NEW! REPORT: The Social Security Administration: A Vision of the Future – First Steps on the Road to 2020

In 2010, the Social Security Administration (SSA) commemorated its 75th anniversary, and this celebration afforded the agency the opportunity to reflect on its record of high-quality service to the American public. This anniversary is the right time for envisioning the next generation of Social Security services. A burgeoning workload, shifting social structures, blurring of the setting for when and where work is performed, and an accelerating pace of change all demand that new technologies be harnessed. The business processes currently in use should be carefully analyzed for value added, and reconfigured in new and innovative ways that increase efficiency and accuracy. The public, the business world, and agency employees must all be able to accomplish program interactions at the “flick of a switch” or a simple keystroke. The challenges are immense but not insurmountable. But only with the future clearly and firmly in mind can the agency focus its resources in the key areas where innovation is sorely needed and discern the essential steps on the road toward 2020.

Data Exchange Issue Brief Series Vol. 1 – No. 1 – Keeping The Record Straight – An Overview of How SSA’s Data Exchange Program Works

With an anticipated 80 million baby boomers expected to file for both retirement and disability benefits over the next 20 years, SSA will need to devote a majority of its resources to initial claims and appeals workloads. Sufficient resources will not be available to handle the expanding post-entitlement workloads. However, additional automation of the processes used to handle these workloads would help the agency respond to growing resource issues. The Social Security Advisory Board has undertaken a study of the agency’s data exchange program; first to see how well the current program is working, and second to look at ways the program can be expanded and improved to increase the automated processing of SSA’s workloads. This is the first in a series of issues brief that will discuss the data exchange program; this brief focuses on the overall exchange process, how it works and whether it meets the agency’s needs.

Announcing the 2011 Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods

The Social Security Advisory Board is pleased to announce that the Board has appointed an expert panel of economists, demographers and actuaries to review the assumptions and methods used by the Trustees of the Social Security Trust Funds in their annual reports on the long-term finances of the Social Security system.

REPORT: The Social Security Statement: How It Can Be Improved

The Social Security Statement is one of the chief vehicles that SSA has for communicating with the public, making it imperative that the information provided on the Statement is objective and presented clearly, accurately, and understandably. The information provided on the Statement also plays a significant role in educating the American public about the program and its benefits. In this report, the Social Security Advisory Board examines the current Statement and suggests ways that it could be improved.

REPORT: Bridging the Gap: Improving SSA's Public Service through Technology

The American public relies on the Social Security Administration (SSA) to deliver its services in a timely and effective fashion. Long-established as a community-based agency, face-to-face contact is the hallmark and the primary means of delivering service. But increasingly, SSA has turned to a variety of technologies—including telephone service, the internet, and videoconferencing—to serve its customers. This report examines the challenges confronting SSA as it moves forward with developing expanded electronic services.