Federal Panel Warns Bush of Social Security Problems

The New York Times 

February 19, 2001 
Federal Panel Warns Bush of Social Security Problems
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 - The quality of service provided to the public by t=
he
Social Security Administration has deteriorated in recent years, and the=

problems are likely to grow as millions of baby boomers retire, a federa=
l
advisory panel has told the Bush administration.
Beneficiaries must wait two to four hours for assistance at many field
offices and often cannot obtain accurate information by telephone, the p=
anel
said.
Social Security's disability programs, which provide assistance to 10
million people at a cost of $90 billion a year, are in chaos, swamped wi=
th a
backlog of claims and litigation, the panel said.
Eligibility decisions are not made in a uniform or consistent manner, th=
e
panel said, and two-thirds of the people who challenge the denial of
disability benefits prevail on appeal, overturning the initial decisions=
 of
the Social Security Administration.
The Social Security Advisory Board, a bipartisan panel of seven experts,=

sounds the alarm in two reports to be issued this month.
Improving service to the public should be a top priority for the new
administration and Congress, the panel said.
"The Social Security Administration's capacity to serve the public is
increasingly at risk" because the agency's staff has shrunk while the vo=
lume
and complexity of its work have greatly increased, the panel said.
The number of Social Security employees has dropped 22 percent in the la=
st
15 years, to 65,048, from 83,505 in 1985, the advisory panel said. But t=
he
number of beneficiaries in programs run by Social Security increased by =
26
percent in those years, to 51.7 million, from 41.1 million.
The shortage of staff has affected the agency's performance, causing "de=
lays
in payment of benefits or payment of incorrect benefits," the advisory b=
oard
said.
The chairman of the advisory panel, Stanford G. Ross, who was commission=
er
of Social Security under President Jimmy Carter, said: "Unless there's
fundamental change, we will soon see disruptions of service. The Social
Security agency lacks the ability to handle existing workloads, and thos=
e
workloads are bound to increase in the next decade."
In an interview, Mr. Ross said: "Everybody knows there is a long- term
deficit in the financing of Social Security. But there's also a deficit =
in
the agency's ability to provide good service, and that should be equally=

alarming to Congress and the public."
The panel, created by a 1994 law to advise the president and Congress, s=
aid
the disability programs were "at the heart of Social Security's service
delivery problems."
President Bush has not yet named a Social Security commissioner. Charles=
 P.
Blahous, the head of Mr. Bush's transition team at the Social Security
Administration, said the problems identified by the advisory board were
"very real." White House officials said Mr. Bush might try to address th=
e
problems in his budget request for next year, but no final decisions hav=
e
been made.
Catherine Noe, a spokeswoman for the Social Security Administration, sai=
d
the agency had a "a huge problem" because many of its most experienced
managers, supervisors and claims representatives would themselves retire=
 in
the next 10 years, just as the volume of work surges.
Representative E. Clay Shaw Jr., the Florida Republican who is chairman =
of
the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, said there was alrea=
dy
"a significant gap between the level of services that the public needs a=
nd
that which the agency is providing."
Through its 65-year history, Social Security has earned a reputation for=

providing superior service. It was ahead of other agencies in preparing =
for
year 2000 computer problems, and Social Security officials said new
technology could help them serve the 76 million members of the baby boom=

generation. 
The agency recently announced that people could apply for Social Securit=
y
retirement benefits on the Internet. But, officials said, a claimant mus=
t
print a copy of the application form, sign it and mail or deliver it to =
a
Social Security office, with documents like a birth certificate.
Applications for disability benefits, which require medical evaluation o=
f a
person's impairments, are far more complex and take much more time, Soci=
al
Security officials said. More than one-fifth of the people receiving
disability benefits have mental impairments.
In its report, the advisory panel made these points:
=DD "Telephone service is inadequate." The Social Security Administratio=
n
received 76 million calls on its toll-free telephone number last year, b=
ut
one-third of callers got busy signals or hung up while waiting for
assistance. Statistics show that the problems have increased in the last=
 few
years.
=DD People who visit Social Security field offices often find overcrowde=
d
waiting rooms. "Waits of two, three or four hours are not uncommon."
=DD With field office workers continually pressed to increase productivi=
ty,
the quality of decisions suffers. As a result, some claimants are improp=
erly
denied benefits and must pursue their claims through a "slow and overloa=
ded
appeals process."
=DD Social Security employees are having less "face-to-face contact with=

claimants." This has increased the likelihood of errors and fraud. Socia=
l
Security numbers have become "a prime tool for illegal activity," in par=
t
because the government issues Social Security numbers without rigorously=

examining the documents offered as proof of identity.
The advisory panel found management problems throughout Social Security,=
 but
said they were particularly severe in the disability programs, which acc=
ount
for two-thirds of the agency's administrative budget, $5 billion of the =
$7.1
billion total this year.
The number of people receiving disability insurance benefits from Social=

Security is expected to increase by more than 40 percent in the coming
decade, as aging baby boomers suffer disabling injuries and illnesses, t=
he
board said.
This growth will overwhelm Social Security, whose administrative
capabilities are "already inadequate to meet the needs of the public," t=
he
panel said.
The disability program is supposed to be governed by federal laws and a
uniform set of federal policies. But people find it much easier to obtai=
n
benefits in some states than in others, the board said, and it could not=

explain the variations.
The proportion of claims approved last year ranged from a high of 65 per=
cent
in New Hampshire to a low of 31 percent in Texas, with a national averag=
e of
45 percent. The approval rate was 44 percent in New York, 55 percent in =
New
Jersey and 58 percent in Connecticut.









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