SSA must cut disability backlog to brace for boomer flood

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SSA must cut disability backlog to brace for boomer flood

By Mosquera

http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151326-1.html

The Social Security Administration is making progress in reducing

its backlog of disability claims, but without more resources, it

will like fall further behind as aging boomers overwhelm the system,

Comptroller General said.

SSA needs more funding from Congress and it needs to hire more

staff, said.

" There are serious fundamental and systematic problems. We need to

change the pipeline, not just the tail end. We need to look at the

flow, " he said Jan. 16 at a panel sponsored by the Association of

Administrative Law Judges. Administrative law judges hear disability

cases as claims wind through the lengthy process.

The Government Accountability Office has placed the disability

programs of SSA and the Veterans Affairs Department on its high-risk

list since 2003 because they are grounded in conditions from the

1930s and the 1950s and are difficult to manage by present-day

standards.

Individuals are applying for disability claims earlier than in

previous years and increasingly more for mental rather than physical

disabilities, said. Claims jumped 42 percent over the past 10

years and are also becoming more complex. It will take action by

both the administration and Congress to transform the disability

program, he said.

About 750,000 disability claimants wait for their cases to be

resolved. The benefit provides individuals who have severe physical

and mental disabilities with living expenses when they are no longer

able to work. Some wait more than two years for decisions in their

cases, SSA has said.

In a report Jan. 7 of SSA's disability backlog, GAO said rising

numbers of disability claims, staff losses and turnovers, and

management weaknesses have contributed to the backlog and longer

waits by claimants for resolution. An overall loss of experienced

staff combined with increasing workloads and resource constraints

can reduce the success of any initiative aimed at reducing backlogs,

the report said.

SSA received an increase in appropriations last month to hire a

number of administrative law judges this year to reduce the backlog.

That means, however, that SSA will not be able to hire for positions

in earlier stages of claims processing, said Jo Anne Barnhart,

Social Security commissioner from 2001-2007.

Barnhart estimated in 2004 that it would take 8,000 employee years

or four years to clear the backlog. However, SSA has steadily fewer

employees, she said. While commissioner, SSA started the Disability

Service Improvement initiative to evaluate what happens with claims

at each stage of the process.

She recommended boosting hiring and training at the early

determination levels to reduce the number of claims advancing to

formal hearings.

That would reduce the cost of claims, said Margaret Malone, most

recently a special adviser to the Social Security commissioner and a

former staff director at the Social Security Advisory Board. Claims

processing cost $1,700 when they are decided in the informal

determination stage. When they advance to formal hearings, each

claim costs $2,800 to resolve, she said.

Disability consumes two-thirds of SSA costs. SSA data shows initial

disability claims have swelled 72 percent from 1975 to 2006, yet

appropriating for administration has risen just 4 percent over the

same time period, Malone said.

SSA has established certain conditions for quick disability

decisions, an online template for findings for decision writers and

an office to improve quality performance, she said.

SSA also is using videoconferencing from a National Hearing Center

and use of electronic folders to increase the capacity and

efficiency of formal disability hearings, said Astrue,

current SSA commissioner, in a statement Dec. 17. Administrative law

judges at the hearing center will initially hear cases for the

Atlanta, Cleveland and Detroit hearing offices, which have the

longest wait for claim resolution — over two years, he said.

Even as SSA begins to reduce the backlog, it will experience more

challenges for its resources.

" Boomers will cause a strain not only on the disability program but

also the administrative workload throughout the claims process, "

Barnhart said. SSA also has introduced programs to encourage boomers

who work at SSA to put off retirement to give the agency time to

hire and train new employees.