New York Social Security Disability Lawyer Blog

A couple of months ago I wrote about how many states have made the questionable decision to furlough Office of Disability Determinations workers (see my blog entry of May 18, 2009). In a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger of California, Senator Diane Feinstein called on the governor to cancel furloughs for employees paid with federal funds so payments to thousands of disabled Californians aren't delayed.

Last Friday, in what might be a consequence of that foolish decision by Governors throughout the country, a legislative panel of the Arkansas Legislature authorized Arthur Boutiette, the Director of the Arkansas Office of Disability Determination for Social Security, to accept $9 Million of Federal funds to process other states' disability claims. The money will pay for 150 new claims analysts to evaluate disability claims.

According to Mr. Boutiette, the Social Security Administration asked Arkansas for help because they have been "number one in the country the last four years in a row in quality. [Arkansas ODD has] one of the cheapest costs per case."

When asked whether Disability claims will be processed any faster, Mr. Boutiette stated that the 66 day average in Arkansas is faster than just about any other state. He also noted that it would take about a year to train the new claims workers and that he wants his "seasoned people" to handle Arkansas cases.

This is certainly good news for Arkansas. 150 permanent jobs is nothing to sneer at. I am, however, troubled with the feeling that the Arkansas ODD is focused on the speed of decisions. Nothing in this report tells me about the accuracy of the decisions made by the 'seasoned people' at the Arkansas ODD. Fast and cheap doesn't equate with accurate decisions, and it seems to me that when these new hires start to build their own caseloads in 12 months, they are also going to sacrifice the accuracy of decisions for quantity and efficiency, affecting not only the citizens of Arkansas but possibly also my own disabled clients in the New York metropolitan area.

In Fiscal year 2008 Arkansas DSS allowed 36.1% of all claims at the Initial Application and 11.1% of the denials where a Request for Reconsideration was filed. By contrast, New York DSS allowed 44.3% of Initial claims and 51.2% of Reconsiderations. New Jersey's allowance rate of 45% at the Initial level and 20.8% at Reconsideration is also significantly higher than that of Arkansas. As my partner Lew Insler said months ago, the New York and New Jersey DSS offices are starting to get it right when analyzing claims, but I fear that with the creation of this "Mega Disability Agency," there will be an increased number of denials for claimants in New York and New Jersey, who will be forced to wait even longer for a hearing as more cases are appealed.

From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette - August 22, 2009

Allowance data from SAOR (State Agency Operations Report) prepared on 12/12/2008; courtesy of NOSSCR Social Security Forum Vol 31, No. 2 (February 2009)

Gabe Hermann

PART 3

Planning ahead for your retirement is complicated and difficult. To make matters worse, when you try to figure out what you will need to retire, all the financial planners and websites and calculating tools assume that Social Security will be there. I think you have to assume that unless you are within a few years of retiring, the Social Security amounts you are quoted are not what you will get. We have to assume that we will need to self-fund more of our own retirement and depend less on Social Security than we have been led to believe.

If you are close to retiring, that may mean taking the reduced amount at something before full Retirement Age (now 66), to make sure you get that amount before it is somehow "adjusted." Without considering this issue, the question of when to start taking RIB (Retirement Insurance Benefits) has been looked at time and time again. For an excellent evaluation of when to start taking your RIB take a look at the following article, found on our website and originally printed in "Balance", a publication of TIAA-CREF, the pension giant:
http://www.nymetrodisability.com/new-york-social-security-disability/pdfs/tiaa-cref_summer04.pdf.

I tell people who are not disabled that if they do become disabled DIB (Disability Insurance Benefits, or Social Security Disability) probably won't be enough to live off, so they should consider taking out a Long Term Disability policy now. The same thing is true for RIB. Social Security was never designed to be your only retirement income. For far too many people it is, but if you read this while you still have time, do everything you can to maximize your other retirement options. In my opinion you're going to need them!

Lew Insler

PART 2

When I started representing disabled people over 25 years ago many people didn't even know there was such a thing as Social Security Disability. In those days, when people asked me why I was in this field part of my elevator speech was that, "I am helping people get their Social Security now since it won't be around when they retire." I am still convinced that those nice numbers you see when you get your Benefit Estimate every year in the mail are going to have to be reduced, indexed to income, or somehow modified in order to save the system.

Don't worry about the system going under completely. First of all it means too much to too many people. And those dates when it is estimated to be in the red or run completely out of money don't mean much either, since they are dependent on variables that no one can control---like the number of jobs created, the unemployment rate and inflation. But there are some things that are real, and should scare you.

The most important thing to know is that there is no way that the system can continue as it has without some major changes. As we Baby Boomers retire, there will be fewer people paying into the system and more drawing from it. And those who draw from it will live longer than when the system was created.

Everyone gets back far more than they contribute if they reach their life expectancies, and certainly if they receive DIB (Disability Insurance Benefits, or Social Security Disability). Thus the system will clearly be in the red at some point before the middle of this century. Not that it won't have money; it will just be paying out more than it takes in, and thus the Trust Funds will start shrinking. Eventually, if nothing is done, they will disappear. But as I said, that isn't going to happen.

What I think will happen will be a combination of things: indexing to income so that people with other income will have their benefits reduced; raising the age at which benefits are payable (again) since most of us are living longer than when the system was created; and increasing the payroll tax as well as the amount of income subject to taxation to fund Social Security. That has already happened to fund Medicare.

In my next post, I'll tell you what I think we all need to do to protect ourselves.

Lew Insler

PART 1

Most of our clients come to us to help them get Social Security Disability (also known as DIB: Disability Insurance Benefits). But some of them are already 62 or turn 62 as their DIB claims are pending, which makes them eligible for RIB (Retirement Insurance Benefits, or "regular" Social Security) while they wait to see if the DIB is approved.

Just about every time Gabe or I give a lecture there is someone in attendance who is already receiving RIB, is too old to qualify for DIB, and just wants to know "what's going to happen to Social Security?" Typically we deflect the question by saying we are there to discuss the law, not politics, especially since the point of the lectures is to help people get benefits now. But it really is an important question and I'm going to deal with it a little over my next few posts.

I recently read an excellent article in Forbes magazine about what some academic economists feel has to be done to "save" Social Security. You can find the entire article at
target= "_blank" >http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0713/opinions-retirement-pension-healthcare-ideas-opinions.html. Since the article is only two pages long, I really encourage you to read it.

I'll share my opinions on what lies ahead and what we should do to protect ourselves over the next few posts.

Lew Insler