In Plain Service

  For thousands of Social Security disability claimants, an Eligible for Direct Payment Non-Attorney representative is a critical lifeline. EDPNAs help people gather medical evidence, understand SSA’s rules, meet appeal deadlines, prepare for hearings, and explain why their conditions prevent them from working. In many communities, they provide representation that might otherwise be unavailable. Without them, thousands of disabled people would face one of the federal government’s most complicated administrative processes alone. William is one of those claimants. He worked for as long as his health allowed. He went to his doctors, followed the prescribed treatment, kept his appointments, and answered SSA’s questions. When his condition finally made continued work impossible, he applied for disability benefits and sought help from an EDPNA. William chose carefully. His representative was experienced, understood SSA policy, and knew how to develop medical and vocational evidence. The ...

  In the late 1950s, Soviet geneticist Dmitry Belyaev began breeding silver foxes based largely on how they responded to people. An experiment in Darwinian pacification. Foxes that showed the least fear and aggression were selected to reproduce. Within several generations, some began approaching caretakers, wagging their tails, and displaying other behaviors associated with domesticated animals. The broader scientific claims remain debated, but the experiment still demonstrates a narrower point: sustained selection pressure can change the character of a population. Organizations also create selection pressure. They do not change people genetically, of course, but they determine which behaviors are rewarded, which people are promoted, and which traits gradually become common among their leaders. Over time, an organization gets more of what it selects for, whether it intends to or not. The federal government is no exception. Many career senior executives are selected only after years...

  We are on the cusp of a major consolidation within the Social Security disability representation community. The economics are becoming too difficult for many small firms and local practitioners to sustain. Larger organizations can centralize intake, spread their risk across thousands of claims, automate routine work, and absorb years of delay. Smaller practices must carry the same cases, comply with the same rules, and wait for the same decisions without having the same financial cushion. No one gets rich from Social Security disability, not the claimant and not the attorney. The claimant has generally lost the ability to earn a living and must prove it through an administrative process that can take months or years. The attorney accepts a case with no guarantee of success, no guarantee of payment, and little control over how long the process will take. Both sides are operating within a system built around scarcity. For the claimant, the numbers are sobering. The maximum federal ...

  I recently watched two very different war movies, Midway and K-19: The Widowmaker . Both take liberties with history, but both tell a compelling story about institutional hubris. They show what happens when leaders place too much faith in technology, discipline, and the appearance of success. They also show how quickly those strengths can become weaknesses when an institution loses its ability to adapt. In Midway , Japan enters the battle with superior experience, disciplined forces, capable aircraft, and confidence built through a string of victories. Pearl Harbor appeared to validate that confidence and reinforce the belief that the Japanese military understood its adversary. Japanese commanders did not believe the Americans could anticipate their plans or respond effectively. More dangerously, they believed the Americans were incapable of understanding them. They were wrong because American intelligence officers pieced together Japanese intentions by intercepting communic...

  Congress passed the Prompt Payment Act in 1982 because federal agencies were taking months to pay contractors. Those delays created real cash-flow problems, particularly for small businesses. Congress established a basic principle: when the government owes someone money, it should pay promptly. When it fails, there should be a consequence. Social Security beneficiaries deserve the same protection. Federal regulations define an underpayment and an overpayment in essentially the same way: the difference between what a beneficiary was paid and what the beneficiary should have been paid. The calculation may be symmetrical. The consequences are not. This is not a small problem. According to SSA’s historical payment-accuracy data, the agency made an estimated $2.2 billion in SSI underpayments and $13.4 billion in SSI overpayments during fiscal years 2017 through 2019. Under current policy, SSA can generally withhold 50 percent of a Social Security benefit or 10 percent of an SSI paymen...