Thank you Mr. Chairman.
The Social Security Disability Trust Fund belongs to the workers who paid into it, so decisions about whether applicants meet the strict criteria for benefits need to be made very carefully and as consistently as possible. This is not always easy.
Work-ending disability or illness comes in many different forms, from terminal illness to an accumulation of many physical and mental limitations that worsen with age. That said, some applications will always involve “close calls" - people who are just barely able or just barely unable to work.
The challenge is to decide cases as fairly and consistently as possible -- but not at the cost of denying earned benefits simply because certain disabilities by their nature are more difficult to assess. For example, DI should not prevent workers from receiving their earned benefits simply because their illness is not on a list, or because their condition is unusual, or because their impairment cannot be proven by a blood test or x-ray, or because their overall disability is caused by multiple impairments. In fact, Congress explicitly rejected such limitations in 1984, by unanimous, bipartisan votes in both the House and the Senate.
Because of the diversity among applicants, and the challenge of drawing a line between “can’t work" and “can work", SSA needs to have the tools and resources necessary to make decisions that are as fair and accurate as possible.
This means SSA needs to have clear, specific, and up-to-date policies for disability examiners and ALJs to follow in evaluating those who apply for benefits, effective training for adjudicators at all levels so that they can correctly and consistently perform the complex analysis required to make the right decision, quality control to correct and prevent errors, identify training needs and useful policy clarifications.
SSA also needs the resources necessary to keep its policies up to date, train its staff, and ensure quality control.
At the same time, because of the inherent challenges of determining whether a worker’s impairments are severe enough to render him or her unable to work, we must ensure due process protections for those who are navigating the DI program while sick and unable to work.
As we examine the challenges SSA faces in determining who is eligible -- especially in those “close call" situations -- we should keep in mind that most people who apply for Social Security disability benefits are turned down.
The eligibility standard is very strict. It doesn’t allow for benefits for partial disability, or any disability that isn’t expected to last for at least a year or lead to death. Medical evidence must show that the condition prevents the individual from working at any job in the national economy - not just their previous type of work.
As a result, the majority of people who apply for benefits do not qualify. Among those who initially file for benefits, the large majority are rejected. Even after appeals, only about 4 in 10 applicants ever qualify for benefits. The typical beneficiary is in his or her late 50s, has a severe mental, musculo-skeletal or circulatory condition, and is less educated with fewer job skills than the general population.
Even rejected applicants are very limited in their ability to work. Barely half of rejected applicants have any earnings after they are turned down, and even fewer have significant earnings.
We take our responsibility to safeguard the Social Security Trust Fund for workers very seriously.
We are very concerned about the decision House Republicans made to block the Budget Control Act’s investment in “program integrity."
By failing to fully fund these Social Security case reviews at the level agreed to in the Budget Control Act, Republicans are being penny-wise and pound-foolish. If the agreed-upon number of reviews had been funded for 2013, it would have saved the taxpayers and the Trust Fund between $1.6 and 2.4 billion over the next decade.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for calling this hearing. It is a complicated but important question. In the end, our most important goal must be to ensure Americans receive the Social Security benefits they’ve earned and that they need to make ends meet. I look forward to learning more today from our witnesses about the best way to do that.
