Changes to Social Security disability benefits will affect 50 to 60-year-old applicants

ProPublica graphic, with data from SSA, Master Beneficiary Record, 100% data; USPS geographic data; and Census Bureau, Population Division, 2023 estimates of resident population.

Changes made to Social Security disability benefits by the Trump Administration could harm 50 to 60-year-old applicants “without a high school or college education who have, for decades, toiled in physically grueling jobs,” Eli Hager reported for ProPublica.

“The five states where the highest proportions of people rely on these benefits are West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama,” Hager wrote.

Currently, applicants who are at least 50 years old are given priority to redeem disability benefits due to their age. The changes made to the program would mean that age would no longer be a factor in determining eligibility for the benefits.

A senior administration official (who requested anonymity) explained that the current rules reflected the job economy of the 1970s, which mostly relied on manual labor. Now that the internet has created more sedentary jobs, 50-year-olds have more options.

Another change would “modernize the job listings that Social Security’s disability adjudicators and judges use to decide if there’s work available in the U.S. economy that a manual laborer could do despite physical impairments — like a low-skilled desk job at a computer or driving for Uber or DoorDash,” Hager wrote.

But Hager added that Michelle Aliff, who provides expert testimony for Social Security disability hearings, said in an interview that “an oil field roustabout in his 50s isn’t going to just sit down at a computer for work without additional training.”

Report: Social Security trust fund needs attention now if it's going to stay viable past 2034

If changes aren't made, the Social Security trust fund 
will run out of money by 2034.  (Adobe Stock photo) 

Social Security benefits play a vital role in communities nationwide; however, rural areas may be more dependent on the program because their populations skew older. Regardless of region, 73 million Americans currently depend on the program’s monthly payments; however, its 2025 Trustee Report indicates that the program needs attention to meet its expenses, reports Gopi Shah Goda for Brookings.

The report outlines how the Social Security trust fund will run out of money by 2034, and will "no longer be able to make all of its promised benefit payments," Goda explains. According to the report, the shortfall will continue to grow since the program lacks sufficient payroll taxes to cover its ongoing and predicted future costs.

"The shortfall amounts to 3.82% of taxable payroll, meaning that the payroll tax rate would have to be raised immediately—and permanently—from the current rate of 12.4% of taxable earnings to 16.1% in order for the program to be able to pay all promised benefits through 2099," Goda writes. "In 2025, that increase would have amounted to an extra $374 billion in program revenue."

Even if the Trump administration were able to eliminate all Social Security fraud, overpayments and any other human error costs, it would not compensate for the billions needed. "Even this unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky scenario would only yield 'savings' of $10.2 billion per year, barely moving the needle in terms of the program’s $1.48 trillion annual cost," Goda adds. "Social Security is already a lean operation."

Cutting more Social Security staff members would likely result in reduced services and even longer wait times for disability determinations. Goda writes, "It is very likely that any additional cuts in staffing will make it harder for Americans — particularly the most vulnerable — to access benefits they have earned, with dire consequences."

While there are solutions, few are likely to be popular. "There is no free lunch. . .changes would involve difficult tradeoffs between beneficiaries and workers as well as current and future generations," Goda writes. "Policy options that raise revenues include increasing the payroll tax rate or broadening the income base to which that the payroll tax is applied. . . . .Cutting benefits across the board, raising the retirement age at which a beneficiary is eligible for full benefits, reducing benefits disproportionately for higher earners. . . .Some action will be necessary within the next decade."

Social Security recipients can still use phone to contact SSA; however, no paper checks after Sept. 30

SSA had planned to disallow several types of
customer service phone calls. (Farm Journal photo)

In a quick turnabout, the Social Security Administration changed its "plan to demand more in-office visits from beneficiaries after leaders said they would no longer allow benefit recipients to use telephone services to confirm their identification or change direct-deposit information," reports Chris Clayton of Farm Journal. The changes were planned to begin on March 31, but SSA delayed any changes until April 14. Recipients can still contact SSA customer service by phone.

The reversal is a relief for "elderly and disabled residents in rural America who were about to face hours-long drives to Social Security offices if they don't know how to use the internet or have access to the Social Security Administration's website," Clayton explains. "The changes were set to affect millions of rural residents, including roughly one in five farm households."

Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of Social Security, told Farm Journal, "We are updating our policy to provide better customer service to the country's most vulnerable populations. . . . Medicare, Disability, and SSI applications will be exempt from in-person identity proofing because multiple opportunities exist during the decision process to verify a person's identity."

