Sunday, May 22, 2022

3 Important Updates From the NOSSCR Annual Conference

The National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (“NOSSCR”) held its annual conference in Austin, Texas, last week. It was exciting for multiple reasons. For starters, it was an in-person conference. Well, some speakers attended virtually, but the conference goers were all real, non-Zoom-an beings.  While I did come home with a cold (not COVID….I was tested J), I also came back to California with updates – some positive and some a little bleak. Here are 3 updates from NOSSCR that you may be interested in hearing about.

1.     SSA’s Acting Commissioner, Dr. Kilolo Kijakazi, announced that beginning November 30, 2022, SSA is raising the representative fee cap to $7,200.00. This is the first pay raise that representatives have had since 2009. Thirteen years is a long time to go without a pay increase, especially since our fees are not subject to standard Cost-Of-Living-Adjustments (“COLA”) and we have been dealing with all the increased costs that come along with inflation. SSA charges representatives a “user fee” for withholding our fees, so while that fee has steadily increased every year, our attorneys’ fees remained stagnant.  This caused some representatives to start practicing other areas of law to make ends meet and others abandoned their Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) and Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) practices altogether in recent years.  I hope the increased fees mean more “mom and pop” practices like mine will be able to survive in order to help those who are truly deserving of disability benefits. Thank you to all of those who lobbied to increase the fee cap!

2.      Acting Commissioner Kijakazi also gave us an honest portrayal of what is going on at SSA. She fully acknowledged that SSA lacks an adequate budget to handle the volume of claims that SSA has to process every day. While she is thankful for any budget increase that Congress may bestow on SSA, she explained that the current budget was not even close to what is needed to successfully run day-to-day service at SSA.

While this news may sound bleak and cynical, I really appreciated Acting Commissioner Kijakazi’s candor. Like most practitioners and claimants, I have become increasingly frustrated with the poor customer service we have been experiencing from our local field offices. There are times I feel enraged at how poorly some of my clients’ cases are handled by the local field offices. I see “red” at times when we can’t get through to any employees at SSA to address pressing issues for our clients. However, I can’t expect champagne service when SSA has a beer budget…and not a high-end microbrew budget, but more like the garbage kids drink in college. SSA CANNOT perform their jobs if they don’t have a budget to run the program.  

Thus, I am going to make an effort to stop criticizing SSA’s field offices, when the blame seems to fall more with our elected officials. SSA employees are clearly overworked and undervalued. You can’t just assign 1,000 cases to employee and think that person is going to do a stellar job. SSA doesn’t need a bunch of attorneys attacking them right now when they are already having dirt kicked in their faces by our elected officials. Instead, I am going to focus more on who I vote for and educating those as to the necessity of SSDI and SSI benefits.

3.      NOSSCR announced a changing of the guard. While NOSSCR has spent years helping to educate attorneys as to the ins and outs of SSDI and SSI law, they seem to realize that they must focus their efforts more on legislative affairs and policy making. Thus, they are moving their offices from New York to Washington D.C. to become a true legislative player. They are also on a hunt for a new Executive Director.  

I think this is excellent news. I have practiced this area of law for 19 years now. I like to see new blood and “shakeups” in the system. I think a lot of us have felt that our clients have gotten railroaded over the last several years with procedural and legal changes that have hurt the most vulnerable people who need help. I like the fact that NOSSCR recognizes the need to develop new strategies to improve the SSA system. I let me membership lapse years ago, but I was impressed enough with NOSSCR’s changes in the works that I plan to reactivate it.   

Got a question about SSDI or SSI that you need us to answer? Please check out our website at www.westcoastdisability.com . We try to provide you with helpful information on our website that will allow you to successfully navigate the Social Security Disability process. Also, feel free to email me your questions at megan@westcoastdisability.com or call me at (800) 459-3017 x 101.