Bush budget proposes funding to ease SS disability backlogs–but not enough
President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget proposal will help the SocialSecurity Administration tackle staffing shortages and a backlog onretirement and disability claims, the agency’s commissioner said thisweek.
The president requested $10.3 billion for Social Security’sadministrative expenses, a $580 million increase over what Congressappropriated in fiscal 2008. The funding boost would be the largestincrease the agency has received in a decade, and will help offsetsignificant backlogs in claims, said SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue.
“TheSocial Security Administration is now at a crossroads,” Astrue said.”Due to the aging of the baby boomers, we are facing an avalanche ofretirement and disability claims at the same time that we must addresslarge backlogs due to years of increasing workloads and limitedresources.”
The number of workers receiving Social Securityretirement benefits is expected to increase by 13 million over the nextdecade. At the agency’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review,there is a backlog of 750,000 hearing requests, up more than 300,000since 2000. Over the last seven years, processing times for disabilityhearings have grown by 200 days, burdening disabled workers and theirfamilies, Astrue said.
Many of SSA’s problems stem from the 4,000jobs eliminated in the past two years. The result is longer wait timesand more customers. Astrue said more than half of the people who callagency field offices now receive a busy signal. “Adequate funding iscritical for fiscal 2009 and must be sustained in the years ahead,” hesaid. “Without it, SSA’s service crisis will deepen at a time when ouraging population is increasingly counting on Social Security programs.”
Thepresident’s budget proposal is $100 million less than the figure Astruecited during congressional testimony as necessary to fully restoreworkforce cuts and invest in technology. Nevertheless, the commissionersaid Monday that the proposed boost would greatly help the agencyattack many of its most pressing challenges.
Source: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39244