When the updated policy begins on April 14, "individuals applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicare, or Supplemental Security Income who cannot use a personal my Social Security account can complete their claim entirely over the telephone without the need to come into an office," Clayton adds. "The decision to change requirements for Social Security beneficiaries also comes as the Department of Government Efficiency is pressing to close at least 47 Social Security offices nationally."

"There is little hard data breaking down percentages of rural residents who rely on Social Security," Clayton reports. "A 2011 study by the Center for Rural Strategies showed rural counties rely on Social Security benefits nearly twice as much in terms of total personal income than urban counties."

There is a separate Social Security change that some beneficiaries may need to plan for soon. Clayton adds, "People will have to stop receiving their payments by check and provide some details for electronic payment. The SSA will stop issuing paper checks at the end of September." 

Opinion: In a country obsessed with youth, how can America face old age?

New York Times illustration

In a little over a decade, America won't be a beacon of youth and strappy upstarts. It will be old. "By 2034, there will be more Americans over the age of 65 than children. . . . It's time to prepare," advises The New York Times editorial board in its opinion piece, "Can America age gracefully?"

"Thanks to falling birthrates, longer life expectancy and the graying of the baby boomer cohort, our society is being transformed. This is a demographic change that will affect every part of society. Already, in about half the country, more people are dying than being born, even as more Americans live into their 80s, 90s and beyond. In 2020, the share of people 65 or older reached 17 percent, according to the Census Bureau. By 2034, there will be more Americans past retirement age than children.

"The challenge the country faces transcends ideology, geography and ethnic or racial category, and American leaders, regardless of their party, need to confront it with the appropriate urgency. . . . Places like Japan, with the highest proportion of people 65 or older in the world, offer a hint of what the near future might look like for America. In Japan, especially in rural areas, schools shut their doors because there are no longer enough children to fill them; births fell below 800,000 in 2022, and about 450 schools close every year. With fewer young people working, revenue for retirement programs is shrinking, and there is a chronic labor shortage. Japanese people increasingly work into their 60s, 70s and beyond, often in physically demanding but low-paid jobs such as making deliveries and cleaning offices."

A country with a significant aged population has particular needs, but American politicians and policy writers need to be faster to address the shift. The Board writes, "The strains are showing in everything from health care and housing to employment and transportation. With an average of 10,000 boomers turning 65 each day, these pressures are steadily intensifying and will continue to do so, especially if current immigration policies hold. . . . By 2053, more than 40 percent of the federal budget will go toward programs for seniors, primarily Social Security and Medicare . . . .

"A demographic shift this significant calls for a broad-based response, and the longer the challenges go unaddressed, the more formidable they become. . . . There are many pieces to this puzzle, including who will care for older people, where they will live, how our cities are designed and how businesses will adapt. Many older people in the United States say they feel invisible in a country that has long been obsessed with youth, avoiding the inevitability—and possibilities—of old age."

Biden's rural points were on broadband, other infrastructure; on some other topics he exaggerated or lacked context

President Biden spoke in front of Vice President Kamala Harris and
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin)

Did President Biden have anything for rural America in his State of the Union speech? And how closely did he stick to the facts?

He used the word "rural" once, in saying the bipartisan infrastructure law is funding projects in all kinds of places: “Urban. Suburban. Rural. Tribal.” Just before that, he mentioned “high-speed internet across America,” and later he said “We're making sure every community in America has access to high-speed internet.” He also announced that all materials in federal construction projects will have to be made in America, including fiber-optic cable that is the standard for high-speed internet.

Another line could be taken as a rural reference: “My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible.”

Rural America is the home of extractive industries, and Biden slammed oil companies, noting their record profits and saying “They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production and keep gas prices down. Instead, they used those record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders.” An ad-lib about oil brought derisive laughter from Republicans: “We’re gonna need oil for at least another decade.” Longer than that.

"Some of Biden's claims in the speech were false, misleading or lacking critical context," CNN's Daniel Dale writes. Biden claimed the infrastructre law "funded 700,000 major construction projects," but the actual number is 7,000. The New York Times' analysis repeatedly cited lack of context.

In his Fact Checker column for The Washington Post, Glenn Kessler writes that Biden exaggerated several points, including deficit reduction, U.S. exports, the nation's infrastructure ranking. the effect of recent tax legislation and the number of jobs being created.

Kessler also looks at Biden's claim that "some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset," explaining that word is "inside-the-Beltway lingo for programs terminating automatically on a periodic basis unless explicitly renewed by law. Last year, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, released a 60-page “11-point plan to rescue America” that offered 128 proposals. Buried on Page 39, in a section on government restructuring, was one sentence: 'All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.' Scott’s write-up — which offered few details and had no proposed legislative language — was almost immediately rejected by most Senate Republicans. Scott also said he was being misinterpreted. 'No one that I know of wants to sunset Medicare or Social Security, but what we’re doing is we don’t even talk about it. Medicare goes bankrupt in four years. Social Security goes bankrupt in 12 years,” Scott said on Fox News last March. 'I think we ought to figure out how we preserve those programs. Every program that we care about, we ought to stop and take the time to preserve those programs.'"

