FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Contact: (202) 225-9263
September 19, 2000
No. SS-23
Congressman E. Clay Shaw, Jr., (R-FL), Chairman, Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Social Security notices. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, September 26, 2000, in room B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 10:00 a.m.
Oral testimony at this hearing will be heard from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include representatives from the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
BACKGROUND:
Social Security programs (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income) provide monthly cash benefits to about 50 million beneficiaries. SSA mails millions of letters each year to applicants and recipients about its decisions to award, change, or deny benefits. In many cases these letters contain vital information needed by recipients and their families to make important medical, financial, and personal decisions.
Yet, in 1994, GAO found that SSA's letters were often difficult to understand, lacked essential details, presented information in an illogical order, and required complex analysis to understand how benefit adjustments had been made. Chairman Shaw has asked GAO to assess SSA's progress in improving its letters. These findings will be presented at the hearing.
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Shaw stated: "One of SSA's goals is to deliver customer-responsive world-class service. Such service must ensure that these life-changing notices are accurate and easy to understand. We need to know if agency notices provide intelligible information for today's customers and if not, how this can be corrected before workloads at the agency substantially increase with the upcoming retirement wave of the baby boomers. Providing quality notices should be one of the agency's top priorities."
FOCUS OF THE HEARING:
The hearing will focus on the quality of SSA's notices and the status of SSA's actions to address notice improvement.
DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:
Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit six (6) single-spaced copies of their statement, along with an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or MS Word format, with their name, address, and hearing date noted on a label, by the close of business, Tuesday, October 10, 2000, to A.L. Singleton, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Social Security office, room B-316 Rayburn House Office Building, by close of business the day before the hearing.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:
Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be submitted on an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or MS Word format, typed in single space and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. Witnesses are advised that the Committee will rely on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.
2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.
4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, company, address, telephone and fax numbers where the witness or the designated representative may be reached. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.
The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press, and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.
The
Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with disabilities.
If you are in need of special accommodations, please call 202-225-1721 or
202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event (four business days notice is
requested). Questions with regard to special accommodation needs in general
(including availability of Committee materials in alternative formats) may be
directed to the Committee as noted above.