SSA’s FY 2008 Annual Report on the Plan to Eliminate the Hearing Backlog and Prevent Its Recurrence details the significant progress we made in FY 2008.

Commissioner Astrue announced that SSA's National Hearing Center (NHC) is open for business, in this December 17, 2007 press release. The NHC is one of the many steps the agency has taken to address the backlog of disability cases at the hearing level.

Commissioner Astrue announced that the Social Security Administration made progress in the 2007 fiscal year (FY) toward making faster decisions on disability claims.

SSA's Plan to Reduce the Hearings Backlog and Improve Public Service is further detailed in this September 13, 2007 report.

A Summary of Initiatives to Eliminate the SSA Hearings Backlog was outlined by Commissioner Astrue during a May 23, 2007 appearance before the Senate Finance Committee.

On November 18, 2008, Social Security held a third disability hearing on Compassionate Allowances. Click here for the press release.

On October 26, 2008, Commissioner Astrue announced that  SSA is rolling out Compassionate Allowances nationwide. This groundbreaking initiative allows us to identify rare diseases and other medical conditions that are certain to be approved under our disability rules and fast track those cases for quick processing.

On November 3, 2008 the latest quarterly ratings of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index for Federal Websites, the Social Security Administration's new online Retirement Estimator ranked as the best in government. The Retirement Estimator debuted with a score of 90, the highest score in this survey and the second-highest score ever received by a government website. Several other Social Security online services also are rated among the government's top performers and equal to the highest caliber private sector sites, such as Amazon and Google.

"It's great to be recognized as the best, but we're not resting on our laurels," said Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security. "We will have a series of new services in the coming year, and we are also improving some of our already successful online services."

The new Retirement Estimator is available at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator and gives the public the opportunity to run accurate, personalized scenarios for Social Security retirement benefits in a user-friendly way.

Click here for original press release.

On September 24, 2008, Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, released the agency's new Strategic Plan. Using the motto, "Social Security Benefits America," the plan identifies the challenges the agency faces and the steps needed over the next five years to meet those challenges. Click here to see the 2008-2013 Strategic Plan.

On February 26, 2008, Commissioner Astrue announced that SSA was extending offers to 144 Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) candidates; 134 candidates accepted. Subsequently, SSA extended more offers, and 56 more candidates accepted, for a total of 190 new ALJs hired in Fiscal Year 2008. Hiring new ALJs is a crucial element of the Commissioner’s plan to reduce the disability hearings backlog. Click here to see a breakdown of the 190 ALJ selections by hearing office and state.

Other Information

Agencies were rated on their annual tests of information security, their plans of action and milestones or corrective-action plans, whether they certify and accredit their systems as secure, how well they manage the configuration of their computers to ensure security, how they detect and react to breaches, their training programs and the accuracy of their inventories.

SSA's PAR for FY 2008 incorporates SSA's Annual Performance Report with the agency's audited financial statements to provide full disclosure of SSA's financial and programmatic operations. 

On October 10, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction in AFL-CIO, et al. v. Chertoff, et al. (N.D. Cal. Case No. 07-CV-4472 CRB). The preliminary injunction enjoins and restrains the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration from implementing the Final Rule entitled "Safe-Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter."

Each year SSA receives approximately 245 million wage reports on Forms W-2 from employers covering approximately 153 million workers. To help improve the accuracy of the wage reporting process, SSA issues Educational Correspondence (EDCOR) letters, commonly known as the Employer “No-Match” letter, when an employer submits Forms W-2 where a significant number of employees' names or corresponding Social Security numbers can not be matched to SSA's records.

Effective October 1, 2007, the Social Security card included new security features. These changes are the result of recommendations made by the Interagency Task Force that was created as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA), P.L. 108-458. SSA further strengthened and safeguarded the card from counterfeiting, tampering, alteration and theft by implementing the task force recommendations.

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, P.L. 108-173, enacted December 8, 2003, required SSA to undertake a number of additional Medicare-related responsibilities. Detailed information about SSA's activities under the prescription drug legislation is available here.

Current information about the status of Social Security totalization agreements with other countries. Also available: a Fact Sheet and Press Release on a Totalization Agreement with Mexico.