Streamline the Social Security disability approval process

Stimulus funds to aid process, but proposed budgetary boost fizzles

Updated: Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 | By Louis Jacobson

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to improve operations for the Social Security Disability Insurance and Social Security Supplemental Security Income programs, saying they have been "consistently under-funded, resulting in unconscionable delays in initial claims determinations and hearings" for applicants. Obama said his administration is "committed to streamlining the current application and appeals procedures to reduce the confusion that surrounds these important programs. As president, Obama will also ensure that the [Social Security Administration] has the funding it needs to hire judges and staff and to invest in technology to expedite final decisions."
 
This is a wide-ranging promise, and the administration's execution has been mixed. The administration proposed $11.6 billion for administrative expenses, nearly a 10 percent increase that would have been devoted to hiring, technology and operational needs. But when the president signed the final appropriations bill funding the department, he settled for $10.8 billion -- an increase of roughly 2 percent, which isn't much above inflation.
 
On the other hand, the administration did insert $1 billion for the Social Security Administration into the economic stimulus package, primarily to improve information technology that is aimed at better handling the agency's workloads.
 
So there's mixed progress on the funding and the technology. We'll be watching to see if there's also progress on his vow to "streamline" the process. For now, we rate this one In the Works.

Sources: Social Security Administration, fiscal 2010 budget tables , accessed Dec. 20, 2009
 
Text of omnibus appropriations act, accessed Dec. 20, 2009
 
Text of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, accessed Dec. 20, 2009