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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Social Security Disability Insurance

Social Security Disability Insurance program pays benefits to persons who are unable to earn a living due to a disability. The program also provides money to their dependents. Benefits are based on the disabled person's lifetime average earnings.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • The program is working to provide benefits to the right people on a timely basis. Waiting times for appeals for those initially denied benefits can be long. Through May 2007, waiting times for hearings average over 500 days.
  • Few Disability Insurance beneficiaries attempt to work or leave the program to return to work. About half a percent of disability beneficiaries leave the program for work.
  • Many of the rules used to determine eligibility for Disability Insurance need to be modernized. For example, rules to determine an applicant's ability to do a previous job or any other job have not been updated to reflect today's labor market.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Simplifying the process for determining if an individual is disabled to improve the accuracy and speed of decisions.
  • Testing several demonstration projects and removing other barriers to assist Disability Insurance beneficiaries in returning to work.
  • Developing new automated techniques to detect and correct errors in name/Social Security Number matching.

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