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Social Security Administration Faces Problems When Baby Boomers Retire
March 2, 2001
The New
York Times reports on forthcoming studies from the Social
Security Advisory Board that will outline the administrative problems the
Social Security Administration will face in
handling the tidal wave of baby boomer retirements in coming years. The SSAB
was created in 1994 to advise the president and Congress.
According to the Times: "The quality of service provided to the public
by the Social Security Administration has deteriorated in recent years, and
the problems are likely to grow as millions of baby boomers retire, a federal
advisory panel has told the Bush administration."
In its report, the Times says, the advisory panel made these points:
- Telephone service is inadequate. The Social Security Administration received
76 million calls on its toll-free telephone number last year, but 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.
- People who visit Social Security field offices often find overcrowded waiting
rooms. "Waits of two, three or four hours are not uncommon."
- With field office workers continually pressed to increase productivity,
the quality of decisions suffers. As a result, some claimants are improperly
denied benefits and must pursue their claims through a "slow and overloaded
appeals process."
- Social Security employees are having less "face-to-face contact with claimants."
This has increased the likelihood of errors and fraud. Social Security numbers
have become "a prime tool for illegal activity," in part because the government
issues Social Security numbers without rigorously examining the documents
offered as proof of identity.
While the advisory board found management problems throughout Social Security,
conditions were particularly bad regarding disability. "Social Security's disability
programs, which provide assistance to 10 million people at a cost of $90 billion
a year, are in chaos, swamped with a backlog of claims and litigation, the panel
said. Eligibility decisions are not made in a uniform or consistent manner,
the panel said." For instance, it is much easier to obtain benefits in some
states than in. In New Hampshire 65 percent of disability applications are approved,
versus just 31 percent in Texas. The national average is 45 percent. Moreover,
"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 chairman of the advisory board, Stanford G. Ross, SSA commissioner during
the Carter Administration, 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 those workloads are bound to increase in the
next decade. 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."
Charles P. Blahous, Executive Director of the Alliance
for Worker Retirement Security and the head of President Bush's transition
team at the Social Security Administration, called the problems "very real."
White House officials said the President might address the administrative problems
in his upcoming budget.
The SSAB's study on administrative issues will be issued soon, but its evaluation
of Social Security's disability program is available now on their publications
page.
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