An aging America could present problems for rural areas

"The nation’s population is growing older, posing financial and economic challenges for states around the U.S. in the years ahead, a credit rating agency cautioned this week," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. "S&P Global Ratings notes in a brief that by 2035 the Census Bureau projects the number of people aged 65 and older will outnumber those under 18 for the first time in the nation’s history."

Too many seniors who need Medicare, Social Security, and sometimes Medicaid, combined with not enough younger working people to pay into those systems, could cause a lot of pain for state and federal budgets, Lucia reports. The problem will be especially acute for rural areas, which already have older populations.

"More births and greater in-migration of young people from foreign countries could act as counterweights to the aging population, but are not on pace to do so at current levels," Lucia reports.

Trump budget calls for steep cuts to many programs that benefit rural areas

President Trump's proposed $4.89 trillion budget for Fiscal Year 2021 won't get passed as-is, especially in the Democrat-led House, but it's instructive to see what his priorities are as he attempts to woo rural voters for his reelection campaign. Here are some of the details with rural resonance:

The proposed budget "once again calls for steep cuts to federal spending that supports rural communities," Bryce Oates reports for The Daily Yonder. That includes an 8 percent cut in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's discretionary budget—a $2 billion cut that mostly targets nutrition and food security programs, though farming, conservation and rural economic development programs are also cut.

Specifically, Trump proposes cutting funding for the Economic Research Service by 35%, from this year's $84 million to $62 million. The Rural Business and Cooperative Programs would lose 97% of funding, from $94 million to $3 million. The budget would also eliminate the USDA Single Family Housing Direct Loans program, funded this year at $90 million, and would provide the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network only $2 million for local farm financial stress counseling—$8 million less than the 2018 Farm Bill's minimum, Oates reports.

"The budget proposes $44 million in distance learning and telemedicine grants, with 20% dedicated to projects that 'combat the opioid crisis and keep rural communities safe,''' Oates reports. "It provides $614 million in funding for water and wastewater grants and loans, $5.5 billion in electric loans, and $690 million in telecommunications loans, $2.5 billion for community facility direct loans and $500 million for guaranteed loans. The budget also provides $1.5 billion for business and industry guaranteed loans, a $500 million increase over current levels paid for by increased lending fees."

The budget calls for spending reductions over the next decade by cutting spending on school meal programs for the poor, large cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through work requirements, more than $9 billion in cuts to farm conservation programs, and increasing user fees for food safety inspections, Oates reports.

The Department of Education would lose nearly 8%, or $5.6 billion, under the budget. Trump proposes cutting student loan spending by $170 billion and ending subsidized loans, in which the government covers interest for borrowers who are still in school or experiencing economic hardship. "It would also reduce the number of repayment options for borrowers and nix the popular, if challenged, public service loan forgiveness program," Annie Nova reports for CNBC. Losing the forgiveness program could make it harder for rural areas to attract doctors and teachers.

The budget aims to reduce Social Security spending by $75 billion over the next decade. Some of the savings would come from terminating more people from the Social Security Disability Insurance program. And "$10 billion of this reduction comes from reducing the amount of retroactive benefits someone can receive after they’ve been found to be disabled," Elena Botella reports for Forbes.

The budget isn't clear where much of the proposed Social Security savings over the next decade will come from. Over the next 10 years, $47 billion in savings is meant to come from an Office of Management and Budget proposal to "test new approaches to labor force participation," which essentially amounts to experimenting with policy until they save money, Botella reports.

Trump hopes to cut Medicare spending by 7%, or $756 billion, over the next decade. "Part of this reduction in spending comes from initiatives that the White House says are intended to reduce Medicare fraud," Botella reports. "For example, they've proposed requiring patients and doctors to ask for prior authorization from Medicare before certain procedures could be performed. And the budget hopes to lower Medicare spending through changes that would encourage more seniors to see nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants as their primary care providers. Medicaid spending would be cut by 16% over the next 10 years, possibly by shifting program funding to block grants.

The administration also wants to "cut down on reimbursement rates to healthcare providers, reducing how much doctors, hospitals, and hospices are paid for providing healthcare," Botella reports. The administration "highlights specific instances where they believe reimbursement rates for doctors are excessive: for example, they cite the fact that doctor’s offices owned by hospitals are often paid more for performing the same procedures than independent physicians."

