Social Security Disability News: 2024

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Outlook For 2025

As we get ready to wrap up 2024 and ring in 2025, a lot of my clients are asking me what to expect for 2025. The truth is I have no idea. Martin O'Malley, the former Commissioner of the Social Security Administration ("SSA"), stepped down to seek a nomination for chairperson of the Democratic National Committee. Though he was only SSA's Commissioner for about a year, I found him to be the most proactive Commissioner that we have had in the 20 years that I have practiced law before the Social Security Administration. He will be truly missed, but I suspect he will go on to be one of the top leaders in the Democratic Party. He previously did run for President in 2016, but I for one, would like to see him reignite his ambitions for the top job again.

Currently, Carolyn Colvin has been made the Acting Commissioner of SSA, though we expect she will be replaced by a new Commissioner once President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office in January.

Only time will tell what is in store for SSA over the next four years, but I remind people that SSA has been helmed by a variety of Democratic and Republican leaders since its infancy in 1935 and it never has been dismantled. SSA could truly be made much more efficient, especially with drastically decreasing the bloated and overused consultative examination process that seems to be SSA's main way of manufacturing a reason to deny deserving claimants who do actually meet SSA's definition of disability. Therefore, I am open to the idea that some outsiders may look at SSA's processes to see how they can be made more accurate and efficient. I still cannot comprehend how SSA is making mistakes like denying stage 4 cancer patients' benefits, when they meet both the medical and technical rules for disability. I like accountability, so I am open to a system that makes all employees accountable for the work that they do.

SSA, nor any other Federal agency, has ever been open to embracing change. Change is scary for all of us, but SSA is a broken Administration that needs to be revamped. Mr. O'Malley certainly did his part to try to bring SSA into a modern era. Hopefully, the next Administration follows his lead.

Regardless of what happens, I will still be around to help those who need assistance with their SSDI/SSI claims. There are also many other excellent attorneys, non attorney representatives, social workers, and nonprofits, who devote their lives to helping those who are having difficulty navigating the Social Security Disability system.

Please enjoy what is left of 2024, but keep an open mind to where we are heading for 2025. Life is what we make of it, so I am both hopeful and interested to see what 2025 brings for all of us!

Happy Holidays to all.....and just remember the main difference between in-laws and outlaws during the holiday season, is that the outlaws are wanted..I kid..I kid :)!

Got a question that you need answered? Please check out our website at www.westcoastdisability.com . We try to provide you with valuable information on our website that may help you navigate the Social Security Disability process. Also, feel free to shoot me an email at megan@westcoastdisability.com or call us at (800) 459-3017 x 101.

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

SSA Announces a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (“COLA”) for 2025

The Social Security Administration has announced this month a 2.5 percent benefit increase for 2024. This cost-of-living adjustment (“COLA”) will begin on December 31, 2024 for Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) beneficiaries. Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) and Social Security Retirement recipients will see the effects of the COLA in their January 2025 benefit payments. This COLA will affect the more than 72.5 million Americans who receive monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits.

Additionally, the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security tax will be increased from $168,600 to $176,100.

For more information on the 2025 COLA adjustment, please visit Social Security’s website for more details.

Friday, September 13, 2024

Social Security Removes Wet Signature Requirements For Many Forms

The Social Security Administration ("SSA") is trying to ease the burden on claimants trying to access benefits by reducing the number of forms that require a wet signature. So far, SSA is allowing digital signatures on 30 forms. Most notably, SSA is allowing claimants to digitally sign the Authorization to Disclose Information to SSA form (aka as the SSA-827 form), a commonly used form that is required several times throughout the Social Security Disability Insurance ("SSDI") and Supplemental Security Income ("SSI") application and appeal processes.

For more information on SSA's digitalization improvements, check out SSA's press release from yesterday:
https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/releases/2024/#2024-09-05

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.

