SSDI

Most people are aware that the longer someone waits to start collecting Social Security benefits the higher their month payment will be. The age where a beneficiary collects the highest monthly amount is 70 after 70 there is no incentive to continue to wait to receive benefits because the amount will never increase above the age 70 amount, but most Americans do not plan on waiting until 70 to start receiving benefits. A recent survey released by ThinkAdvisor indicates that 90 percent of Americans plan to collect Social Security benefits prior to age 70. Below is a brief synopsis of the high points of the survey. Schroders surveyed pre- and post-retirees 45 and older and found that only 10% planned to wait until 70 to claim benefits. Three in four respondents said they were concerned about how to find additional income or draw down assets in retirement. Advisors should educate themselves and their clients on Social Security benefits in addition to individual portfolios. The earliest a person can start receiving benefits is 62, but at age 62, known as early retirement, the beneficiary faces about a 20 percent reduction of what their full retirement amount would be and even less than that if they decided to wait until age 70. Many things go into the decision of when to start collecting Social Security benefits like current finances, future plans and health. Social Security Employees Facing Payment Issue A recent story in the Government Executive reported that more than 900 Social Security employees received a rude awakening when they noticed that their paycheck amounts that were deposited were $0 for a pay period that ended July 2. Of course this was a mistake that agency officials said was a mistake by the Interior Business Center, which provides payroll services to more than 100 federal agencies, but when your paycheck reads $0 there is trouble brewing. Social Security reported that the problem would be corrected and “that the affected employees would receive a partial payment on time,” but no word on when these employees would receive their full paycheck. This problem is not likely going to improve relations between the agency and the Social Security employee union. These two entities have been squabbling about Social Security’s plans to bring employees back to work and even before COVID-19 the agency had been trying to limit the ability of employees to work from home.  

For years Social Security recipients have seen modest increases in benefits based on cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increases and some years recipients received no increase in benefits, but that is expected to change in 2022. In a recent story posted by CNBC it was reported that beneficiaries could see a 6.1 percent increase in benefits for 2022. This would be the largest increase in benefits since 1983. The larger than normal increase is due mainly to inflation, according to the story. The annual Social Security benefit increase is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). This is an index that looks at increases in gasoline and other purchased items and when these prices go up so too does Social Security’s COLA projections. Many people have been critical of using the CPI-W as the guide in determining the Social Security COLA because the CPI-W does not do a good job of reflecting the expenses seniors are faced with. Other studies have shown that seniors face the biggest increases in expenses when paying for healthcare costs and housing costs. There are proposals to change how the Social Security COLA is determined. A bill introduced as the Fair COLA for Seniors Act of 2021, proposed by U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-California, calls for moving from the CPI-W to the CPI-E in determining Social Security COLA increases. In the story posted by CNBC it was reported that the CPI-E would provide higher benefits to Social Security beneficiaries, but not substantial increases. For instance, it was estimated that it would account for an additional annual increase of 0.2 percent compared to the CPI-W and after 25 years it would increase benefits about 5 percent higher. President Joe Biden campaigned on an increase in Social Security benefits, but no specific bill has yet to materialize on what Biden wants to see regarding Social Security increases.

