Michael Astrue, commissioner of the Social Security Administrator (SSA), is begging Congress to give the agency at least as much funding as it has requested for fiscal year 2013.
SSA expects to pay $143 billion in benefits to 11 million disabled people and family members in 2013. A trust fund covers the cost of the SSDI benefits, but the SSA has to come up with funding needed to administer the program.
SSA officials have been struggling to reduce SSDI processing times for more than a decade. In fiscal year 2011, average processing time for hearing decisions was 345 days. That average was down from 532 days in August 2008 but still far above the goal of 270 days. Congress allocated funding for SSA to try to speed up processing by hiring 2,600 Disability Determination Service employees in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Those employees are now fully trained and helping to bring down processing times, Astrue says.
But, because of the effects of the recession and the aging of the baby boomers, “more people filed for disability during the economic downturn, and even more people have pursued appeals,” Astrue says.
SSA likely will complete 960,000 SSDI hearings in 2013, up from 795,000 in 2011.
The number of pending initial disability claims could rise to 1.1 million, from 861,000 this year. That means SSA needs money in order to continue improving the speed of its processing of claims.
Source: http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2012/02/17/budget-2013-ssa-pleads-for-disability-help