Enhancing Disability Program Integrity

In 2007, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) collectively provided over $165 billion in cash benefits to over 12 million SSA beneficiaries and 3.1 million VA beneficiaries with disabilities.¹ GAO has reported that the programs through which the benefits were provided have struggled with hundreds of thousands of backlogged claims, as well as problems with the timeliness, accuracy, and consistency of disability decisions. While attempting to address these service delivery challenges, both of these agencies have fallen short in conducting periodic reviews to assess beneficiaries' continued eligibility for benefits. It is important that SSA and VA beneficiaries have confidence in the systems designed to compensate them for their disabilities and that taxpayers have faith in SSA's and VA's stewardship of the programs. However, even though continuing disability reviews (CDR) can yield hundreds of millions of dollars in program savings, recent data show that SSA conducted about one-half the number of CDRs in fiscal year 2006 that it did in fiscal year 2004. Moreover, VA's current processes do not ensure that disability re-evaluations are scheduled and completed as required. GAO recommended that both SSA and VA take several steps to improve their continuing eligibility process to ensure that these reviews are conducted in a cost-effective and timely manner. SSA has enhanced its process for identifying when to conduct CDRs by using more comprehensive data. VA is currently modifying its automated system to identify when a re-evaluation is required. Sustained management attention to conducting these continuing eligibility reviews is needed to better balance SSA's and VA's service delivery goals with the equally important goal of ensuring responsible program stewardship.

¹ SSA reports data by calendar year; VA reports data by fiscal year.

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Veterans' Benefits: Improved Operational Controls and Management Data Would Enhance VBA's Disability Reevaluation Process

GAO-08-75, December 6, 2007

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Social Security Disability: Better Planning, Management, and Evaluation Could Help Address Backlogs

GAO-08-40, December 7, 2007

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Social Security Disability: Reviews of Beneficiaries' Disability Status Require Continued Attention to Achieve Timeliness and Cost-Effectiveness

GAO-03-662, July 24, 2003

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Social Security Disability Programs: Clearer Guidance Could Help SSA Apply the Medical Improvement Standard More Consistently

GAO-07-8, October 3, 2006

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