Blog

Two South Carolina residents pled guilty in federal court Oct. 6, 2020 to laundering over $500,000 on behalf of an India-based phone scam that targeted Social Security beneficiaries. The Office of the Inspector General for Social Security issued a press release indicating that Mehulkumar Manubhai Patel and Chaitali Dave, both 36, pled guilty to the… Read more »

Two Separate cases of Social Security employees committing criminal acts were recently in the news showing that although fraud is rather rare when it comes to Social Security benefits, it is still out there to come degree. The first case involves a former employee of Social Security’s Aurora Illinois office that lasted five years and… Read more »

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most of us to conduct some sort of business online and Social Security business is no different. If you decide to apply for Social Security benefits, and are comfortable with online services, the best option for you is to apply online, which you can do from the comfort of your… Read more »

This month Social Security issued a report conducted by three scholars on the process for choosing a representative payee for people who have been awarded Social Security disability benefits. Representative payees are chosen to manage the disability benefits of people who the agency believes are unable to manage the benefits on their own. Most times… Read more »

When most people decide to get married they probably think of all the advantages they will experience, but for those who are disabled and collecting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) who decide to get married experience the disadvantage of being married. Two individuals who are receiving SSI benefits pay a penalty for deciding to get married…. Read more »

A Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claim for a child is considered differently than an adult disability claim. Social Security has set different rules in place for an SSI claim for a child, but just like an adult disability claim there are prescribed steps that most be followed in the evaluation process. To better understand the… Read more »

Each year the Social Security Administration announces its annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits in October, but the Senior Citizens League, which is a nonpartisan advocacy group for seniors, has accurately predicted the COLA in past years prior to October. For 2021 the group is estimating a 1.3 percent increase in benefits in… Read more »

Since the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown most of the country, including Social Security offices, which have remained closed to visitors since mid March, the agency has been lenient on Social Security disability claimants who miss their hearings before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), but as of September 1, 2020 it appears the leniency is over. Social… Read more »

Two members of Congress have requested that Social Security conduct a study to determine how the agency is performing in delivering services since the COVID-19 pandemic has mostly closed Social Security offices to the public more than six months ago. In a letter sent to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) September 15, 2020, U.S. Rep…. Read more »

It has been nearly six months since Social Security moved to phone hearings on Social Security disability cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the agency recently announced it would move to online video hearings sometime this fall. There was no mention of a definitive date of when these online video hearings would begin. The… Read more »