Social Security Administration: More Effort Needed to Assess Consistency of Disability Decisions

United States. Government Accountability Office.

United States. Government Accountability Office.

关键词: Government accountability -- United States.;    equal opportunity;    auditing and financial management;    worker and family assistance;    employment;   

RP-ID  :  GAO-04-656
RP-ID  :  243285

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, about 2.5 million people file claims with the Social Security Administration (SSA) for disability benefits. If the claim is denied at the initial level, the claimant may appeal to the hearings level. The hearings level has allowed more than half of all appealed claims, an allowance rate that has raised concerns about the consistency of decisions made at the two levels. To help ensure consistency, SSA began a "process unification" initiative in 1994 and recently announced a new proposal to strengthen its disability programs. This report examines (1) the status of SSA's process unification initiative, (2) SSA's assessments of possible inconsistencies in decisions between adjudication levels, and (3) whether SSA's new proposal incorporates changes to improve consistency in decisions between adjudication levels."