Income Security Issues Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1995-96 (Letter
Report, 08/01/95, GAO/IAP-95-33).

GAO presented its Income Security Issues issue area plan for fiscal
years 1995 and 1996.

GAO plans to: (1) identify cost-saving opportunities in welfare,
disability, and child support programs; (2) reduce fraud and abuse in
disability programs through computer matching and fraud prevention
programs; (3) examine ways to remove medically improved individuals from
disability rolls; (4) identify ways to collect child support payments;
(5) asses how well the Social Security Administration (SSA) serves the
public and is reengineering its disability claims process; (6) study
options for resolving SSA long-term funding problems; (7) evaluate
whether defined contribution plans will provide retirement benefits
comparable to those provided by defined benefit plans; (8) determine
whether state and local government pension plans protect their
participants' interests; (9) analyze medical and social changes that
improve the work potential of disabled people; (10) identify strategies
for reducing welfare dependency; and (11) assess family preservation
efforts.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  IAP-95-33
     TITLE:  Income Security Issues Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1995-96
      DATE:  08/01/95
   SUBJECT:  Income maintenance programs
             Welfare benefits
             Disadvantaged persons
             Social security benefits
             Child support payments
             Fraud
             Cost analysis
             Disability benefits
IDENTIFIER:  Aid to Families with Dependent Children Program
             AFDC
             Medicaid Program
             Food Stamp Program
             Social Security Program
             Social Security Trust Fund
             Supplemental Security Income Program
             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


Health, Education and Human Services Division

August 1995

INCOME SECURITY ISSUE AREA PLAN -
FISCAL YEARS 1995-96

GAO/IAP-95-33



Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV

  AFDC - Aid to Families With Dependent Children
  HHS - Department of Health and Human Services
  SSA - Social Security Administration

FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation's auditor, the
General Accounting Office is charged with following the federal
dollar wherever it goes.  Reflecting stringent standards of
objectivity and independence, GAO's audits, evaluations, and
investigations promote a more efficient and cost-effective
government; expose fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in federal
programs; help Congress target budget reductions; assess financial
and information management; and alert Congress to developing trends
that may have significant fiscal or budgetary consequences.  In
fulfilling its responsibilities, GAO performs original research and
uses hundreds of databases or creates its own when information is
unavailable elsewhere. 

To ensure that GAO's resources are directed toward the most important
issues facing Congress, each of GAO's 35 issue areas develops a
strategic plan that describes the significance of the issues it
addresses, its objectives, and the focus of its work.  Each issue
area relies heavily on input from congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its strategic
plan. 

The Income Security issue area focuses on programs and policies
accounting for nearly 40 percent of all federal spending at the
Social Security Administration (SSA), the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Labor.  Millions of
Americans rely on income security programs for financial support. 
However, the high costs and rising caseloads of many of these
programs are the subjects of congressional concern.  Designed decades
ago, some of these programs, such as Aid to Families With Dependent
Children (AFDC), are currently undergoing major reform; others,
including disability programs, are expected to be redesigned over the
next few years.  On the pages that follow, we outline Income
Security's most significant planned work in the following areas: 

  -- ensuring that public assistance program funds are spent
     efficiently and protected from fraud, waste, and abuse;

  -- improving SSA's administrative efficiency and service to the
     public;

  -- evaluating Social Security, state and local government, and
     private retirement benefits;

  -- redesigning the nation's disability programs to provide disabled
     people with greater opportunities to work;

  -- monitoring federal and state efforts to move welfare recipients
     from welfare to work and to reduce their dependence on welfare;
     and

  -- assessing government efforts to preserve families and protect
     vulnerable children. 

Because events may significantly affect even the best of plans, our
planning process allows for updating the plan and responding quickly
to emerging issues.  If you have any questions or suggestions about
this plan, please call either me or Leslie G.  Aronovitz, Associate
Director, at (202) 512-7215. 

Jane L.  Ross
Director
Income Security Issue Area


CONTENTS
============================================================ Chapter 1


   FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

1


   TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2

4


   TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3

8


   TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4

9


TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2

Issue                          Significance
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
Promoting a more efficient,    Each year billions of dollars provided for public
cost-effective government:     assistance programs are lost to fraud, waste, and
How adequate are government    abuse. For example, in 1994 over $6 billion in
efforts to ensure efficient    overpayments were made in the AFDC, Food Stamp,
spending of public funds?      Medicaid, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
                               programs. The SSI program in particular has grown
                               tremendously and has been criticized by media and
                               congressional reports for alleged abuses.
                               Moreover, the federal government and the states
                               are spending more than $2 billion a year to
                               collect about 25 percent of the $34 billion owed
                               in child support.















