Dear Chairman Shaw, Chairwoman Johnson, and members of the Subcommittees, my name is Witold Skwierczynski. I am the President of the AFGE National Council of SSA Field Operation Locals, AFGE Council 220. I am also the Co-Chair of the AFGE-SSA National Partnership Council. On behalf of the 50,000 working men and women represented by AFGE at the Social Security Administration (SSA), I appreciate this opportunity to appear before the joint hearing of the Subcommittee on Social Security and Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means to discuss SSA's management of the disability caseload.

I want you to know that AFGE Council 220 is particularly proud of the highly dedicated and productive employees who deliver direct service to the disabled and other members of the public either face-to-face or by phone. These SSA workers are found in over 1,200 field offices and 36 teleservice centers located in communities across the country. These SSA workers, 73% of who are female share a "can do " attitude that helps SSA continue to rank high among government agencies in the quality of service that it provides to the public. However, constraints on staffing, i.e. "doing more with less" and the increased complexity and size of the workloads, predictably have strained resources. Compounding the current staffing shortage is, as pointed out in SSA's current Strategic Plan, the problem of SSA's aging workforce. Over 20 percent of the Agency's employees will be eligible for retirement between now and 2002.

The Social Security Advisory Board report titled "How the Social Security Administration Can Improve its Service to the Public" dated September 1999 has drawn some conclusions about the effect inadequate human resources could have on the Agency's ability to deliver quality service. This topic may form the nucleus for a future hearing not only for the disabled but also for all members of the public.

Between 1982 and 1998, as part of the sustained effort to downsize government, the number of civilian employees was reduced by about 12 percent. Employment in SSA declined by about 26 percent while the number of beneficiaries increased significantly faster than the population as a whole. At the end of FY 1998, there were 42,544 employees in regional and field offices, program service centers and teleservice centers out of 65,407 total SSA employees. While workloads have grown in size and complexity, resources have declined. For example, examine the expansive increase in the number of benefit estimates to be mailed to workers. This is up from 36 million in FY 99, to 126 million in FY 2000. SSA neither sought, nor did Congress provide, budgetary consideration for additional resources to handle this workload. This is another issue impacting service to your constituents that you may wish to examine at a future hearing.

Severely disabled men, women and children come into their community-based Social Security offices for face-to-face contact with their government. They must meet strict criteria before being awarded benefits. The nature of the disability must be permanent, last a minimum of 12 months, or result in death. AFGE Council 220 workers believe that your disabled constituents deserve community-based, quality service and we think you will agree.

Recognizing a need for improvement in the disability program, and at the urging of Congress, SSA in 1994 announced a redesign of the disability process. The remarks presented here focus on Commissioner Apfel's announcement of his decisions regarding this Disability Process Redesign. These decisions have become part of the Agency's broader strategic planning.

Prior to announcing his decisions on improving the management of the disability program, Commissioner Apfel expressed the view that the A status quo won't go regarding the disability program. He warned that SSA can not expect an infusion of resources to support the redesign effort, that there would not be any major shift of resources between components or between SSA and the Disability Determination Services (DDSs), and that change would occur incrementally. The Union is cognizant of this and believes our comments are consistent with SSA's goals of making its disability programs both more responsive to our claimants and beneficiaries and more accountable to the nation's taxpayers. However, we believe that no set of initiatives to improve the disability process will be successful without first recognizing that prompt action by the Administration and Congress is needed to adequately staff the Agency with additional front-line employees. We share the Advisory Board's conclusion that failure to do this will result in a serious deterioration in public service. Direct-service staffing shortages are causing employees to have difficulty in keeping up with their growing workloads. The emphasis in meeting processing time goals is causing burnout and affecting employee morale. As the representative of the majority of SSA workers who struggle under these workload pressures, AFGE thinks inaction is unconscionable. In the long run, the investment made in additional staff will pay off for disabled constituents and for all taxpaying citizens through timely and accurate service.