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

The Social Security Administrations Announces 9 New Compassionate Allowances Conditions For 2024

The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) added 9 new conditions to the Compassionate Allowances program. SSA also revised two conditions that were already on the Compassionate Allowances list. This brings the total number of conditions on the list to 287. Disabilities that comprise the Compassionate Allowance list represent the most serious disabilities that affect individuals. The purpose of the program is to expedite disability decisions, so individuals suffering from these severe diseases receive their benefit decisions as quick as possible. More than one million people with life-threatening disabilities have received their benefits through this expedited process. The new additions include:

1. Bainbridge-Ropers Syndrome

2. Costello Syndrome

3. Adult Heart Transplant Wait List - Status Levels 1-4

4. Child Heart Transplant Wait List - Status Levels 1A/1B (revised existing condition)

5. Histiocytic Malignancies

6. Histiocytosis Syndromes (revised existing condition)

7. Neonatal Marfan Syndrome

8. PACS1 Syndrome

9. Plasmablastic Lymphoma

10. Renal Medullary Carcinoma

11. Snijders Blok-Campeau Syndrome

To see a complete list of all the impairments which qualify for the Compassionate Allowances program, visit this website: https://www.ssa.gov/compassionateallowances/conditions.htm/.

Got a question that you need answered? Please check out our website at www.westcoastdisability.com . We try to provide you with valuable information on our website that may help you navigate the Social Security Disability process. Also, feel free to shoot us an email at megan@westcoastdisability.com or call us at (800) 459-3017.

Friday, July 19, 2024

Crowdstrike Strikes the Social Security Administration

Just an FYI - folks! If you were planning on heading to your local Social Security Administration ("SSA") office or calling your local SSA office today to check the status of your application or appeal, wait until next week. The global Microsoft and Crowdstrike outage problems that were responsible for canceling numerous flights and elective surgeries have also caused SSA to close today. SSA claimed that while their offices were closed, you could still call in and get your questions answered, but I am finding it impossible to get through any of their phone lines. Let's hope this one-day outage doesn't lead SSA to fall further behind in processing claims.

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Archaic Asset Limitations for the Supplemental Security Income ("SSI") Program Continues to Create Issues for Vulnerable Americans

Here is some excellent reporting by National Public Radio's, Mr. Joseph Shapiro, regarding the pitfalls of the Supplemental Security Income ("SSI") program:

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/08/g-s1-3475/social-security-ssi-asset-limits

We hear these stories all the time. The SSI program is archaic and incomprehensible, so please make sure you educate yourself as to the resource limits when it comes to SSI. Even going $5 over the 2K resource level, for an individual, and 3K level, for a couple, will get your SSI benefits cutoff. You may also get saddled with an overpayment.

Some of the resources that the Social Security Administration ("SSA") looks at are:

Bank Accounts;
Burial funds (in certain instances);
Cash;
Deemed Resources;
Land;
Life Insurance;
Personal Property;
Retirement Accounts;
Stocks, bonds, CDs, mutual funds;
Anything else you own which could be changed to cash and used for food and shelter.

Vehicles; and

For more information on how SSA looks at SSI resources, visit SSA's resource page at: https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-resources-ussi.htm

Sunday, May 19, 2024

The Social Security Administration Announces the Top Baby Names for 2023

Did you name a baby Liam or Olivia in 2023? If so, you are in good company. The Social Security Administration announced that Liam was the top male name, while Olivia was the top female name for 2023.

Here is the list of top 10 names for baby boys and girls for 2023.

Male names:

1. Liam

2. Noah

3. Oliver

4. James

5. Elijah

6 Mateo

7. Theodore

8. Henry

9. Lucas

10. William

Female Names:

1. Olivia

2. Emma

3. Charlotte

4. Amelia

5. Sophia

6. Mia

7. Isabella

8. Ava

9. Evelyn

10. Luna

All of these make sense to me with the exception of Luna. Do not get me wrong...it is a lovely name, but I have never met a human named Luna. I have known a plethora of cats and dogs named Luna, but I have never met a human child named Luna. I must be wrong because Luna was the tenth most popular name for girls.