Improving SSA service and      SSA spends over $5 billion annually to administer
operations: How can the        the nation's Social Security and disability
Social Security                programs with nearly 65,000 staff. Despite
Administration (SSA) reduce    significant growth in its workload and long-
costs and improve service to   standing service weaknesses, SSA conducts
the public?                    business in many of the same ways it has done
                               since its inception in 1935. As a newly
                               established independent agency, SSA will continue
                               to face significant challenges as it attempts to
                               downsize its workforce and reengineer its
                               business practices in order to serve the public
                               more efficiently and effectively.




Ensuring adequate retirement   The Social Security, state and local government,
benefits: Can the current      and private pension systems will face financial
Social Security, public, and   pressures over the next decades to pay benefits
private pension systems        to a burgeoning retirement population, raising
ensure adequate retirement     questions about the ability of these systems to
benefits in a society with an  provide adequate retirement benefits. The Social
aging population?              Security system, for example, currently provides
                               over 42 million people with income; this number
                               will grow rapidly in the next century as the Baby
                               Boom generation retires. While the Social
                               Security trust funds are expected to grow from
                               $413 billion to over $3.2 trillion by 2020, these
                               funds will not be sufficient to ensure the long-
                               term viability of the Social Security program.
                               Moreover, many public and private pension plans
                               continue to be underfunded.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                                         Focus of work
-------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------
--Identify cost-saving opportunities in welfare,   --Evaluate computer matching
disability, and child support programs.            and fraud prevention
                                                   programs.
--Reduce fraud, waste, and abuse through computer
matching and fraud prevention programs and         --Explore how SSA can improve
improvements in disability program eligibility     its initial and continuing
processes.                                         eligibility decisions for the
                                                   SSI and Disability Insurance
--Recommend improvements to SSA procedures under   (DI) programs.
which recipients have disposed of income and
assets to receive Medicaid long-term care          --Determine whether SSA
benefits.                                          notifies state Medicaid
                                                   agencies about SSI
--Examine ways for SSA to strengthen its           recipients' disposal of
continuing disability review system to more        assets.
effectively determine which SSI recipients have
medically improved and should be removed from the  --Assess SSA's efforts to
disability rolls.                                  target and conduct disability
                                                   reviews of SSI and DI
--Identify ways to collect more child support      recipients.
payments.
                                                   --Examine options for
                                                   privatizing child support
                                                   functions.

                                                   --Identify effective child
                                                   support enforcement
                                                   practices.


--Assess how effectively SSA serves the public.    --Evaluate alternative ways
                                                   to improve public service.
--Provide information to Congress on SSA's
efforts to reengineer its disability claims        --Determine if anything may
process.                                           prevent SSA from achieving
                                                   the five primary objectives
                                                   of its redesigned disability
                                                   claims process.

                                                   --Evaluate SSA's
                                                   reengineering implementation
                                                   plans.


--Study alternative options for resolving Social   --Evaluate alternative Social
Security's long-term funding problems.             Security financing
                                                   proposals.
--Evaluate whether defined contribution plans
will provide benefits to future retirees           --Analyze the extent of
comparable to those provided by defined benefit    retirement savings in defined
plans.                                             contribution pension plans.

--Monitor how well state and local government      --Review state and local
pension plans protect their participants'          government pension plans to
interests.                                         determine how proposed
                                                   changes would affect future
                                                   retirees.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue                          Significance
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
Redesigning disability         Over 7 million Americans receive DI and SSI cash
programs: How can federal      benefits at an annual cost of $60 billion, plus
disability programs be         $50 billion more for Medicaid and Medicare
redesigned to take advantage   coverage. Nearly 1 million are children with
of greater opportunities for   disabilities. Once on the disability rolls,
people with disabilities to    extremely few beneficiaries ever return to work.
work?                          Yet recent medical, technological, social, and
                               legal changes challenge the assumption that
                               people with disabilities are unable to work.

























Moving from welfare to work:   Congress is currently considering sweeping
What are the effects of        changes to AFDC and related welfare programs. The
government efforts to move     federal government and the states spent about $25
welfare recipients into work   billion in fiscal year 1993 to provide AFDC
and reduce welfare             benefits to nearly 5 million families. Proposed
dependency?                    changes are aimed at capping federal
                               expenditures, reducing welfare dependency, and
                               giving states more flexibility to design and
                               manage programs. Current proposals call for an
                               increased emphasis on moving adult AFDC
                               recipients from welfare into the workforce.
                               Regardless of how welfare programs are
                               restructured, ensuring that federal funds are
                               used efficiently, and that programs are focused
                               on outcomes, will remain important.


