Johnson seeks GAO review of alleged Social Security ‘shell game’

[Virginia Foulk]

Johnson seeks GAO review of alleged Social Security ‘shell game’  By M.D. Kittle  /   January 19, 2017 

(Wisconsin Watchdog.Org)

MADISON, Wis. – U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson wants to know whether the Social Security Administration is playing a “shell game” with its hefty disability benefits caseload, to the detriment of claimants’ due process rights.

The Oshkosh Republican, in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent a letter this week to the Government Accountability Office asking for a review of the case-transfer practices of SSA’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, or ODAR.

“Transfers may be sensible in some circumstances to expedite case processing. However, if the practice is merely a shell game to artificially reduce an office’s APT (average processing time), the transfers may needlessly delay adjudications for claimants,” Johnson wrote to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro.

Johnson’s request is driven by due process concerns of former Milwaukee ODAR senior case technician Ron Klym. In the lead story of Wisconsin Watchdog’s investigative series, “Deadly Delays,” Klym provided documents showing hundreds of cases languishing in the system for nearly two years – in some cases, much

SEEKING ANSWERS: U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee he chairs want the Government Accountability Office to look into the Social Security Administration’s practices of transferring claimant cases.

Average processing times from initial application to reconsideration, if the request is denied, can be more than a year.

Cases are then appealed to the administrative law judges at ODAR for review and final judgment.

Milwaukee’s average processing time is at 620 days.

Klym provided Wisconsin Watchdog with records showing cases from Green Bay, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and other smaller communities in the Milwaukee ODAR coverage area had even longer backlogs in recent years.

Dozens of cases on appeal took more than 700 days to complete. One Green Bay case clocked in at 862 days to dispose of. A Marquette request for benefits hit 1,064 days, and another was completed in 1,126 days.

“We had two clients who stopped in the office yesterday wondering what’s going on, and they have been waiting for 21 months,” Jessica Bray, partner at Upper Michigan Law in Escanaba, Mich., told Wisconsin Watchdog in May. Her colleague handled the noted cases that topped 1,000 days. “I sent a letter to the Milwaukee office, but I don’t think it’s going to do any good. Those cases haven’t even been assigned yet.”

Klym said the long delays are impairing applicants’ civil rights. While those seeking Social Security disability benefits don’t have an unquestioned right to the payments, they do have a right to due process, he said.

“No one can guarantee the benefit. I know a case where someone has filed for a benefit 26 times,” Klym said in the May story. “It’s not the result, it’s the opportunity. If your opportunity has been waylaid, to paraphrase (George) Orwell, we’re all equal, but some are more equal. That’s a process issue.”

ODAR’s massive backlog, north of 1 million cases as of the last federal review, is no secret. But its policies on moving cases to other offices is not well known to the public.

Klym, who was fired in August after speaking out, describes the process as a “shell game.”

In May, he told Wisconsin Watchdog the Milwaukee office’s case disposition numbers have at times drastically improved because managers in the chain have dumped off scores of cases to other regional offices.

“They are wholesale shipping cases out,” the senior legal assistant said. The impression is that the offices are performing at a better rate than they actually are. “When you ship 1,000 cases to somewhere else, then you do an audit, it looks better.”

RELATED: Whistleblower alleges misconduct, incompetence in Social Security office

An SSA spokesman repeatedly has declined to comment on personnel matters but has acknowledged the “high average processing time for disability appeal hearings, and we are working to address the issue.”

“The Social Security disability program is an important resource for people with disabilities, and we work tirelessly every day to provide the best service possible,” said Doug Nguyen, communications director for the Social Security Administration’s Chicago region.

Klym said there are several people in the region who are aware of the practice.

DUE PROCESS CLAIMS: Ron Klym, a long-time Social Security Administration employee, was fired shortly after going public with allegations of waste, fraud and abuse at the Milwaukee office.

Bray certainly is.

In the May investigative report, Bray said her colleague has seen some 50 Upper Peninsula-based cases shipped off to Oak Park, Ill. In 2004, she said, dozens of cases were sent to New Hampshire and Oakland, Calif. Cases in Green Bay were assigned to an office in New Mexico.