Thursday, May 2, 2024

The Social Security Administration Announces Changes To How They Assess Past Relevant Work

The Social Security Administration (SSA”) announced welcomed news that they are changing how they assess past relevant work (“PRW”) when it comes to Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) and Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) claims. Currently, PRW is work that a claimant has performed over the last 15 years. However, starting on June 8, 2024, SSA will only consider work performed in the last five years to be PRW.

Why is this important to disability assessments? Current law states that you cannot be found disabled if your disability doesn’t prevent you from performing any job that you held over the last 15 years, or if disability doesn’t prevent you from performing any job that you have held over the last 15 years that you have transferrable skills to. There are exceptions. For instance, if a claimant performed a job for less than 30 days, it generally cannot be counted against the claimant. This is because it is likely that an individual who performed a job for less than 30 days wasn’t at the job long enough to learn the job.

However, if an individual was at the job long enough to learn the skillset required to perform the job requirements, and the work was performed in the last 15 years, SSA will consider that job to be PRW.

This has been a problematic way to categorize work because rapid changes in technology have made jobs performed today radically different than jobs performed 15 years ago. Take for example the teaching industry. While computers were naturally prevalent in the classroom 15 years ago, platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams were not. Teachers of today contend with a variety of options to conduct their classes by. They can hold classes or office hours virtually. They can break courses into online modules for students to learn at their own pace. Teachers must be aware of technology that students are using to cut corners like utilizing artificial intelligence to write papers. These were not issues that teachers from 15 years ago had to address. Modern day teachers must be much more technologically savvy than the teachers from 15 years ago.

I recognize this sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo but let me give you a real-life example. I had a client who had been a painter for the last 15 years. He is in his late 50’s and had a cervical fusion which prevented him from returning to his painting position. The problem was that this client had worked as a telemarketer 13 years ago. His cervical injury did not necessarily prevent him from performing his telemarketing job. The telemarketing industry may have changed substantially over the last 15 years, but my client’s former position as a telemarketer was a job that SSA could consider as a potential position that my client could perform now despite his cervical fusion. SSA’s decision to change PRW to a 5-year window would have helped my client establish that he could not work.

Keep in mind that changing the PRW categorization from 15 to five years does not help claimants under the age of 50. If you are under 50, SSA will not consider you disabled if you could perform any work in the nationally economy despite your physical or mental disability. SSA does keep in mind an individual’s skill level and education when assessing one’s ability to work. SSA won’t say that a person with an 8^th grade education can be a doctor, but if you are under the age of 50 and have the physical and mental ability to perform an unskilled job, then SSA expects you to work.

SSA only starts looking at transferable skills when a claimant is over the age of 50. This is because the older we get, the harder it can be to adjust to other work. Also, the government doesn’t expect that someone in their late 50’s who held a sedentary position for most of her life would adapt to a heavier job, like one found in the construction industry.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Commissioner O’Malley Takes on The Social Security Administration’s Overpayment Crisis

The Social Security Administration’s (“SSA’s”) Commissioner, Martin O’ Malley, has announced a plan to attack the overpayment crisis. Commissioner O’Malley is leading SSA by taking 4 key steps to prevent the severe injustices that beneficiaries have faced for decades when SSA makes accounting errors.

Starting Monday, March 25, 2024, SSA will drastically change the overpayment recovery process with these four major changes:

1. SSA will no longer take 100 percent of a claimant’s monthly Social Security benefit by default if a beneficiary fails to respond to an overpayment reimbursement request. Instead, SSA will only withhold 10 percent of the monthly benefit to satisfy the debt, making the repayment process like the repayment process used when it comes to the Supplemental Security Income program.

2. SSA no longer will put the burden on the beneficiary to prove the beneficiary was not at fault when it comes to the overpayment. I am assuming this means SSA will have to prove fault.

