Opening Statement of the Hon. E. Clay Shaw, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida,
and Chairman, Subcommittee on Social Security

Hearing on Social Security Disability Program's Challenges and Opportunities

June 28, 2001

Today begins the first of several hearings in which the Subcommittee will examine the challenges and opportunities faced by Social Security's two disability programs - Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. We will begin today by hearing from the Acting Commissioner of Social Security, the Chairman of the Social Security Advisory Board - who has completed considerable research on this topic - and several employee groups who are on the front lines every day serving disability claimants.

Both disability programs are crucial links in our social safety net, but they are beginning to show their age. Disability insurance was created in 1956 and SSI in 1972. Back then, rehabilitation, treatment, and employment for individuals with disabilities were far less sophisticated than they are in today's high-tech world. Fortunately, advances in medical treatments and new technologies have transformed lives of dependency into lives of opportunity. Yet, at the same time, these very advancements have made the determination and review of disability cases more complex than ever.

Worse yet, the disability insurance program is under significant financial strain. SSA's actuaries project the program will run cash deficits in just seven years, right as the baby boom retirees reach their peak years for disability claims. Over the next decade the number of individuals receiving disability benefits will jump by almost 50% and SSI recipients will increase by 15%.

At the same time disability workloads are expected to rapidly increase, more and more seasoned employees who service disability clients will begin retiring. SSA expects to lose about 50 percent of its employees in the next 10 years. How the system will be able to provide efficient, comprehensive and fair service to its customers with disabilities under these conditions is one of my greatest concerns.

Given the monumental social, legal, medical and demographic changes that have altered the disability environment over the last forty years, it's no wonder that navigating the disability claims process takes too long, and is too complex and stressful on the very individuals we are trying to serve. The current process, already inadequate in the past decade, will never withstand the mounting needs of the next.

SSA is expected to efficiently and fairly process more than three million applications for disabled DI and SSI claimants annually. That is not happening now, and it is our job to help strike a better balance between the needs of individuals with disabilities and the time and resources that must be committed to accurately administer this program.

The law regarding disability has not changed substantially in thirty years, but the world in which individuals with disabilities live has changed tremendously. It is time for policymakers and Social Security management and employees to craft a realistic plan of action for making the disability program a functioning, viable system for the future.