Preserving families and        Dramatic increases in child abuse and neglect and
protecting children: How       the growth in single-parent families have fueled
adequate are government        public dissatisfaction with the nation's child
efforts to preserve families   welfare system. The federal government and the
and protect vulnerable         states will face challenges over the next several
children?                      years as they attempt to operate this system more
                               efficiently and effectively in the face of
                               growing budget constraints.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                                         Focus of work
-------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------
--Analyze medical, social, and technological       --Provide Congress with a
changes that improve the work potential of people  baseline analysis,
with disabilities.                                 synthesizing research and
                                                   program data on key program
                                                   elements.
--Identify disincentives in the current structure
of DI and SSI that impede an individual's return   --Analyze disability
to work.                                           beneficiaries'
                                                   characteristics to assess how
                                                   return-to-work programs could
--Examine changes in beneficiary characteristics   be improved.
that affect the potential for return to work.
                                                   --Explore potential redesign
                                                   options from the perspective
--Provide a framework for congressional            of beneficiaries to determine
consideration of alternative designs for DI and    ways to maximize work
SSI.                                               motivation.

                                                   --Develop promising
                                                   alternative approaches to
                                                   disability management by
                                                   analyzing disability programs
                                                   in the private and nonprofit
                                                   sectors, the states, and
                                                   other countries.

                                                   --Assess how states would
                                                   decide the mix of cash and
                                                   services disabled children
                                                   would receive under the
                                                   proposed SSI block grant.

                                                   --Work with Congress and
                                                   executive branch agencies to
                                                   develop pilot tests, evaluate
                                                   alternatives, and monitor
                                                   progress and results.


--Identify promising strategies for reducing       --Monitor implementation of
welfare dependency.                                state welfare experiments.

--Help Congress assess policies designed to make   --Evaluate options for
work pay.                                          increasing the supply of
                                                   child care for low-income
                                                   workers.





--Assess efforts aimed at family preservation.     --Analyze family preservation
                                                   and support efforts.
--Examine options for caring for abused and
neglected children who have been removed from      --Evaluate and compare foster
their homes.                                       care, kinship care, and
                                                   adoption policies.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3

Issue                    Planned major job starts
-----------------------  -------------------------------------------------------
Promoting a more         --Welfare fraud prevention and detection efforts
efficient, cost-         --Efficiencies and savings from consolidating programs
effective government     for children and families
                         --Feasibility and cost-effectiveness of privatizing
                         child support functions
                         --Efforts to increase child support collections through
                         interagency coordination
                         --Effects of implementing the Government Performance
                         and Results Act on the
                         Office of Child Support Enforcement
                         --Effectiveness of SSI computer matching programs
                         --SSA's referral to Medicaid of asset disposal by SSI
                         recipients
                         --Initial verification of financial data for SSI
                         applicant eligibility
                         --Effectiveness and results of SSI redetermination
                         process
                         --SSA's strategy for conducting continuing disability
                         reviews


Improving SSA service    --Efforts to improve telephone service for customers
and operations           --Efforts to improve public service provided by field
                         offices
                         --Workload implications of providing personalized
                         earnings and benefit estimate statements to
                         increasingly larger segments of the population
                         --Reengineering implementation status, progress, and
                         barriers
                         --Impact of new disability claims manager position on
                         disability claims process


Ensuring adequate        --Options to resolve Social Security's long-term
retirement benefits      funding problems
                         --Extent of retirement savings in defined contribution
                         plans
                         --Funding levels and other characteristics of state and
                         local pension plans


Redesigning disability   --Lessons from private sector disability management
programs                 --Alternative ways to deliver and finance
                         rehabilitation services
                         --Ways to make work a more attractive choice for the
                         disabled
                         --State implementation of SSI children's program


Moving from welfare to   --Welfare waiver experiments' implementation
work                     --Efforts to expand child care supply for low-income
                         workers with nonstandard work schedules


Preserving families and  --Child welfare agencies' response to abused and
protecting children      neglected children
                         --Permanent pathways out of foster care

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4


      DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.1

Jane L.  Ross (202) 512-7215


      ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.2

Leslie G.  Aronovitz (202) 512-7215


      ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.3

Cynthia Bascetta
David Bixler
Christopher Crissman
Cynthia Fagnoni
Lynne Fender
Roland Miller
Michael Packard
Donald Snyder
James Wright


      ATLANTA REGIONAL OFFICE
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.4

Michael Blair


      SAN FRANCISCO REGIONAL
      OFFICE
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.5

Robert MacLafferty

*** End of document. ***