3. SSA will allow a beneficiary 60 months, opposed to 36 months, to repay an overpayment, if the beneficiary provides a verbal summary of their income, resources and expenses. Means-tested SSI recipients do not need to even provide a verbal summary to get the additional two years to repay benefits.

If you have ever dealt with SSA before, you know that this third step will NEVER work. SSA will simply claim that the beneficiary never verbally notified them of the desire to have a 60-month repayment plan. I highly recommend that you send in your request for 60 months by BOTH certified mail and by fax, so you have two receipts. Otherwise, SSA may (and by may…I mean will) claim you never contacted them. SSA always says they hate duplicates…..well I hate my weekly calls with them when they claim they never received paperwork that we submitted to them on multiple occasions. Protect yourself and make sure you have written proof that you requested a 60 month repayment plan and that your local office received said request.

4. Commissioner O’Malley also promised that SSA will make it easier for beneficiaries to request a waiver if they believe they were not at fault for the overpayment. No additional details were offered of how SSA plans to do this, but given Commissioner O’Malley fondness for technology, I assume that beneficiaries will be able to complete a waiver form online. If SSA is truly trying to make waiver forms accessible, online waiver submissions would be a must.

The press release is certainly promising, but I am a strong believer that actions speak louder than press releases. Let’s see where we are in a year and if there has been progress in the overpayment situation.

Now Commissioner O’Malley, what are you going to do to fix the atrocious consultative examiner (“CE”) process? That is by far the biggest issue that SSA must fix for the disability process to have any legitimacy. I wish fixing the corrupted CE system was his first order of business, but tackling overpayments is a good start.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Processing Timeframes For SSDI/SSI claims

If you have noticed that it seems to be taking longer to get disability decisions from the Social Security Administration ("SSA"), you are not alone. Depending on where you live, initial applications are still taking about 4 to 9 months to process. The national average waiting time for applications in January of 2024 was 231 day, or about 7.45 months. The fact that I represent claimants primarily in Southern California, one of the more populated areas of the country, means most of my clients are waiting for close to 9 months (if not longer) to get their initial determinations. This isn't unusual. I have practiced Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income law for 20 years come June of 2024 and this is par for the course.

Where I am seeing significant delays, however, is at the reconsideration level, which is the second stage of the process. Most people receive an initial application denial and have to go through the reconsideration process. In fact, SSA granted 39 percent of initial applications for 2023, which means 61 percent of claimants had to request reconsideration if they wanted to continue to try to obtain disability benefits. This is the stage that I am noticing unusual delays....in Southern California at least. Historically, reconsideration decisions were also issued within 4 to 9 months of SSA receiving a request for reconsideration. However, we have been seeing cases sit for 10 to 11 months pretty regularly at the reconsideration stage in Southern California over the last year or so.

SSA actually contracts with Disability Determination Services ("DDS), a branch of the Department of Social Services to provide the medical development of SSDI/SSI cases at both the initial application and reconsideration levels. This is because SSA does not have the staff to provide the medical development at the lower levels of the disability process.

Several California DDS offices have told me that they were ordered by SSA to pull reconsideration staff to work on initial applications due to complaints from government officials that it was taking too long for people to get initial determinations from SSA. Pulling staff has created a bottleneck at the reconsideration level. It hasn't "fixed" the process at all. It just pushed the delays to another stage. It isn't DDS's fault either. They haven't been given an adequate budget or enough staff to work up the volume of cases they are assigned to process from SSA.

One DDS office told me last week that they just started assigning analysts for appeals filed on June 1, 2023. Another office told me it is taking them 6 to 8 months to even assign an analyst to a case. Once an analyst is assigned to assess a case, it is taking 3 to 4 months to get a decision. Thus, Southern California claimants are waiting 9 to 12 months to get decisions at the reconsideration stage in many cases.