The budget seeks to save $135 billion over the next decade by enacting comprehensive drug pricing reform. "The Trump budget does not include specific policies to reduce costs, but rather states the administration is supportive of capping out-of-pocket pharmacy drug costs for Medicare recipients, and improving incentives to reduce costs," Andrea Noble reports for Route Fifty.

The budget also eliminates the Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which provided $1.3 billion in grants last year to 600 state and local governments to help pay for affordable housing for the poor, Noble reports. For the third year in a row, Trump has proposed eliminating most USDA rural affordable housing programs and many of its HUD programs, though the budget aims to fund some efforts to repair existing affordable properties, according to the Housing Assistance Council, a nonprofit that offers low-cost rural housing development loans.

The proposed budget would cut overall domestic federal spending by 5% and forecasts $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade as long as the economy continues growing at around 3% per year, Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan report for Reuters.

However, the Congressional Budget Office projects the economy will grow 2.2% in the current fiscal year and will grow less than 2.0% per year afterward. "While Trump campaigned on a promise of eventually eliminating the country’s huge debt, each year of his plan projects significant budget deficits that actually would add to the $22 trillion debt," Mason and Cowan report.

Proposed changes to Social Security disability determinations would hurt rural residents, researchers write

Map shows the percentage of the population in each county that receives Social Security Disability Insurance payments;
click on the image to enlarge it; click on the story to view an interactive version with data for each county.

"Changes to the Social Security Disability Insurance program proposed in January by the Trump administration could make it harder for over 8 million Americans with disabilities to maintain federal benefits. That’s particularly true for those in rural communities, where we have worked and studied for the past 35 years," Lillie Greiman and Catherine Ipsen write for The Conversation.

Almost 8.4 million people receive an average of $1,200 a month in Social Security disability benefits. In each case, a judge has ruled that the person is unable to hold a job because of a mental or physical impairment, but they must undergo periodic reviews to prove that they're still unable to work. Reviewers classify recipients into one of three groups: Medical Improvement Expected, Medical Improvement Possible, and Medical Improvement Not Expected. Recipients deemed more likely to improve get more frequent reviews, Greiman and Ipsen write.

The Trump administration is proposing a fourth category, which would be called "Medical Improvement Likely." The government expects that about 1 million now categorized "Medical Improvement Possible" would probably move to the new category and get more frequent reviews, leading to more benefit terminations and saving about $200 million a year. "These proposed changes are based on research from the Office of Research, Demonstration and Employment Support showing that, after losing benefits based on a review, 70 percent of people had some earnings within the next five years. However, this research also shows that a majority continue to live below the poverty line," Greiman and Ipsen write.

They say adding the fourth category would disproportionately affect rural residents, who would have a harder time appealing terminations and finding work. Appealing a benefit termination is a lengthy process that often requires travel to a Social Security office or court. That can be a barrier for those without access to transportation, especially for in rural areas, where there are fewer offices.

Rural residents who lose benefits are more economically vulnerable than their urban counterparts overall, Greiman and Ipsen write. Not only are rural residents 5 percentage points more likely to be disabled than urban residents, but they tend to develop disabilities at a younger age. On top of that, "access to economic opportunity is not equally distributed across the U.S. Our research group’s work shows that rural Americans with disabilities are still trying to recover from the recession," they write. "Overall, fewer rural people with disabilities have jobs now than did in 2008 – this at a time when the U.S. unemployment rate is at historic lows. The drop in employment is particularly pronounced across a few geographic areas, including the Mid-Atlantic, Southern, Mountain and Pacific regions."

Fugitive Ky. lawyer, who pled guilty to massive disability-benefit fraud, is captured in Honduras

Eric Conn, shown at a Honduras Pizza Hut
immediately before his arrest. (FBI photo)

An Eastern Kentucky lawyer who disappeared after pleading guilty to massive Social Security disability fraud, was arrested by the FBI at a Pizza Hut in Honduras on Dec. 2, six months to the day after the manhunt began.

Eric Conn "once had one of the biggest practices in the country specializing in representing people seeking disability benefits from the Social Security Administration," Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He pleaded guilty in March to bribes of a Social Security judge totaling more than $600,000, and defrauding the government of more than $550 million in benefits by putting false evidence of clients' disabilities in their claims and paying doctors to sign off on disability forms without actually examining the patients. About 700 of his clients have kept their disability benefits, but 800 lost them.

Conn was on house arrest while awaiting his July sentencing, but after a June 2 meeting with his attorney and prosecutors, he cut off his ankle monitor and fled. An accomplice, Curtis Lee Wyatt, allegedly helped him escape by opening a bank account used to send money out of the country to Conn. He also bought Conn a truck and drove to Mexico to scope out the security.

