Supplemental Security Income

The supplemental security income (SSI) program is the nation's largest cash assistance program for the poor, paying more than $25 billion to aged, blind, and disabled recipients in 1996. Reports in the media and by oversight agencies have highlighted program abuses and mismanagement, increasing SSI overpayments, and the Social Security Administration's (SSA) inability to recover outstanding SSI debt. These and other problems have provoked congressional criticism of SSA's management of SSI workloads and have reinforced public perceptions that SSA pays SSI benefits to too many people for too long. To a great extent, SSA's inability to address its most significant long-standing SSI problems is attributable to two causes: (1) an organizational culture or value system that places a greater priority on processing and paying claims than on controlling program expenditures and (2) SSA's reluctance to fulfill its policy development and planning role in advance of major program crises. Reversing this situation will require sustained and expanded attention to developing and promoting tighter payment controls, increasing SSA's role in SSI research and policy formulation, and a willingness to define a long-term vision and strategy for improving program performance.

GAO noted that: (1) to a great extent, SSA's inability to address its most significant long-standing SSI problems is attributable to two underlying causes: (a) an organizational culture or value system that places a greater priority on processing and paying claims than on controlling program expenditures; and (b) a management approach characterized by SSA's reluctance to fulfill its policy development and planning role in advance of major program crises; (2) SSA's organizational culture has traditionally valued quickly processing and paying SSI benefit claims more highly than controlling program expenditures by ensuring that only eligible individuals receive benefits; (3) other important financial controls such as aggressively pursuing the recovery of overpaid funds and combatting SSI fraud have also often received inadequate attention; (4) SSI problem resolution and program direction have also been hindered by SSA's hesitance to take a leadership role in SSI research and policy development, and its tendency to react to resulting crises through a series of ad hoc initiatives; (5) SSA's management approach was most evident regarding its reluctance to play a leadership role in recent policy debates surrounding SSI eligibility for children and substance abusers, and its failure to devise a comprehensive strategy to help SSI recipients return to work; (6) program direction has been further impaired by SSA's reluctance to develop agencywide plans that adequately focus on the specific characteristics and needs of the SSI program and its recipients; (7) SSA's current plans do not adequately communicate SSI priorities, goals, and objectives to staff; (8) reversing how the SSI program has traditionally operated will require sustained and expanded attention to developing and promoting tighter payment controls, increasing SSA's role in SSI research and policy formulation, and a willingness to define a long-term vision and strategy for improving program performance; (9) recently, SSA has initiated several measures aimed at improving the financial integrity of the SSI program; (10) as required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, SSA also intends to develop a comprehensive SSI Action Plan in fiscal year 1998, which will serve as a blueprint for long-term program operations; and (11) however, such a plan has not yet been developed, and decisive action is needed to ensure that SSA will focus on those program areas that pose the greatest management challenges and that corrective actions will be implemented and sustained over time.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: