SOCIAL SECURITY CHIEF AGREES SYSTEM HAS FLAWS
The Houston Chronicle ^ | May 30, 2002 | ALAN BERNSTEIN

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/691904/posts

Posted on 05/30/2002 7:37 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

The new chief of the Social Security Administration criticized the way her agency's disability benefits program works after hearing tearful horror stories Wednesday from sick Houston-area residents who battled the system. One woman told Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart it took eight years and congressional intervention for her husband, a Vietnam War veteran with multiple sclerosis, to get approval for disability benefits. Another local woman, a former department store executive, said Social Security administrative law judges have denied her benefits request for the last three years despite medical evidence that a rare liver disease robs her of the energy to work. "It's heartless, heartless," Brent Bowers of Pipefitters Local Union 211 called out from the back of the crowded room as the witnesses told their tales. Several injured union members have sought the benefits.

Barnhart, who took over the federal agency in November with promises of reform, said the testimony showed she has several problems to tackle. "The kind of stories we heard today ... is not what was intended by Congress and certainly not what was intended by the vast majority of people in the Social Security Administration," Barnhart said. Barnhart, joined at a downtown Houston hearing by five area congressmen and other officials, said she will make sure the judges follow the law. "I intend to make sure that everybody throughout the agency is doing the job the way they are supposed to, in a manner we can all be proud of," she said.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, of the House Subcommittee on Social Security, invited Barnhart to Houston after the Chronicle reported on problems with the disability system in Texas last year. The Texas Rehabilitation Commission, which makes the first ruling on each disability application in the state, approved the requests by the lowest rate in the nation, 31 percent, in 2000. The rate rose to 40 percent in 2001, placing Texas ahead of nine other states.

The Chronicle reported that when sick or injured people in the Houston area appealed their denial to Social Security judges, their odds of winning were lower than elsewhere in the state and nation, and the one-year wait for a hearing was also longer than the national average. Vernon "Max" Arrell, Rehabilitation Commission chief since 1981, acknowledged at the hearing that his agency had the lowest approval rate because of a regional "conservative-type attitude" against giving out government benefits.

Last year, some of Arrell's top aides said the low rates were due to a variety of other reasons -- such as Texas having a relatively young work force. Only the state agency's critics, such as advocates for the disabled, said it was due to a politically conservative approach to government. Regardless, Arrell told Barnhart his agency is open to improvements, such as better training of the state's 340 or so examiners who decide whether people are eligible for disability benefits.

About 6 million U.S. residents get disability benefits, averaging about $750 a month. The witnesses at the hearing sold some of the congressmen on the idea that Social Security judges don't apply the law evenly. "Too many of these cases are handled with no consistency," said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston. Democratic U.S. Reps. Gene Green, Ken Bentsen and Sheila Jackson Lee also attended.

Gisela Montano of Houston testified that the judges originally rejected the disability claim from her husband, Michael, who is afflicted by MS. "The judge refused to look at all the facts," she said, explaining that a second judge reversed the rulings with the same evidence. Donna Brown, the former department store executive, tearfully told Barnhart that without disability benefits, she had to borrow money for her cancer surgery scheduled for Friday. "I don't know what you can do about a judge ignoring medical evidence, (but) that has to be a reform," she told Barnhart.

Social Security judges in Houston -- the number recently grew to 18 -- have refused to discuss their approval rates. Judge Ron Bernoski of Wisconsin, president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that his colleagues follow the law and rule only on the evidence they hear. "They are all trained lawyers and they certainly are trying to provide justice to the American people," he said.

But Jackson Lee, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees judges, said she will conduct research to see if Congress needs to change the way the judges handle disability cases. Kenneth Smith of Spring testified that denials and delays prevented his brother, Arthur "Mike" Smith, from getting disability benefits for two years. When the approval came in February 2001, his brother, who suffered from hepatitis C, had been dead for seven months. "There is something wrong with this picture here," Kenneth Smith said. "I'm just here to help out the others."

TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: SOCIAL SECURITY

The Social Security system has unbelievable internal problems. Many of the employees are totally incompetent and are not accountable. Sometimes, there are several layers of management, but the present system does not allow for elimination of the duplication. It is an unbelieveable, horrific mess. SSI recipients are fawned over and basically given what they want (i.e. future Democrat votes). If the public knew how big the mess was, a revolution of sorts would occur as people began to realize the degree to which they are going to be shafted upon retirement.

Worst of all, the retirement age has been raised for many younger workers which will mean a reduction in benefits if they retire early at 62 (which most people do because they can't take it anymore). The media NEVER takes the time to look and see what is actually happening and seems to always take the Democrat position.