Tanner Opening Statement -- Hearing on Clearing the Disability Backlogs: SSA’s Progress and New Challenges Arising from the Recession

WASHINGTON, DC — Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman John Tanner (D-TN) delivered the following statement today at a Subcommittee hearing on the Social Security Administration's progress and New Challenges Arising from the Recession:

"Today's hearing continues the Subcommittee's ongoing oversight of the Social Security Administration's (SSA's) efforts to reduce its huge and unprecedented backlog in disability claims. In 2000, there were about 310,000 Americans awaiting a hearing on a disability claim. By December 2008, that number had more than doubled, reaching 768,000 – a historic high. This has led to long wait times for applicants, sometimes as long as three or four years.

"Because applicants often have little or no income while awaiting a decision on benefits, the backlog has caused severe hardship to hundreds of thousands of Americans with significant disabilities. We will hear some of their stories today. We also hear about this issue every day from our own constituents in Tennessee who are often in desperate need.

"Today we have good news and bad news to report. First, the good news. After many years of growing backlogs in SSA's hearing offices, we have finally turned a corner. Since the beginning of 2009, the hearings backlog has begun to slowly decline, and is now down to 718,000. This shows that Congress' investment in SSA is starting to pay off. The Subcommittee particularly wants to commend all the dedicated SSA employees who have contributed to this success.

"The bad news, however, is that this hard-won progress is now being threatened. Due to the recession, new disability claims have increased significantly. From FY 2008 to FY 2009, these claims increased by almost 15 percent, and they are projected to increase by another 12 percent in FY 2010, and to continue at higher levels for several years.

Congress recognized the need to address this problem last year when it provided funds in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help SSA process additional recession-driven claims in FY 2009 and 2010. But even with this funding, the state Disability Determination Services (DDSs), which make decisions on initial disability claims, cannot expand their capacity quickly enough to handle this very large, unexpected workload. This problem has been made worse because a number of states have instituted hiring freezes or furloughs for state employees and have not exempted DDS employees, even though the DDSs are completely funded by SSA.

"As a result, another severe backlog is emerging, this time at the initial claims level. By the end of FY 2010, an astonishing 1 million Americans will be awaiting a decision on their initial disability claims – nearly double the number that were waiting just two years before. The initial claims backlog has already topped 780,000 nationwide – a 35 percent increase from this time last year. In my own state of Tennessee, we have seen even an bigger increase, with the initial claims backlog increasing by more than 60 percent since last year.

"And because the same DDS employees who evaluate initiate claims also perform continuing disability reviews (CDRs) to determine if current beneficiaries remain eligible, the DDS backlog also poses serious challenges to SSA's program integrity efforts. SSA has fallen far behind in conducting CDRs, even though these reviews have been demonstrated to generate considerable savings.

"This situation is clearly unacceptable. SSA has expressed its commitment to addressing the DDS backlog problem, and I understand that today the SSA Commissioner will present to us his plan for expanding the agency's capacity to process initial claims. I look forward to hearing it.

"Just as alarming is the potential impact of these recession-driven claims on SSA's hearings backlog. The claims increases the DDSs are now seeing will soon result in increased appeals to the hearing level. If SSA's hearing offices do not have the resources to handle this added workload while still tackling the existing backlog, SSA will not be able to fulfill its goal of eliminating the hearings backlog by the end of FY 2013. In fact, the hearings backlog could begin to rise again.

"All of this adds up to very significant challenges for SSA in FY 2011. The agency will be faced with three difficult tasks. First, because the impact of the recession on claims is expected to continue, to keep up with incoming claims, SSA will need to process a much higher number of claims than the agency has in the past. Second, it is imperative that SSA begin reducing the initial claims backlog, which by FY 2011 will have reached more than 1 million. Third, we cannot afford to let the hearings backlog reduction plan falter. We must stay on track with this plan's targets even though the recession will bring increased appeals to SSA's hearings offices.

"Today we should pause to celebrate the progress that is being made. But we also need to prepare to move forward with even more conviction. I look forward to hearing about SSA's plans for meeting these challenges. And I look forward to the insights of our other witnesses about what is needed – from Congress and from the Administration – to ensure that we do not backslide.

"Millions of Americans pay Social Security taxes every year with the promise that if they become severely disabled, Social Security will be there for them. But the lengthy delays many face when they apply for benefits means that we now are falling short on that promise. I am committed to ensuring that these problems are addressed, so that Americans who apply for disability benefits can receive timely consideration of their cases."

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