Social Security Disability

Disappointing Results from SSA's Efforts to Improve the Disability Claims Process Warrant Immediate Attention Gao ID: GAO-02-322 February 27, 2002

The number of people applying for benefits from the Social Security Administration's (SSA) two disability programs grew dramatically during the 1990s. As a result, the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Programs began to experience huge backlogs of undecided claims. SSA has spent $39 million during the past seven years on various initiatives to help it better manage its caseloads and ensure high-quality service. SSA spent another $71 million to develop an automated disability claims process. This report reviews the status and outcomes of five initiatives intended to improve SSA's disability claims process. GAO found that the results of the initiatives have been disappointing.

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.

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