claimant per 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.976(b) and 416.1476(b).
The evidence will be returned when the Appeals Council takes action on the appealed claim. The notice from the Appeals Council will inform the claimant that “under certain circumstances,” SSA will consider the date the request for review was filed as the protective filing date for the new claim. To be covered by the protective filing date, new Title II applications will need to be filed within six months of the date of the Appeals Council notice; new SSI claims will need to be filed within 60 days of the notice. Id.The new application can be filed only after the Appeals Council completes action on the request for review of the first claim.
• If the claimant decides not to pursue further review of the pending claim, a new application can be filed. However, the claimant will need to withdraw the request for review.

Medical records are critical components of social security disability claims. If you have applied for social security benefits, you must seek regular medical treatment. However, don’t stop at just seeing your doctor. Be certain that you clearly communicate all of your symptoms and conditions to your physician and ask that the doctor put these symptoms into your records.

If the judge finds that you are a credible witness at your hearing and your medical records are consistent with your testimony about your symptoms, then there is a strong chance that the judge will give great weight to your testimony.

The Social Security Administration has released the statistics for 2009 showing the number of claims denied and approved at each review level.  The results are as follows:

Initial Determination:  2,686,152 claims

31%-Approved

63%-Denied

Reconsideration:  582,992 claims

14%-Approved

86%-Denied

Administrative Law Judge Hearing:  554,025 claims

63%-Approved

15%-Dismissed

22%-Denied

These figures are almost identical to the statistics from 2008.

According to the August NOSSCR publication, dispositions by ALJs and senior attorneys are up 27.5 % since 2008.  Although more ALJs have been added, an increased number of applications due to the recession has kept the number of pending claims before ODAR rather stable. 

Anecdotally, both the Evansville and Fort Wayne offices have been scheduling hearings much quicker.  I have had a few claims scheduled only about six months after the Request for Hearing was submitted.

The official current processing time for Indiana offices is as follows:

Fort Wayne:  515 days

Evansville:  556 days

Indianapolis:  586 days

Social security applicants and receipients who have worker’s compensation claims would be well advised to consult with a worker’s compensation attorney and/or social security attorney prior to settling their worker’s compensation claims. 

In Indiana most worker’s compensation settlements are comprised of compensation for a person’s permanent partial impairment (“PPI”).  PPI is defined through case law as a loss of physical function.  PPI compensation is not based on a person’s past or future income loss and is not a wage replacement benefit.  It is often paid to an injured worker in a lump sum. 

Despite this, the Social Security Administration views worker’s compensation settlements, even just PPI settlements, as income and will use this income to off-set the social security benefits due to a claimaint.  However, this offset can be minimized by the use of particular language in the worker’s compensation settlement documents.  This language theoretically spreads the worker’s compensation settlement proceeds througout the claimant’s life expectancy, typically resulting in no or a much lesser offset amount. 

Without this language, the Social Security Administration will likely use a person’s temporary total disability rate to offset the social security disability benefits due.  This could reduce a claimant’s monthly benefits drastically. 

Claimants should be sure to avoid an offset to social security benefits (or potential benefits) by consulting with an attorney about the appropriate language to include in a worker’s compensation settlement.

New ODAR processing times have been released. Unfortunately, the Indiana ODAR offices continue to rank at the bottom of the list. As of May 28, 2101, the National Ranking Report ranks the Fort Wayne office number 111, the Indianapolis office number 120 and the Evansville office number 128.

Average processing time for the Fort Wayne office is 485 days. The Indianapolis office registers 501 days, and the Evansville office has slipped to an average processing time of 514 days.

Of note, I recently had two claims that were transfered from handling by Indianapolis to San Antonio ODAR. The hearings on these claims occurred in Danville, IL. This sped up the process for these claimants and helps to relieve some of the back up in Indianapolis.

I talked in my last post about the importance of continued medical treatment in Social Security Disability and SSI cases. It is a familiar scenario that many of our firm’s worker’s compensation clients lose their employer-provided health insurance when they are not able to return to work after they exhaust their FMLA or disability leave. Although they usually are entitled to continued coverage under COBRA, most of our clients cannot afford to pay the hefty premiums.

This week Congress passed a bill that might enable many of our clients to afford continued health coverage under COBRA. (Yes, believe it or not, Congress IS actually passing some bills these days!) In 2009, Congress included a provision in the stimulus bill (ARRA) under which the government reimburses the COBRA provider for 65% of the premium cost, so that the worker only has to pay 35% of what their premium otherwise would be. Originally it only covered workers that were involuntarily terminated from Sept. 1, 2008-Dec. 31, 2009, but in the bill passed this week (the “Temporary Extension Act of 2010”), it now also covers people who are terminated from 9/1/08-March 31, 2010. Premium reductions last for up to 15 months.
As you can guess, there is lots of fine print, so clients that this might pertain to will need to contact their employer’s COBRA provider to see if they qualify. Here’s a link to the DOL website that explains in more detail:

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html