While on the lam, Conn sent emails and faxes to the Herald-Leader and others. "Some of those messages poked the government for not being able to catch him. He said in one message to a prosecutor on his case, Dustin Davis, that when he fled he 'knew the game was afoot' and that he had learned the FBI’s playbook before he left," Estep reports. "The message from mid-June also said the FBI 'could not be more wrong' about his whereabouts."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article188133589.html#storylink=cpy

What comes next for Conn? Because he fled the country, he forfeited the terms of his plea deal, which would have dropped more than a dozen charges from the original rap sheet. So now he faces a possible life sentence if convicted. And he was tried and sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison on charges of conspiracy and escape.

Former Social Security judge pleads guilty to taking bribes in disability scam with coalfield lawyer

David Daugherty (Lexington Herald-
Leader photo by Pablo Alcala)

A federal Social Security judge in Huntington, W.Va., pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to two felonies of accepting illegal gratuities from an Eastern Kentucky lawyer in fraudulent disability cases, Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. David Black Daugherty, 81, admitted to accepting more than $609,000 in bribes from 2004-11 to award disability benefits to thousands of clients of attorney Eric C. Conn, who pleaded guilty in March to stealing from the Social Security Administration and bribing Daugherty.

Conn admitted he falsified medical documents to show clients were disabled and paid doctors to sign the evaluations, Estep writes. From October 2004 to April 2011, Conn made a payment to Daugherty for each favorable decision made by Daugherty, who "arranged for Conn’s cases to be assigned to him—taking files off other judges’ desks in some cases—and rubber-stamped the claims."

According to court documents, Daugherty awarded benefits to people represented by Conn in 3,149 cases, Estep writes. His decisions in those cases "would have obligated the government to pay $550 million in benefits, the court document said. The government actually paid $46.5 million to people that the agency has determined were not eligible to receive before the scheme came to light, according to a document in Conn’s case. Daugherty retired abruptly in 2011 after federal authorities began investigating."

Prosecutors are pushing for the maximum sentence of four years when Daugherty is sentenced in August. Conn faces up to 12 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 14.

Rural Michigan's 'Disability Belt' is beginning to rival poverty in Appalachia, Deep South

One of the nation's fastest growing impoverished regions, quickly becoming on par with poverty rates in Appalachia and the Deep South, is rural Northern Michigan, Chad Selweski reports for Bridge Magazine, part of The Center for Michigan. Seventeen northern Michigan counties, mostly in the Lower Peninsula, are part of the "Disability Belt," one name for "a region where post-recession aging workers in poor health and with few prospects for work have turned to federal disability benefits as a last resort, a replacement income for their long-lost unemployment checks."

According to federal data, 385,000 working-age Michigan residents receive some sort of disability benefits, totaling $425 million per month, Selweski writes. Gary Kozma, a Michigan attorney who specializes in disability cases, said many older, rural unskilled people with debilitating health problems that can’t find work view disability almost as early retirement.

That's true in Northern Michigan, where "a surprising number of desperate workers have turned to Social Security disability benefits to earn a livelihood," Selweski writes. "Many don’t expect to return to the job market, unless federal investigators throw them off disability rolls. In some counties, rates of poverty and disability hover around 15 to 20 percent, raising questions about whether a some portion of working-age residents apply for disability as much from despair that they will ever land another job as from physical necessity." (Bridge graphic: Disability in Michigan)

"Northern Michigan is part of a national phenomenon that emerged two decades ago and especially during the Great Recession of 2008-10, when an abrupt decline in blue-collar jobs left certain workers—mostly in their 50s, suffering from chronic medical conditions—unemployed or underemployed for years at a time," Selweski writes. "They dealt with persistent pain, often job-induced, and eventually found themselves unable to lift heavy items, stand for hours at a time, or even efficiently climb stairs."

"With jobs in manufacturing, construction and similar manual labor beyond their reach, these economic outcasts also held little chance of landing employment in the region’s fragile retail sector or service industries," he writes. "Armed with a high school diploma or less, they were unlikely to find office work. So, they turned to the Social Security system’s disability insurance."

Eastern Kentucky lawyer pleads guilty to defrauding the Social Security disability system

UPDATE, April 6: U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar ruled on Tuesday that Conn "should pay $31 million in damages and penalties to the federal government and two former Social Security Administration employees who tried to blow the whistle on his fraudulent conduct," Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The government had sought a total of $31.4 million in the case — $12.2 million in damages and $19.2 million in penalties, based on the maximum penalty of $11,000 for each of the 1,746 fraudulent claims it identified."