We conclude that SSA's plans to improve the initial claim process must include the Disability Claim Manager (DCM) in Field Offices (FOs). The DCM is consistent with the Commissioner's intent to streamline the disability adjudicative process. The DCM is a single interviewer who develops both the medical and non-medical part of a disability claim. I'll have more to say about how the DCM improves the initial disability claims process in a minute. In our judgment, the Agency must be much more pro-active in its support of the DCM concept and begin planning for national implementation after a thorough analysis of test data. An independent assessment of the DCM process conducted by the Lewin Group indicates that a disability decision-maker knowledgeable in both medical and non-medical claim issues and working with directly with the disabled applicant and/or representative can provide accurate decisions earlier in the process and more quickly.

Community-Based Service

AFGE has vigorously supported and been involved in all phases of Disability Redesign. The Commissioner's five stated goals are to provide a customer friendly process, lower customer waiting times for a decision, make an appropriate allowance earlier, provide efficiency in administrative cost, and provide a satisfying work environment for employees. We believe that SSA must work to increase public support, which can only happen at the community level. We concur with the Social Security Advisory Board's assessment that the public's trust in the integrity of the disability program is of the utmost importance. We agree with the Advisory Board's assertion that cooperation is essential in achieving our objectives. We believe that both current and earlier Disability Process Redesign pilots have shown Field Office employees should be involved in all phases of the disability process and that the objectives of Redesign can best be met by providing service at the local office level. There are numerous examples of public service deterioration, e.g. within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which occurred as a result of over emphasizing A centralized work processing. The appropriate commitment of time, energy and needed resources in the local offices can insure an efficient and claimant friendly disability process and increased job satisfaction for employees.

Disability Claim Manager (DCM)

A claimant for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration faces a lengthy, bewildering process. Under the current system, there is little involvement of the claimant and/or representative in obtaining needed medical evidence. An initial decision from SSA will likely take more than three months.

The independent assessment of Phase I of the DCM test conducted by the Lewin Group indicates that the DCM process has succeeded in improving claimant satisfaction to the extent that a single point of contact has made the process feel much more personal. Anxiety has been reduced by eliminating the need for claimants to identify a different contact person at each juncture in the adjudicative process. The Disability Claim Manager encourages claimants to work with their physicians to provide complete and accurate medical records in support of their applications. Claimants are responsive because they understand that doing so will speed up the processing of their claim. In the area of DCM processing time, there is also good news.

DCM's obtain Medical Evidence of Record (MER) from targeted sources and work with hospital social workers, advocates and other individuals in the local community in taking and processing claims. These relationships developed at the local level benefit the disabled claimants as well as the individuals and organizations assisting them in processing their claims. The outside sources are invested in obtaining and providing the MER at the initial interview and in most cases at no cost because it means faster and more accurate decisions for their clients. For example, the DCM unit in Denver, CO received recognition from the Denver Mental Health Corporation that works with the chronically mentally ill in that community. These claims can be difficult and the DCM's offer excellent service. Claims allowed earlier in the process result in a source of income and medical coverage for the disabled. Establishing these local relationships, we can arrange for obtaining MER electronically and by FAX.

Our customers should be able to access the disability process in the way they choose. The claimant needs to be able to talk to a medical adjudicator at the beginning of the disability claims process. The DCM, as an integral part of disability program implemented in the FO, can provide this service for the claimant. Implementing the DCM working within the FO structure can assure the claimant continuity of service between the medical and non-medical parts of their claim. This has improved the credibility of our process and will be particularly effective in helping the SSI claimant navigate our complex initial disability claims process. SSA is invested heavily in testing this new process and has contracted with an outside evaluator, the Lewin Group in assessing the effectiveness of this new process. We urge the Agency and the Commissioner to insure commitment from the state DDSs to begin implementation of these initiatives at the earliest possible date.

