United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-06-15 monographic deposited born digital 39 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-778 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-778 P0b002ee1803770bd f:d01778 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-778 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-778 GAO-01-778 Disability benefits Fraud Internal controls Performance measures Social security benefits Strategic planning Social Security Program Supplemental Security Income Program Other Written Product A01111 GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan to assess SSA's progress in achieving five selected key outcomes identified as important mission areas for the SSA. The five key outcomes are (1) providing timely, accurate, and useful information and services to the public, (2) making disability determinations more timely and accurate, (3) reducing long-term disability benefits because people return to the workplace, (4) providing timely information to decisionmakers to address program policy issues such as long-term trust fund solvency, and (5) reducing fraud, waste, and error in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. GAO assessed the progress SSA has made in achieving these outcomes and its strategies for achieving them, and compared SSA's fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan with the prior year performance report and plan for these outcomes. GAO found that (1) SSA lowered and met its goal for the volume of 800-number calls processed, but did not report on its progress toward improving 800-number service accuracy because data were not yet available. SSA's strategies for meeting its fiscal year 2002 goals included training customer service staff in ways to improve accuracy on error-prone issues. However, SSA merged two accuracy indicators, without sufficient justification, in its fiscal year 2002 plan which may affect SSA's ability to sufficiently monitor and manage performance, (2) SSA lowered the targets for about half of its goals and still did not meet several of them, including those for the volume and timeliness of disability hearings, (3) SSA's measures were mainly output-oriented, and did not directly convey SSA's progress. SSA's fiscal year 2002 strategies in this area are more results-oriented and include goals and measures that are more clearly linked to achieving its objectives. However, SSA has not developed performance goals for several indicators, including a key outcome goal for the number of disabled SSI beneficiaries no longer receiving cash benefits, (4) SSA's fiscal year 2002 strategies are also more results-oriented than in pior years. The plan also contains goals and measures that are more clearly linked to achieving its objectives and should help SSA better track customer satisfaction with its research products, and (5) SSA's fiscal year 2002 strategies could also be improved by including additional indicators of its antifraud efforts, such as tracking the number of civil and monetary penalties levied. Furthermore, some recent plan revisions may impede SSA's ability to improve SSI program integrity. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-778/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-778.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-778/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-778.pdf GAO-01-778 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-778 Other Written Product GAO-01-778; Social Security Administration: Status of Achieving Key Outcomes and Addressing Major Management Challenges; Disability benefits Fraud Internal controls Performance measures Social security benefits Strategic planning Social Security Program Supplemental Security Income Program