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee released a report on future funding for Social Security which includes administrative funding, but also recommendations that the Committee is issuing to Social Security. This report indicates the Committee has all intentions of providing Social Security with crucial funding, but it is important to note that the full committee has not yet voted on approving the report and even after it does the recommendations would have to pass on the House floor. Below is a portion of the report that addresses some of Social Security’s major initiatives. If you are interested in see the entire report that deals with Social Security click here. Information Technology —The Committee continues to monitor the Information Technology (IT) Modernization Plan and encourages SSA to focus on improvements to customer service and efficiency improvements for customers and employees as it makes updates to the plan. In addition, SSA should take steps to automate manual processes to reduce human error and improve processing time. The Committee requests an update of the plan referenced under this heading in House Report 114–699. Legal Assistants —The Committee understands that the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) relies on legal assistants to conduct a broad range of work supporting hearings and reviewing work of its administrative law judges, and is concerned about reports that OHO recently consolidated duties from several specialized legal assistants, causing affected employees to perform more duties without increased compensation. The Committee strongly urges SSA to examine the position descriptions of legal assistants, pay and actual work conducted since the consolidation, to ensure that job classifications, and compensation, are commensurate with current duties. Pilot Program Metrics —The Committee expects SSA to continue to follow the guidance and directives under this heading in House Report 116–450 for fiscal year 2022, and to include descriptions of pilots and associated pilot program metrics in its fiscal year 2023 Congressional Budget Justification. Professional Representatives —The Committee believes that quality representation in matters with SSA assists claimants and beneficiaries, and can also help SSA work more accurately and efficiently. The Committee continues to support direct payment of fees to representatives, encourages the Commissioner to raise and index the cap on fees payable via fee agreement, and requests that the Commissioner add a Performance Measure on timely and accurate payment of representative fees to the Fiscal Year 2022 and subsequent Annual Performance Plans. Report on LAE Expenditures —The Committee continues to request that the data referenced under this heading in House Report 114-699 be included in future budget justifications. In addition, the Committee requests the fiscal year 2023 Congressional Budget Justification include a historical table of costs and fiscal year 2023 requests for personnel and benefits, by major SSA component to include Operations (field offices, teleservice centers, processing centers, and regional offices); Office of Hearings Operations; Systems; Office of Analytics, Review, and Oversight; and Headquarters. Service to the Public —SSA uses Public Service Indicators to measure the agency’s progress in meeting the needs of the public in local field offices and teleservice centers. The Committee understands that SSA has modified Public Service Indicators to reflect challenges due to the COVID–19 pandemic. The Committee directs SSA to submit to the Committee within 90 days of enactment of this Act a report on Public Service Indicators for field offices and teleservice centers, providing the indicators and performance for Fiscal Years 2016 to 2021 and describing how the agency sets and modifies indicators, any changes made by the agency due the pandemic, and any staffing needs and resources necessary in its field offices and teleservice centers to restore previous levels of public service. Telework – The Committee reiterates its support for well-managed telework programs in the Federal workplace, which have demonstrated benefits for human capital as well as continuity of operations. The Committee expects SSA to implement telework policies that support these goals while also strengthening service to the American public, including in-person service in community-based field offices. The Committee directs SSA to submit a report within 90 days of enactment of this Act detailing the agency’s telework policies and identifying any positions for which telework has not been provided or has been reduced from pre-October 2019 levels, along with the reasons for any telework reductions. Video Hearings – The Committee understands that during the COVID–19 pandemic, SSA is providing claimants with the option of a video hearing, a telephone hearing, or a postponement if the individual would prefer to wait until an in-person hearing is available. The Committee expects that once the COVID–19 pandemic ends, SSA will resume in-person hearings. The Committee continues to encourage SSA to work with claimants who need additional flexibility by allowing a claimant to choose to use video and telephone hearings on a voluntary basis or to have an in-person hearing or proceeding if the party chooses to do so. Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) and Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS) —The recommendation includes $23,000,000 for WIPA grants and $10,000,000 for PABSS. The Committee notes that Federal Protection and Advocacy (P&A) systems provide legal representation to people with disabilities in civil matters to protect and enforce their legal, civil, and human rights. The Committee understands that SSA recently changed security clearance requirements for staff that charge time to PABSS programs. Given the Federal and State laws required for P&A staff, the Committee urges SSA to reconsider changes that would require P&A staff to undergo any unnecessary SSA security clearances, so that they may be treated like any other attorney representing a person on SSA benefits.

After President Joe Biden fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul July 9, 2021 Saul told news outlets he was not leaving and planned to work remotely on Monday, July 12, but that did not work out how Saul planned. In a story posted by CNN, it was reported that they agency was taking steps to remove Saul’s access to Social Security’s systems that would make it impossible for Saul to return to work. “As with any employment termination, the government has taken steps to off-board Andrew Saul as we would any other former employee,” an administration official said in the CNN story. Social Security wasted no time moving on from Saul. Biden’s choice to replace Saul as the new acting commissioner for Social Security, Kilolo Kijakazi, was already listed as the head of the agency on Social Security’s website where organizational charts are displayed. Although Saul claimed that he was the term-protected commissioner of Social Security and could not be removed, the Biden Administration sought out a legal opinion and it was determined Biden had the right to remove Saul. Prior to firing Saul, Biden asked Saul and David Black, Saul’s deputy commissioner, for their resignations, but only Black complied as Saul refused to resign. This seemed like a last ditch effort by Saul to remain in the spotlight, but even he must know he has no power to remain in the position. Saul, like other board and commission appointees from the Trump administration, who were also removed when Biden came into office, have remained defiant, but like it or not they are gone. It is likely now that Saul will fade into the background as the days go by and Social Security gets back to business and begins to implement a post-COVID-19 reopening plan.