“I’m not sure why they are doing it, but from an attorney’s perspective, we say, ‘Thank goodness.’ At least we can get our clients a hearing,” Bray said.

Johnson wants to know exactly why the agency is doing it.

“While SSA has attempted to address the hearings backlog through its Compassionate and Responsive Service (CARES) plan, my office received allegations from an SSA employee that cases are being transferred between hearing offices prior to a routine audit in an effort to conceal the actual APT,” Johnson wrote the comptroller.

“Given the more than 1 million Americans who are waiting for SSA to process their cases, I request your assistance in determining the efficiency of ODAR’s case processing systems and hearing workload management,” Johnson’s letter states.  “Although GAO has offered Congress a helpful analysis of the hearing backlogs plaguing SSA in the past, it appears that little is known about how SSA moves around its hearing workload, and the effect of such workload-balancing initiatives on processing times and pending caseloads.”

The Senate committee wants to know:

1. What criteria does the Social Security Administration use to determine which cases to transfer and where to transfer them?

2. To what extent does the Social Security Administration transfer cases between offices, and what have been the effects on processing times and the number of pending cases nationwide, regionally, and by office?

3. How effective are the Social Security Administration’s procedures for managing and overseeing disability claims to ensure they are being processed according to program rules?

In June, the committee launched an inquiry into the Social Security Administration’s myriad whistleblower allegations of misconduct and retaliation. At the Madison ODAR facility, employees allege widespread corruption, intimidation and sexual harassment. In one case, and administrative law judge is accused of writing inappropriate comments about claimants, and deciding cases based on their appearance. That judge has since retired, as multiple federal investigations continue into the Madison office and others.

Klym, meanwhile, is awaiting an arbitration hearing next month on what he asserts was a wrongful dismissal, motivated by management animus and retaliation.

The whistleblower said he is hopeful an independent review will provide a big-picture view of the problems inside the troubled federal agency.

“I hope that the independent audit will have a clear and concise view that provides the Senate with the information it needs to go forward to a hearing,” Klym said.

[jack ludwig]

my experience .with the SS disability option, there are way to many people applying for disability that have no business even applying for this benefit thus bottlenecking up the few that really need that assistance and qualify. There needs to be much tougher standards to qualify for even requesting SS assistance making it much easier to turn those request down before they even get into the stream. Soon people will learn that the standard to get SS assistance is very high and the number of applicants will soon diminish which will greatly facilitate those that really need the system to get processed through. This will also reduce the number of investigators and reduce the budget of the SS administrative office. I know so many people who are on SS disability and they are out playing golf with me every day. Most of them are stronger and healthier than I am. I am glad your congressman is taking an interest but he would be better served to look at changing the law on SS disability standards.   

[kevin kiernan]

There are many getting disability because they can not do their jobs anymore.The technology age can not have that problem because they can do those jobs in many cases from wheel chairs. And the white collar world does not get hurt doing their job. Paper cuts usually need only a band aide. The robot workers of the future will not have benefits. Hell ,they will not even have rights period.

[M]

Much of our current problems with SS is the fact that during the Eisenhower administration the Democrat controlled Congress decided to find a way around their own law that prevented the SS funds (real money) from commingling with the General fund, and were not to be touched except to make the payments to the recipients. They decided that they could take the incoming (Real) money and replace it with an IOU, and still not touch the sequestered base that had built up. Eventually another Democrat controlled Congress went along with LBJ and created Medicare out of part of the (RealMoney) sequestered funds further reducing what was the money people had to pay into the fund with the exception of Congress and a few other government controlled agencies. From there LBJ lobbied to use the remaining sequestered funds(the real saved money) to fund his "Great Society Agenda" That too failed like every other Socialist scheme to use other peoples money. Unfortunately we are still paying for it today. Also never forget that the original SS was and still is a Ponzi Scheme and the American public is the suckers paying for it. Now SS is strictly fiat money like all else paid out the general fund over and above what is reclaimed in taxes.

