Lawmakers eye claims backlog at SSA

A joint hearing on Tuesday of two House Ways and Means subcommittees will review how the Social Security Administration is addressing the significant backlog of disability benefits claims, and how additional stimulus funding could improve service.

The agency is facing an unprecedented backlog of more than 1.3 million claims for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability benefits. The claims bottleneck seems to be particularly problematic at the hearings stage, where the backlog has more than doubled since 2000 -- from about 310,000 claims to more than 765,000 -- and the average waiting time per claim is now nearly 500 days. Congress gave SSA $500 million in stimulus funds to tackle the growing pile of disability and retirement claims.

Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., chairman of the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support called the hearing.

"Congress has responded to this crisis by providing the Social Security Administration with increased funds in order to begin to actively address this problem," McDermott said in a statement. "But it is time for the agency to take more action to significantly reduce the waiting period before an individual gets the benefits and services they need, while also ensuring the integrity of the process."

While Congress and SSA have been working to combat the problem, including developing a plan to eliminate the backlog by 2013, the agency continues to face new challenges. Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said in prepared testimony that the tough economy is causing a jump in disability claims beyond what the agency had projected and budgeted for. Astrue will tell lawmakers that SSA expects more than 2.9 million disability filings in fiscal 2009, about 300,000 more than the agency received in fiscal 2009. This number represents more than a 12 percent increase in new applications and is 13 percent higher than the amount anticipated in President Bush's fiscal 2009 budget.

"The economic downturn, combined with the retirement of the baby boomers, and the fraying of our physical and technological infrastructure have diminished our ability to address our rising workloads and backlogs," said Astrue in prepared testimony.

One of SSA's biggest challenges, Astrue will testify, is inadequate and unpredictable funding. The commissioner says he is confident that with sufficient and sustained funding, SSA will be able to eliminate the disability hearings backlog by 2013.

Tanner and McDermott said they also will look into how resource shortages have affected SSA's other responsibilities. The agency has cut back significantly on program integrity activities such as continuing disability reviews and redetermining Supplemental Security Income benefits, even though the reviews have been shown to save as much as $10 in program costs for every $1 spent.

"We are committed to ensuring that the Social Security Administration … receives the resources it needs to eliminate the huge backlog in disability claims," Tanner said in a statement. "We must also ensure the agency has the necessary resources to handle increased workloads associated with the economic recession, perform program integrity reviews and provide the highest quality service to the American people."

Other witnesses at Tuesday's hearing will include Patrick O'Carroll, SSA's inspector general, Dan Bertoni, director of disability issues for the Government Accountability Office's Education, Workforce and Income Security Team. The full list of witnesses and other details about the hearing are available on the Ways and Means Committee Web site.