Anyone who has experienced the social security disability system knows that there are a lot of problems to be fixed. These include the length of time applicants must wait, the nonsensical reconsideration stage, the need for training of DDS folks who turn down so many applicants who later turn out to be qualified…the list is long.
So with that in mind, what is Congress planning to address at its next hearing today?
Here’s the press release:
“Chairman Johnson Announces the Third in a Hearing Series on Securing the Future of the Social Security Disability Insurance Program
U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, today announced a hearing on how disability is decided. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, in B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 10:30 a.m.
In announcing the hearing, Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (R-TX) said, “Americans with disabilities deserve to get the right decision as early as possible, but that’s just not how it currently works. States struggle on the front lines to make sense of the program’s complex rules to decide who gets benefits. At the same time advances in treatment, rehabilitation, and the workplace have created new opportunities for those with disabilities to return to work. Securing the future of the disability insurance program should address these challenges and opportunities while keeping the process fair for both claimants and taxpayers.”
BACKGROUND
The disability insurance program pays benefits to those who have worked in the past but are determined unable to work because of a disability that is expected to last more than a year or result in death. The responsibility to make the initial finding on disability was assigned to the State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies or other appropriate State agencies in the Social Security Act Amendments of 1954. All 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, maintain fully federally-funded agencies, collectively referred to as Disability Determination Services (DDSs), which decide initial and continuing eligibility of disability claims. The DDS examiner does not see claimants face-to-face and must rely on relevant medical evidence that is provided by the claimant and/or medical sources in deciding whether the individual is disabled, as defined by Federal regulation and Social Security Administration (SSA) policies.
In FY 2011, the DDSs received over 3.3 million initial disability claims, the highest in the SSA’s history. Examiners completed nearly 3.4 million initial claims, reducing the backlog of pending applications to 759,000, nearly 300,000 fewer claims than were pending at the end of FY 2010. The average processing time for initial disability claims was 109 days in FY 2011 and is projected to rise slightly in FY 2012. Over the most recent five-year period for which data is available, the percentage of all applications for disability benefits that were allowed ranged from 36-38 percent.”
We’ll be watching to see what Congress looks at…and what it does about it.