What is so frustrating is that reconsideration almost always results in a denial, as SSA only grants 15 percent (yes, 15 percent) of claims at the reconsideration stage, which is why I call reconsideration "the trash can." For years, practitioners have argued that SSA should eliminate the stage and allow us to go directly to a hearing if a claimant is initially denied. For a while, SSA looked into eliminating the reconsideration stage and allowed some prototype cases to go straight to the hearing level if an initial application was denied. However, the Commissioner ultimately decided that reconsideration was a necessary stage of the process and eliminated the prototype case test program.

Once denied at the reconsideration stage, a claimant must request a hearing at the Office of Hearings Operations ("OHO"). In California, there is data showing that claimants are getting hearings scheduled within 325 days (San Bernardino) up to 689 days (Santa Barbara). Santa Barbara is definitely taking close to 2 years to schedule a hearing, but most of my clients seem to be getting their hearings scheduled at other hearing offices within 10 to 12 months. This is because I do not dispute the format of the hearing. Unless there is a reason that the Judge needs to physically see my client, I am happy to do phone or video hearings if it means my client's claim will be heard faster. If you demand an in-person hearing, clearly the waiting periods will be longer because more Judges are conducting hearings virtually, than in-person, post-Covid. I do not expect that fact to change. The Judges at OHO grant about 45 percent of the claimants based on statistics for 2023.

If you are denied at the hearing level, then you must file an appeal with the Appeals Council ("AC"). The AC only overturns 1 percent of the Judge's denials and it is currently taking the AC 15 to 18 months to make a decision. If denied by the AC, you have completed SSA's administrative processes and your only option is to file a complaint in a Federal District Court assigned to your jurisdiction.

Monday, January 22, 2024

The Media Continues to Investigate SSA's Systemic Struggles

A news article was published by Ms. Sharon Jayson, at the AARP, on January 17, 2024. It is an excellent piece that realistically discusses the failure of the Social Security Administration ("SSA") and the Department of Social Services (“DSS”) to process disability cases in a timely manner. It is the most recent piece in a slew of articles and television stories that have been circulating about SSA's continued problems processing claims due to staffing and budgetary issues. Here is a link to the full article: https://www.aarp.org/retirement/social-security/info-2024/disability-claim-wait-times.html.

Media outlets have been particularly focused on the SSA’s processing when it comes to collecting delinquent overpayments, which in some instances, SSA has in fact caused by not processing the benefits properly. Anderson Cooper reported on the overpayment issue a couple of months ago and the news story is also an accurate portrayal of what is taking place at SSA. Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIYsZw0PtlI .

While I find it depressing to find that SSA’s ability to process benefits effectively and efficiently continues to decline, I applaud the media for recognizing the newsworthiness of what is honestly beginning to look like the fall of the Social Security Disability system.

A Federal Agency cannot thrive without appropriate staffing and a healthy budget. While I do not see a way that SSA can be “fixed” without a complete overall of the system at this point, I do think the national news coverage is helping to wake up our nation.

I do hope the national news outfits continue to write about the decline of the Social Security Disability system. I am really hoping that a journalist catches the scent of the whole consultative examination circus that is taking place at SSA and DSS currently. SSA has always used consultative examiners (“CEs”) to assess disability. CEs are vendors, hired by DSS, and paid for by SSA, to assess claimants’ disabilities. However, CEs are no longer performing thorough evaluations. They tend to last about 13 to 15 minutes and these CEs are almost never provided any medical records to truly evaluate a claimant’s disability. However, SSA is not really after an objective opinion backed by evidence. In the lion share of cases, SSA is purchasing these examinations, simply to justify a denial. I consider the CE process to currently be the most corrupt aspect of the SSA/DDS system and it would be eye-opening for a national journalist to expose the whole CE process.

I thank all the journalists who are taking the time to report on the continued problems when it comes to the SSA. Keep it up and keep digging up the dirt because I promise you, there are many more stories that we as a country need to know about when it comes to the SSA system.