A Kentucky lawyer who labeled himself as "Mr. Social Security" pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to stealing from the Social Security Administration and bribing a federal Social Security judge. Prosecutors say Eric C. Conn had "a long-running scheme to defraud the government of nearly $600 million in federal disability payments," Bruce Schreiner reports for The Associated Press. Conn's sentencing is July 14 and he faces up to 12 years in prison.

Eric Conn (Associated Press photo)

"According to the plea, Conn participated in a more than decade-long scheme involving the submission of thousands of falsified medical documents," Schreiner writes. "Those fraudulent submissions resulted in payment of more than $550 million in benefits."

He continues: "Conn also admitted to paying the judge about $10,000 a month over more than six years to award disability benefits in more than 1,700 cases, according to documents filed with the guilty plea. Those payments were based on falsified medical documents, the documents said. Conn admitted that he received more than $5.7 million in representative fees from the SSA based on those fraudulent claims, the documents said."

Conn started his law practice in a trailer in 1993 in his hometown of Stanville, building it to one of the nation's most lucrative disability firms, Schreiner writes. "He became a local celebrity for his over-the-top advertising campaigns. He dispatched crews of 'Conn Hotties' to events and had a 19-foot replica of the Lincoln Memorial [statue] erected in the parking lot of his office."

For years, Conn faced no legal consequences, even after the SSA "cut off disability payments to hundreds of his clients in the impoverished coalfields of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia," Schreiner writes. "Conn’s clients have been fighting the federal government to keep their disability checks."

Ned Pillersdorf, an attorney who is representing hundreds of Conn’s former clients who have sued in seeking damages from Conn, told Schreiner that the plea should help speed up consideration of the lawsuit. “I’ve got to get these people money quick,” Pillersdorf said. “I’ve got 800 people going without, and it’s a real humanitarian crisis. His guilty plea should expedite that process.” But Pillersdorf told Schreiner that Conn’s guilty plea is unlikely to have an impact on those cases. (Read more)

Fact checking claims at Democratic convention on veteran homelessness, Social Security, NATO

The third day of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday created more fodder for fact checkers. If you want to re-publish them, we encourage you to look at reports by The Washington Post's Fact Checker unit, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org for full context and things you may want to add. (Politico photo by Jason Lee: President Obama speaking Wednesday)

President Obama said, We “cut veterans' homelessness almost in half.” The number is actually 35 percent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Post fact-checkers Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Le write, "He likely is referring to the decrease in homeless veterans who are 'unsheltered,' defined as 'places not meant for human habitation, such as the streets, abandoned buildings, vehicles, or parks.' The unsheltered homeless veteran population decreased by 45.9 percent from 2009 to 2015."

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said, “Donald Trump and Mike Pence want to gamble with your retirement benefits in the stock market.” Lee and Kessler write, "This is a tired old talking point that Democrats throw at Republicans, one that we have criticized in the past. Yet it’s particularly misplaced against Donald Trump. As a presidential candidate, Trump has repeatedly insisted that he will not touch Social Security benefits, saying it can held solvent without changing its structure. There’s no indication that he currently supports investing Social Security trust funds—now in Treasury bonds—in the stock market."

"As is typical of Trump, he sang a different tune in 2000, writing in a book that Social Security was a 'Ponzi scheme' and the retirement age should be raised to 70," Kessler and Lee write. "He also called for 'privatization' of the program. Pence, as a member of Congress, was supportive of George W. Bush’s ill-fated 2005 effort to introduce investment options. It was designed as a voluntary program, in which individuals could choose to direct a relatively small portion of their payroll taxes to investment options besides Treasury securities. But Bush could not even get a committee vote on his idea, even though Republicans controlled both houses of Congress,. That was 11 years ago, and no serious Republican has tried to push the concept again."

Eugene Kiely of FactCheck.org, writes, "vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine claimed that Trump said he 'wants to abandon' our NATO allies. Trump has said that he doesn’t want the U.S. to leave NATO, but has suggested he would not automatically defend NATO allies that do not pay their share of defense costs."

"Obama claimed that under his administration, 'we finally began to wean ourselves off foreign oil,' but dependency on imported oil had begun to drop years before he took office," Kiely writes. "Obama said deficits have 'come down' under his administration.' That’s true, but they are expected to rise again soon under his proposed budget."

Deadline Tuesday to apply for journalism workshop on aging and retirement June 12-15 in D.C.

Tuesday is the deadline to apply for a fellowship to "Aging and Retirement: Understanding Generational Changes," a journalism workshop to be held June 12-15 at the National Press Foundation’s Media Training Center in Washington, D.C. The fellowship will focus on areas such as an aging population of baby boomers moving into retirement without the cash to last a lifetime, Social Security and Medicare systems heading towards a crisis and younger generations who aren’t faring much better.

