Statement of the Hon. E. Clay Shaw, Jr.,
a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida, and Chairman

Hearing on Social Security Disability Programs' Challenges and Opportunities

June 11, 2002

Today the Subcommittee will continue our in-depth examination of the challenges and opportunities faced by Social Security’s two disability programs – Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income.

Americans should have a reasonable expectation that Social Security will fairly and efficiently process the more than three million applications for disability benefits each year. The problem: They don’t.

In addition to hardships created by illness or injury, individuals with disabilities also face a long, complex, and confusing process in pursuing disability benefits for themselves and their families.

Sadly, this is not new. The agency has been working to get it right since 1994, when they introduced plans to redesign the disability claims process. The situation is now approaching the breaking point: both disability and retirement claim workloads will grow dramatically as baby boomers age. At the same time the agency expects to lose about half of its experienced workforce to retirement.

According to the bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board, “the projected growth in the number of disability claimants threatens to overwhelm a policy and administrative infrastructure that is already inadequate to meet the needs of the public.”

An accurate and thorough analysis of how the disability programs are working is urgently needed so that we can consider effective changes in policy, resources, and administrative structure.

In our hearing series, we will focus in-depth on the disability determinations and appeals decisions made by State disability examiners and federal Administrative Law Judges. We welcome, for the first time, the new Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs, Martin Gerry. We will also hear from the Chairman of the Social Security Advisory Board, the GAO, a researcher, and several employee groups serving those with disabilities on the front lines every day.

Social Security Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhardt recently testified that the length of time it takes to process disability claims is unacceptable.   We couldn’t agree more, and look forward to hearing more about measures she has initiated to reverse this time lag.

If America’s disabled workers must negotiate a morass of inefficient, complex and confusing bureaucratic processes to obtain benefits, then the essential safety net Social Security’s disability programs offer has failed. Each of us has the opportunity and the responsibility to address existing problems within the disability determination and appeals processes so that individuals with disabilities and their families can receive the benefits so vital to their economic security.