During the presidential campaign of 2020 President Joe Biden backed a plan that would increase Social Security benefits by increasing Social Security taxes on individuals who earn more than $400,000, but since becoming president Biden has not addressed the plan and that could change later this year. Biden’s first priority, and rightfully so, was the COVID-19 relief package that passed and now he is focusing on an infrastructure plan that has seemed to stall in Congress. What else is new? If some sort of infrastructure plan is passed or it is determined to be too difficult to pass, the president may turn his attention in a different direction and that direction could be a Social Security increase. As a reminder, this story from CNBC is a good refresher as to what Biden had previously backed as a plan that would increase Social Security benefits. As expected, any Republican support for an increase in taxes, even if it is only high income earners making over $400,000 annually, is nonexistent, but Social Security beneficiaries are a huge portion of the public and deciding to ignore calls for an increase in benefits could be politically foolish for some Republicans. Standing against a proposal to increase benefits, which are already too modest, so that lawmakers can protect individuals making over $400,000 does not seem like a wise decision with another national election coming up in 2022. We should see in the next couple of months if Biden and Democrats in Congress plan to do anything about Social Security. Unfortunately there seems to be an endless number of things that need to be addressed, so there is hope by Social Security advocates that a Social Security increase does not get lost in the shuffle.  

After firing Andrew Saul as Social Security’s commissioner President Joe Biden chose 40-year-old Kilolo Kijakazi as the new acting commissioner for Social Security. Kijakazi left the Urban Institute in January 2021 to take a position at Social Security where she served as the deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy. Below is a biography from the Urban Institute about Kijakazi’s achievements prior to becoming acting Social Security commissioner. Kijakazi will serve as acting commissioner until Biden appoints a replacement for Saul and when that appointment is confirmed. Kilolo Kijakazi served as an Institute fellow at the Urban Institute. She worked with staff across Urban to develop collaborative partnerships with those most affected by economic and social issues, to expand and strengthen Urban’s agenda of rigorous research, to effectively communicate findings to diverse audiences, and to recruit and retain a diverse research staff at all levels. Kijakazi also conducted research on economic security, structural racism, and the racial wealth gap. Previously, Kijakazi was a program officer at the Ford Foundation, focusing on building economic security and incorporating the expertise of people of color into all aspects of the work. She was a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a program analyst for the US Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, and a policy analyst for the National Urban League. Kijakazi’s publications include African-American Economic Development and Small Business Ownership. She is a board member of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation; the National Academy of Social Insurance, and its Study Panel on Economic Security; The Policy Academies; and Liberation in a Generation. She is a member of the Washington, DC Equitable Recovery Advisory Group, advises the Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap Initiative, is a co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Eliminating the Black-White Wealth Gap, and was a member of the Bipartisan Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings. Kijakazi holds a BA from SUNY Binghamton, an MSW from Howard University, and a PhD in public policy from the George Washington University.  

Another member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine has called for Social Security to open up offices to the public again and the same sentiment is growing louder from others as federal agencies have moved at a snail’s pace in developing plans of bringing employees back to work. Social Security offices have remained mostly closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March of 2020 and while most of the rest of the country has opened up in some capacity, in person service at Social Security offices has been unavailable for close to 17 months now. In a recent article from a Maine publication a portion of a letter Golden wrote to Social Security stresses that it is imperative that Social Security offices open up again to provide service to the public. “The current unavailability of most in-person services at SSA field offices … creates difficulty for people who lack broadband access, have certain disabilities, or are otherwise more comfortable with in-person service,” wrote Golden in a recent letter to the administration. “In light of the public’s need to access SSA services in a timely and convenient way, I request that SSA expedite its OMB-mandated reentry planning to increase staffing at field offices to enable a wider set of in-person services, and to end the requirement for people to part with their original identification documents.” President Joe Biden has directed federal agencies to have a final plan to address reopening no later than July 19, 2021, which seems to provide for ample time for Social Security to get its ducks in a row regarding reopening, but still no specific plans have emerged. With increased calls for Social Security to open up offices the agency’s status quo attitude is not going to fly with most people much longer.

There is much discussion about Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and hearings to determine whether a Social Security disability claimant is disabled and entitled to benefits, but before a claimant ends up at a hearing they would have been denied on their claim previously by Disability Determination Services (DDS). This agency, which is state based, but funded by Social Security, makes initial disability decisions on claims. And, although the majority of claims DDS sees are denied there are plenty that are also approved, which removes the need for ALJs to get involved in the process. Many times the importance of DDS is overlooked in the disability process, but the funding for DDS is crucial and Social Security is calling for increased spending for DDS services with the expectation that the number of disability claims is expected to increase in coming years. According to Social Security’s budget priorities the agency is planning on taking steps to fund DDS to address the increase in the number of claims Social Security is expected to process in the coming years. In FY 2021, we are replacing DDS staff losses and providing an additional 1,300 hires to position the DDSs to address the disability claims backlog and a potential spike in claims. The Budget will support maintaining these new hires in FY 2022 and fund increased overtime for a total FY 2022 increase of nearly 1,400 work years or 10 percent, allowing us to significantly increase our capacity to process disability claims. Compared to FY 2020, we plan to complete nearly 300,000 more claims in FY 2021 and over 700,000 more claims in FY 2022. However, the backlog will continue to grow until we work through the influx of initial claims, which will require a multi-year effort. Hopefully Social Security keeps funding DDS a priority so the backlog of claims does not shift from the hearing level to the initial disability application level.  