To fix SS there would have to be an amendment where it would be turned into an insured personal mandatory savings/retirement account where the person could only take out what they had put in plus the accrued interest and hopefully that interest would be tax free, and the taxes would already have been paid on the money placed into the personal fund. The caveat would be that the Government would never be allowed to touch the fund for any reason. That would fix SS since the individual would not be able to draw on the funds until they retired, the Government could not touch the funds, and if anything remained it would be passed on to the persons heirs.

[Rhodes]

That is a very naive view of the workforce, almost a television view.

I worked in hi-tech my entire adult life and the physical requirements were on par with a carpenter.
Equipment has to moved, stairs climbed constantly, cables had to be pulled, and the elements were indeed a factor. Sure a lot of times the most strenuous thing I did was work a keyboard but that could change quickly.

A LOT of people do not have it TV easy. So becoming injured is indeed possible. Most of these pay high premiums for private disability insurance for decades but find when disabled the law and system are set up to FORCE these people onto SSD. Seen it dozens of times.

[jack ludwig]

anyone working any type of job can get injured, work related or nonwork related. It doesn't matter if it comes to claiming SSD. The issue is can they perform their current job or some other type of job. Someone who develops severe back problems may not be suitable to swing a sledge hammer any longer but that doesn't mean they cannot work. The quick solution for that disabled person is to go on some form of disability payment. Guarantee you will find that same person not able to swing the sledgehammer out hitting golf balls or bowling twice a week. Bottom line is 90% of people filing for disability have no business filing. 

[Virginia Foulk]

My daughter (at 22) lost both legs in a train accident years ago. She did try to work, did bar-tending, cleaning houses, and then helping her husband take care of college dorm cleanup during college session changes. Later, she got cancer.  Anyway, she did work hard no matter what she was doing.

Then, there are a few I have seen in our area on disability that appear to be ones who should not be. However, do we know what is their problem?  I do recall, years ago, that a certain Madison, Wi. judge was fast-tracked to receive disability. His reason? He was so stretched out from his job - he was a federal court judge.  My husband's older sister, took 3 years to get disability, she was bed ridden for most of the time. Finally received it, but died 2 years later.   And my brother, having been shot in the neck while standing guard in Europe (too close to the Germany border, I guess.) Then later, - he built his own shop/business - metal fabricating (oh, forgot, Obama built that). At 39, he suffered heart attack, he survived, kept his shop going. But then, at age 52, he discovered he had cancer, and his heart was not working properly. He applied for disability. It took over 2 years, and I had to get ahold of - then Senator Kohl who finally got his record reviewed. *(Jack was told they wouldn't look at his status until after his heart surgery was done. Nice.

So here are a few issues with the disability situation. And oh, my understanding was that disability was not to be part of Social Security.  One more remark - back when Roosevelt was pushing the Social Security plan, my dad - who had his own business, same as my brother's later shop - was rejecting the program. He felt it was just another way for government to steal money from the citizens. He was very angry when it passed.

So now we have !OUs protecting the money the government has taken from our earnings, and they are trying to find ways to keep this crap going.  And yet, neither party has offered any plan to return the money nor to find a way to salvage this crooked deal for future workers..

[jack ludwig]

I can understand your concern Virgina. My sister went blind from diabetes in her early forties. She had two young children to care for and her husband soon divorced her soon after you began to develop eye problems. Long story kept short, our family tried every avenue open to us to get some assistance from SSD for my sister. She ended up dieing a few years later because her blindness did not facilitate her taking her insulin correctly and ending going into a coma while her kids were at school and laid on the kitchen floor unconscious for hours until her heart finally gave out.

There are probably thousands of similar cases across America of citizens not getting the help they need. But I can say with certainty there are a thousand times more of individuals who are getting assistance that is not a necessity. It is more of a moral breakdown in our society we knowingly take assistance at the expense of others.  

[kevin kiernan]

I am sure many installers and movers are needed at times. But robots will start to replace much of what they do at some point. But I doubt they are on par with carpenters.

[jack ludwig]

Glad to see you made it back from DC safe and sound Kevin.