In 1997, the General Accounting Office (GAO) designated SSI a high-risk program because of its vulnerability to abuse and mismanagement, increasing overpayments, and poor recovery of outstanding overpayments. Last year, GAO removed the program from its high-risk list, noting SSA’s progress in improving its financial integrity and management. Payment accuracy is lower than in 1997, and the balance of identified SSI overpayments has climbed yearly since 1997.
The statement then comments on the concept of disability. When Congress established the Supplemental Security Income program in the Social Security Amendments of 1972, it adopted the same definition established for the Disability Insurance program. An applicant will be found to be disabled if he or she is “unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.” Medical and rehabilitative advances have made it harder to draw a clear line between those who can and cannot work. We have also become much more of a service economy. This makes measuring the degree to which medical impairments limit an individual’s ability to engage in employment much more difficult.
The Statement is included in SSA’s 2004 Annual Report on the SSI Program. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 gives Board members the opportunity, individually or jointly, to include their views on SSI in SSA’s annual report to the President and Congress on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The Board or one of its members has submitted a statement every year since 1998, except for 2024 due to the lack of a quorum.