II. HIGHLIGHTS
The SSI program is a nationwide Federal assistance program administered by SSA that guarantees a minimum level of income for needy aged, blind, or disabled individuals. This section presents highlights of recent SSI program experience, a summary of important changes to the program in the last year, a discussion of current issues facing the SSI program, and a summary of the key results from the 25-year projections.
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Each month on average during calendar year 2009, 7.4 million individuals received Federal SSI benefits. This group was composed of 1.1 million aged recipients, 6.2 million disabled recipients, and 66 thousand blind recipients. Of the 6.3 million blind or disabled recipients, 1.2 million were under age 18, and 0.8 million were aged 65 or older. During the year, 8.3 million aged, blind, or disabled individuals received at least 1 month’s Federal SSI benefit.
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Prohibits the payment of any retroactive SSI benefits to individuals while they are in prison; in violation of conditions of their parole or probation; or fleeing to avoid prosecution, custody, or confinement for a felony or a crime punishable by sentence of more than one year. These retroactive benefits will not be paid until the beneficiary is no longer a prisoner, probation or parole violator, or fugitive felon.
Eliminates the 8-month time limit on SSI eligibility for certain Iraqi and Afghan refugees who have provided service to the United States. The time-limited eligibility for these individuals is now 7 years
1, the same period applicable to other humanitarian refugees.
Permanently extends the OASDI attorney fee withholding process to SSI. Permanently extends the Social Security attorney fee withholding process to all non-attorney representatives who meet the following prerequisites: hold a bachelor’s degree or have equivalent qualifications, pass an examination written and administered by the Commissioner, secure professional liability insurance or the equivalent, undergo a criminal background check, and complete continuing education courses. Although the prior fee withholding demonstration project expired on February 28, 2010, the provisions of that law apply in claims for benefits where the agreements for representation were entered into after February 27, 2005, and before March 1, 2010.
The SSI program remains a critical source of income for our nation’s aged, blind, and disabled, with more than 7 million Americans relying on this assistance to meet their basic needs for food and shelter. The program, by definition, is for those with limited income and resources, including those who have been especially hard hit by the economic downturn. In an environment of increased unemployment, individuals have been filing in record numbers for SSI benefits. While our employees continue to improve productivity, this increased SSI workload presents an ongoing challenge to keep pace.
One especially prominent result of the recent recession has been the increase in applications for SSI disability benefits. To provide context for this increase, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, we plan to decide over 2.8 million initial SSI applications—this is over
138,000 more than we processed during FY 2009.
To address this increase in claims, we are using technology and streamlined policy to make disability determinations more quickly. For example, using our fast-track disability processes, Quick Disability Determinations and Compassionate Allowances, in FY 2009 we decided SSI and Social Security Disability cases for about 100,000 applicants with the most debilitating impairments within about ten days after the Disability Determination Services (DDSs) received their claims. With additional process refinements and an expanded listing of impairments that would qualify for fast-track decisions, we hope to increase that number to 140,000 for FY 2010 and 185,000 in FY 2011.
Another tool is provided through advances in electronic medical records. Health Information Technology (Health IT) continues to revolutionize the disability determination process by eliminating the need to compile and transfer paper records. Once Health IT processes are fully implemented, doctors, hospitals, and others in the healthcare field will be able to provide medical evidence within dramatically improved timeframes. We are currently taking the first steps towards this totally electronic system of requesting and receiving medical records. With claimants' consents, we will have instantaneous access to medical records, allowing us to make disability determinations more rapidly.
Payment accuracy continues to be a significant issue facing the SSI program. We are committed to paying the correct benefit to the right person, and we use several tools to accomplish this goal. Among these tools are redeterminations, which review all the nonmedical criteria for eligibility, including verification of living arrangements and income levels. An additional tool is the continuing disability review (CDR), which reviews all medical factors to ensure an individual remains disabled according to the rules we use. In FY 2009, we processed more than 1.7 million SSI redeterminations and more than 1.1 million CDRs. In FY 2010, we plan to conduct 2.4 million SSI redeterminations and almost 1 million CDRs. With full FY 2011 President’s Budget funding, we plan to conduct 2.4 million SSI redeterminations and over 1.3 million CDRs in FY 2011.
In addition, SSA is currently conducting the Access to Financial Institutions (AFI) initiative to electronically identify individuals’ known and unknown bank accounts to determine initial eligibility and continuing eligibility for benefits. The program is currently operating in California, New York, and New Jersey. We plan to expand the AFI program this year, and expect to realize SSI program cost savings of up to $100 million in FY 2011. Based on current agency estimates, the program could save up to $1 billion per year in lifetime savings when nationally implemented. The President's FY 2011 budget includes $10 million for AFI expansion.
As we are able to address program integrity workloads with increased funding, payment accuracy is on the rise. Underpayment accuracy in the SSI program is consistently high. Overpayment accuracy, however, with its substantial reliance on beneficiary reporting, has been a consistent challenge. For example, in 2008 the SSI overpayment accuracy rate was 89.7 percent, the lowest rate since the early days of the program.
To address this decline, we increased the volume of redeterminations of eligibility we conducted in FY 2009. As a result, the overpayment accuracy for 2009 has risen to 91.6 percent—a statistically significant improvement over the 2008 rate. This increased accuracy is encouraging news and demonstrates the value of additional funding for SSI redeterminations.
We are also experiencing a retirement wave within the agency, and as experienced employees retire, a diminished workforce remains to handle increased agency workloads. However, with the additional funding provided by the President and Congress, we have begun to aggressively address the replacement of retiring employees. With last year's appropriation and Recovery Act funding, we maximized overtime nationwide and hired about 8,600 new employees. It was our largest hiring effort since the creation of the SSI program over thirty-five years ago. With the boosted hiring efforts of the past year, staffing now stands at approximately 65,000.
As a part of this hiring wave, 2,400 people were provided for the field in FY 2009—a net increase in field office staff of about 1,000 employees. With our FY 2010 appropriation, we continue to add about 1,300 new employees, and 1,400 people in the State disability determination services (DDSs). In April we allocated an additional 900 frontline staff, placing most of them in our 200 most stressed field offices. Many of these offices had a very high percentage of SSI workloads.
The SSI program continues to serve as a vital safety net to millions of Americans. It is one of the most relied upon programs for those in greatest need. Based on the crucial importance of the program, effective stewardship and administration demand our constant vigilance. Our SSI workloads will continue to grow over the long term, and we will be continuously tested to find new ways of streamlining a means-tested program that is inherently complex. To address this challenge, we will rely upon technological improvements, program integrity measures, and policy simplification to maintain our commitment to assisting some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens.
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Following small declines in the SSI recipient population in the late 1990s due to the combined impact of Public Law 104-121 and Public Law 104-193, modest growth in the SSI rolls resumed in 2000, and is expected to continue throughout the projection period largely due to the growth in the U.S. population, although the current economic recession is expected to temporarily generate additional growth beyond what might be expected from recent historical trends. By 2034, the Federal SSI recipient population is estimated to reach 9.9 million. Expressed as a percentage of the total U.S. population, the number of Federal SSI recipients is projected to increase slightly from 2.36 percent of the population in 2009 to 2.59 percent by 2034 due largely to the changing age distribution of the population.
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