The all-expenses-paid fellowship covers airfare, ground transportation, hotel costs and most meals. Applicants will need to submit: two samples of their work from the last year; resume or complete Linkedin profile; and a letter of support from an editor or supervisor (freelancers can submit a letter from someone who has edited or published their work). Applicants should also be able to explain why they are interested in this program, how they will use the program to benefit readers and a brief, narrative autobiography. For more information or to apply for the fellowship, click here.

Millennials are under-represented in legislatures, reflecting their lack of interest in voting

Millennials—people born after 1980—account for 31 percent of the U.S. voting age population, but only hold 5 percent of state legislative seats, Rebecca Beitsch reports for Stateline. The average age of lawmakers is 56, but is higher in some states, such as New Hampshire (66), Idaho (63), New Mexico (62), Vermont (61), Utah and Indiana (60) and North Carolina, North Dakota and Wyoming (59). Michigan has the lowest average age, 50, which is still higher than the average age of the U.S. voting population, 47. Nebraska has the highest share of millennials in its legislature, 16 percent.

"The problem, some political scientists say, is that when younger legislators are left out, so are their viewpoints," Beitsch writes. "Older legislators—who also tend to be wealthier—may be less likely to focus on issues such as school spending and student loan debt. Too much gray hair in a legislative body also leaves some younger voters feeling disconnected from the political process."

The dearth of millennials in legislatures reflects their low voting rate. Census data show that only 23 percent of millennials went to the polls in 2014, while 59 percent of people 65 and older did, Beitsch writes. Michael McDonald, an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida, told Beitsch, "If state legislators don’t perceive young people to be engaged, they’re not going to be standard-bearers for the issues young people care about."

Millennials tend to be single and "have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income than their predecessor generations had at the same age," Beitsch writes. "Politically, they expect to get less from government programs such as Social Security. Those with young children are more interested in funding public education than older people whose children are grown, and who may be reluctant to pay higher taxes to support schools. Millennials also are more racially diverse than older generations, and more socially liberal." (Stateline map: To see an interactive version click here)

Widow sues E. Kentucky disability lawyer, says fraudulent activity led to her husband's suicide

The Eastern Kentucky disability lawyer who was implicated in fraud is being sued by the widow of one of his clients who committed suicide after he was told he could lose his social security disability benefits, reports LEX 18 in Lexington.

Late last month about 900 clients of Floyd County lawyer Eric Conn—who was featured in a "60 Minutes" investigative report and was the subject of a 2013 investigation by a Senate Committee on Government Affairs—were told they could have their disability payments suspended. Earlier this month acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin lifted the supsensions until they get a hearing before an administrative law judge.

The widow of Leroy Burchett filed a lawsuit on behalf of her late husband's estate alleging that fraudulent activity on the part of Conn resulted in his wrongful death, LEX 18 reports. "According to a Facebook post from Burchett's lawyer, Ned Pillersdorf, Burchett fell into a depression after receiving the letter and was unable to afford his medication," which included anti-depressants. (Read more)

Disability benefits restored, pending new hearings, for 900 who used lawyer implicated in fraud

Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin lifted payment suspensions for 900 disability benefit recipients in Eastern Kentucky and adjoining areas until they get a hearing before an administrative law judge, Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, the region's congressman and chair of the House Appropriations Commitee, announced today.

"We are all determined to bring fraud to a rapid conclusion, and if it exists, it needs to be handled appropriately," Rogers said in a press release. "But this is the American way; you are innocent until you are proven guilty. Now our people will be able to pay bills and purchase the everyday items they need while they await the hearing they deserve."

The suspensions resulted from a federal fraud investigation of a Floyd County attorney, some area physicians and a Social Security administrative law judge who retired under fire a few years ago. The agency notified 900 people that their disability benefits had been suspended, and 600 other people were told their Supplemental Security Income would continue only until their eligibility could be examined again. Now the 10-day window to provide medical records has been extended to 30 days, Colvin said.

"Suspending benefits could have left hundreds of people in Eastern Kentucky with little or no income for a year or more," Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "That had caused fears about people not being able to afford food or medicine or losing their homes. The loss of benefits might even have played a role in at three suicides." Rogers told Estep that in his meeting with Colvin, "I was rather blunt that this is a matter of life and death."

The area may be the nation's most dependent on disability payments, as indicated by this map. Click on it for a larger version.

