As I predicted in my September 2010 newsletter the Social Security Administration has announced that retirees will no longer be able to pay back benefits already received in exchange for higher Social Security payments in the future.

A little-known provision of Social Security law previously allowed individuals to begin payments at age 62, pay back all the benefits received at age 70 without interest, and then reclaim at a higher rate due to delayed claiming.

Under the new rules, Social Security beneficiaries may withdraw an application for retirement benefits only within 12 months of their first Social Security payment and are limited to one withdrawal during their lifetime.

Another way Social Security beneficiaries were previously allowed to boost their checks was by suspending benefits already received retroactively, repaying the amount received, and then getting higher checks in the future. The new rules allow retirees to voluntarily suspend benefits only for months in which they did not receive payments. Beneficiaries may also suspend future payments beginning the month after the request is made.

These changes apply only to retirement benefit recipients, not to survivor and disability beneficiaries.

The Associated Press has reported that the Administrative Law Judges (ALJs)who hear Social Security Disability cases are facing a growing number of violent threats from claimants angry over being denied benefits or frustrated at lengthy delays in processing claims.

While I have not heard of any incidents at the Washington DC Hearing office, where most of my client's Social Security Disability hearings are held,  there were at least 80 threats to kill or harm ALJs or their staff over the past year - an 18 percent increase over the previous reporting period.

Fifty of the incidents occurred between March and August 2010.  This includes a Pittsburgh claimant who threatened to kill herself outside a hearing office or fly a plane into the building like a disgruntled tax protester did earlier this year at the Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas.

Nearly 2 million people, including all of my clients,  are waiting to find out if they qualify for benefits, with many having to wait more than a year and a half to see their first payment.

While no ALJs were harmed this year, there have been past incidents:  an ALJ in Los Angeles was hit over the head with a chair during a hearing and an ALJ in Newburgh, N.Y., was punched by a claimant.

There are about 1,400 ALJs who handle appeals of Social Security Disability claims at about 150 offices across the country, of which the Washington DC Hearing Office in NW DC is one.   The DC Hearing office, like many around the country, are in leased office space rather than government buildings.

At the DC Hearing Office, as at all other hearing offices, a private security guard is assigned to each office.

Claimants and their belongings are screened by the guard

before entering hearings rooms, and the ALJs are equipped with duress alarms to notify the guard immediately of any problems.