It should be no news to anyone that Social Security is suffering from a funding crisis and has been for decades. Social Security’s ability to meet 100 percent of benefit obligations is in jeopardy sometime after the next 10 years and experts have thrown out proposals to try and solve the problem. One proposed solution has been to increase the full retirement age. For everyone born 1960 and later the full retirement age is 67. Many so called experts have claimed that because people are living longer that the retirement age should be increased, which would delay many people’s retirement and increase Social Security’s reserves, but a recent study conducted by the Center for Retirement Research indicates that only the least educated Americans and lower income Americans would be negatively impacted by such a move. This is not the answer to solving Social Security’s funding gap. Many experts claim that the full retirement age is already too high. And, any proposal that would negatively impact less educated and lower income individuals is something that should not be considered. Below is the conclusion of the report conducted by the Center for Retirement Research, which was completed in June of 2021. Both life expectancy and expected years of disability-free life had been trending up in the United States for decades until 2010. The resulting need to fund a longer retirement was met by calls to work longer, and the expanding capacity to work longer justified those calls. However, in the last fifteen years, slowing declines in mortality have coincided with negative health trends, raising the possibility of even slower growth in working life expectancy. A crucial question, then, is whether working longer is even possible for many people? To answer that question, policymakers need to know whether individuals are physically capable of working: are they alive, in the community, and not encumbered by work-limiting disabilities? The analysis presented here shows that improvement in life expectancy has moderated since 2006, while improvement in working life expectancy has slowed even more, such that every year of life expectancy gained is associated with only about half a year of work capacity. When looking across demographic groups, the picture is more concerning. The population-level gain, however modest, is driven almost entirely by high-education groups (although low-education Black women have seen similar growth). As a result, a large share of those with less than median education will not be able to work even two years beyond the early eligibility age for Social Security, even if they managed to work to 62. This problem is particularly acute among low-education Black men, who had very low working life expectancies in 2006 and experienced no improvement in the past fifteen years. A majority of this group will be incapable of work to the FRA. In thinking of solutions for inadequate retirement savings, working longer may be a fine response for those with more education, but Black and low-education individuals, who are the least likely to have sufficient savings, are also the least well-positioned to work longer. They would also be the groups most vulnerable to further increases in Social Security’s eligibility age thresholds. New solutions for these groups need to account for their high probability of not being physically capable of extending their working lives.  

In a recent report of Social Security’s upcoming budget priorities the agency contends that it worked “aggressively to procure equipment to overcome supply change issues to obtain additional hardware employees needed to serve the public remotely,” and that with additional funding Social Security could cut phone wait times to 12 minutes for service on the agency’s national 800 number. This may not seem like a lofty goal to some people, but if you’ve ever had a need to call Social Security’s 800 number you likely know that, if achieved, reducing wait times for service down to 12 minutes would seem like a monumental achievement. It appears that Social Security still has a long way to go before it reaches its goal of a 12 minute phone wait as there have been more calls than ever that Social Security agents have had to deal with over the last 15 months due to Social Security offices being closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although wait time for phone service is definitely in need of improvement so is the service that the agents provide. Too many times the agents that staff the 800 Social Security number have conflicting information to provide to customers especially if there is an active claim pending where accurate information is needed. Too many times claimants and representatives, who assist claimants, can be provided incorrect information about a claim, which leads to confusion. Hopefully, along with reducing wait times, Social Security also takes steps to improve the accuracy of the information that agents provide to claimants and their representatives. Below is a description of Social Security’s agenda to improve phone service. In FY 2021, we expect our agents to handle over 36 million calls, including about 5 million calls handled through our automated self-service options. We have been steadily improving wait times, busy rates, and overall service through targeted hiring, revising training methods, and advancing automated services. By the end of FY 2022, we expect to reduce average wait times to 12 minutes. We also plan to reduce the average busy rate to 1 percent. We are implementing our Next Generation Telephony Project (NGTP) to improve our telephone service across the agency. NGTP will replace our three current telephone systems with a single platform to improve service while integrating modernized telecommunications technology. We expect the single platform phone system will operate more efficiently than our current platforms. NGTP will provide callers with additional information and options to improve their experience, including providing expected wait times and scheduled callbacks, which will reduce the wait to speak with an agent. It will also include automated options for inquiries regarding Medicare replacement cards, 1099s, and claim status. Additionally, NGTP will help us to streamline and enhance our training for new hires, which will allow our employees to begin handling calls earlier. We have developed a robust program for measuring performance and communicating expectations, which NGTP will support. We plan to transition to the new system within the next year and then incorporate new features.