Social Security to tighten leash on disability judges, as their generosity threatens to sink program

Following scandals and highly questionable activity in its disability program, including some widely publicized cases in Central Appalachia and Puerto Rico, the Social Security Administration will give itself "more latitude to crack down on judges who are awarding disability benefits outside the norm," Damian Paletta reports for The Wall Street Journal. The problem may be more prevalent in rural areas; the rural disability-benefits rate is 80 percent higher than the national rate.

The rules governing the judges are being rewritten so that they will no longer have "complete individual independence," and will clarify that they are "subject to the supervision and management" of other officials in the agency, Paletta reports. "In 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported a widespread disparity in the probability that certain judges would award benefits" to people who appealed initial denials, with many awarding benefits to 90 percent of claimants and others denying more than 80 percent of their cases. The tried to crack down on such "outliers," but said the "judicial independence" rule kept it from intervening, "even if a judge paid benefits in more than 95 percent of the cases."

Paletta notes, "The Social Security Disability Insurance program, funded by payroll taxes, pays monthly benefits—often until someone receives retirement benefits in their 60s—for people who can no longer work because of physical or mental health problems. During the recent economic downturn, the program grew quickly and now has close to 11 million beneficiaries. It has grown so fast, in fact, that it is projected to exhaust the reserves in its trust fund by 2016, which could force all beneficiaries to see an immediate cut in their payments."

Can you believe they misspelled "calendar"?

More workers on disability, especially in rural areas

The growing number of people going from full-time work to disability pay continues to grow, especially in rural areas, where the closing of factories and mills has left many unemployed and with no other option but to take government benefits, partly because they lack the education needed for jobs that don't involve physical labor. Michael Fletcher reports for The Washington Post that the number of former workers in the U.S. receiving benefits has soared "from just over 5 million to 8.8 million between 2000 and 2012. An additional 2.1 million dependent children and spouses also receive benefits. Federal officials project that the program will exhaust its trust fund by 2016 — 20 years before the trust fund that supports Social Security’s old-age benefits is projected to run dry." (Post graphic from federal data)

Maine, which has the largest percentage of rural population of any state, has been hit hard by the loss of jobs, especially in Penobscot County, an area with 153,000 residents, where well-paying jobs once provided an economic foothold for generations of blue-collar workers. It has "become a place where an unusually large share of the unemployed are seeking economic shelter on federal disability rolls," Fletcher writes. The number of people receiving Social Security disability in the county rose from 2000-2012 "from 4,475 to 7,955 — or nearly one in 12 of the county’s adults between the ages of 18 and 64, according to Social Security statistics."

"In 2004, nearly one in five male high school dropouts between ages 55 and 64 were in the disability program, according to a paper by economists David Autor and Mark Duggan," Fletcher writes "That rate was more than double that of high school graduates of the same age in the program and more than five times higher than the 3.7 percent of college graduates of that age who collect disability." John Dorrer, an economist and former acting commissioner of the Maine Department of Labor, told Fletcher, “The Social Security disability program has become an economic option for many people. As a result of the economic downturn, a whole lot of unskilled males 50 and over were bounced out of the labor force.” (Read more)

In Dec., 2011 it was reported that disability benefit rates were 80 percent higher in rural areas, especially in Appalachia, the deep South and the Ozarks. The national average of adults receiving benefits was 4.6 percent, but in rural areas, that rate was 7.6 percent. There has also been reports of disability judges being too generous with funds, specifically one judge who served in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia that approved payments in all 729 of his decisions in the first six months of the 2011 fiscal year.

Napolitano: Immigration reform will make U.S. safer, while boosting economy

Comprehensive immigration reform will increase border security, bolster the country's economy, and is great for rural America, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a media call Tuesday. She said the bill will boost small businesses and agriculture, where it will put an end to worker shortages; will protect American workers; and is key to deterring illegal migration.

She said the current system is broken, saying "When you fix it, and do it the right way, it is an overall comprehensive agreement that moves us on a path well-suited for rural America in the 21st Century."

The bill will increase the number of agents and technology available at borders, making borders even safer, said Napolitano, who called border cities some of the safest in the country. It will also provide a better verification system, allowing officials to ascertain who has overstayed their visas, while creating a system to better monitor employers and employees. Increasing border security is one of the main issues Republicans are pushing for with the bill.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who introduced Napolitano, said 700,000 of the 1.1 million agriculture workers are not properly documented. He said that without the bill, the U.S. stands to lose agriculture jobs to other countries. Also, he said, immigrants are twice as likely to start a small business, so passing the bill will fill jobs and create more taxpayers, which will help reduce the federal deficit. "It's important for this country to get this done this year, especially for rural American and the farming community," he said.

Only one question from a journalist was allowed on the conference call, which started 10 to 15 minutes late.