Return-to-Work Initiative

AFGE supports the effort of the Administration and Congress to increase the number of adults with disabilities who return to work. On March 13, 1998, President Clinton signed Executive Order 13078, which created the Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities. A key component of the Task Force's mission is to analyze existing federal programs and policies to determine what changes can be made to remove barriers to work. In addition, the Senate and the House passed legislation to address barriers to people with disabilities who attempt to work..

One provision of this legislation which we support directs SSA to establish a corps of work incentive specialists within the Agency to focus on improving service delivery to beneficiaries who return to work and on increasing outreach to beneficiaries advocates, and rehabilitation providers. Accordingly, SSA is making plans to implement an Employment Support Representative (ESR) position within the Agency.

While we applaud the efforts the Agency is making in order to increase the number of disabled adult beneficiaries who work, we believe the Agency's approach to the problem is fundamentally flawed. SSA's decision to exclude front-line employees from helping to plan and develop a return-to-work strategy has resulted in a minuscule, ineffective proposal. Current plans call for deployment of only 27 such work incentive specialists as part of a nationwide test. AFGE believes that such a small number of Specialists is hardly sufficient to generate enough information to decide how best to rollout the new position across the country. We ask that the Administration and Congress provide SSA with additional staffing resources that will enable the Agency to move forward with an aggressive, community-based work incentives outreach program that will insure disabled beneficiaries have equal access to employment support services regardless of where they live.

We also conclude that the Agency work incentives service delivery plan should focus on the Employment Support Representative performing his or her duties in the Field Office. This model allows claimants and those assisting them by providing timely answers to their questions and concerns. Hand-offs will be minimized and decisions will be local. Timely processing of work-related issues will reduce overpayments and beneficiary frustration with the system. Local placement of the Specialist will enhance SSA's ability to interact with local organizations that support work efforts of disabled people. The ESR will also be able to act as an on-site resource person for other employees within the office. The community-based ESR will be able to consolidate functions currently performed within different components of the Agency. Travel costs will be reduced since the ESR will concentrate on the community where the Field Office is located.

Conclusion

Labor-Management Partnership and the Disability Process Redesign are inextricably connected. SSA and AFGE worked together to write the recommendations that comprised the Disability Redesign proposal. Several tests, pilots, and prototypes started during the Redesign have demonstrated the efficacy of working in partnership and cooperation with the Union in planning and implementing improved processes.

We deplore the Agency's move away from Partnership beginning in February 1997 when a unilateral decision was made to decrease AFGE representation on the Disability Process Redesign Team (DPRT) which oversees the Redesign effort. SSA created an Executive Disability Steering Committee with no Union representation. Recently the Agency began an effort to improve the hearings process. Again, this is occurring without any AFGE participation. The Agency is moving forward its Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) reorganization plans despite our serious concerns that, according to SSA's own figures, the with the elimination of the reconsideration and appeal step will result in an estimated 25,000 additional cases coming before Administrative Law Judges. We also feel that the Agency reorganization of Hearings Offices will needlessly create additional layers of management.

Furthermore, as I noted earlier, SSA has decided to move forward with its work incentives service improvement plan, with no substantive AFGE involvement. The Agency has decided to turn its back on the representatives of front-line workers who actually serve disabled beneficiaries. Failure to include employees and their representatives in SSA's effort to improve the disability process will be greeted with cynicism and doomed to failure.

The Social Security Advisory Board recommends cooperation and teamwork in the disability process. DDS manipulation and resistance resulted in much of Redesign not being realized. This failure dismays us. Parochial state concerns don't result in improved service delivery for the American public. DDS has opposed expanded piloting of the DCM model even though it would result in better service to the public. I urge Congress to investigate the states' refusal to provide better public service. Federal employees can process both disability and non-disability aspects of claims quickly, accurately, and successfully. The public likes one stop service, which the DCM provides. Any attempt to shift public access of the disability claim process from federal employees to the states will be opposed by AFGE.