34

A Message from the Commissioner A Message from the Commissioner A Message from the Commissioner

I’m pleased to present the Social Security Administration’s 

Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2003-2008.The plan reflects my priorities — service, stewardship, solvency, and staff. It also 

provides a guide for meeting the goals of the President’s 

Management Agenda and the Government Performance and 

Results Act. 

SSA’s strategic plan describes strategies for delivering results 

by integrating performance with a multi-year service delivery plan. With a program as large as Social Security, we need a 

strategic plan that adequately balances our resources and commitment to results. 

Last fall, I submitted the FY 2004 Service Delivery Budget to the Office of 

Management and Budget based on a five-year service delivery plan. The budget has been integrated with the Agency’s five-year strategic plan. The combination provides 

a comprehensive framework that gives employees ambitious, yet attainable, goals in

all major areas of their work. 

Yet our strategic plan is more than a document. It is also a dynamic process. As we 

continue our on-going service delivery assessment we will gain valuable information 

to develop new ways to manage growing workloads. We will use that information 

to take advantage of rapidly developing technology and an abundance of talented and innovative employees to build a Social Security Administration for the 

future. 

Since its inception, Social Security has provided a measure of economic security

and financial stability for the people of America.The programs administered by the 

Social Security Administration for nearly 70 years touch the lives of virtually every American. We provide service to individuals at critical junctures in their lives, 

whether the onset of unexpected disability, the untimely loss of a spouse or parent, 

the inability to meet basic needs as a senior citizen, or making the transition from 

work to retirement. As we face the years ahead, we will continue to fulfill our 

mission and to remain steadfast in our commitment to provide quality service to 

the public while ensuring program integrity through sound fiscal stewardship. 

Jo Anne B. Barnhart 

Commissioner 

Table of Contents 

Executive Summary ...................................................... 1 

I. SSA Mission,Values, 

Programs and Responsibilities ..................................... 5 

II. Environmental Factors ................................................. 9 

III. Strategic Goals and Objectives ................................... 13 

Service ..................................................................................................14

Stewardship ........................................................................................21

Solvency ...............................................................................................29

Staff .......................................................................................................31

IV. Future Program Evaluations ........................................ 35 

V. Consultations ................................................................. 39 
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Abbreviations 

BCIS Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services

CDR Continuing Disability Review

CMS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

DDS Disability Determination Services

DHHS Department of Health and Human Services

DI Disability Insurance

DOE Department of Education

DOL Department of Labor

GAO General Accounting Office

GISRA Government Information Security Reform Act

HI Hospital Insurance

IRS Internal Revenue Service

OASI Old-Age and Survivors Insurance

OASDI Old-Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance

OCSE Office of Child Support Enforcement

OIG Office of the Inspector General

OMB Office of Management and Budget

PART Program Assessment Rating Tool

PIN Personal Identification Number

PMA President’s Management Agenda

SMI Supplemental Medical Insurance

SSI Supplemental Security Income

SGA Substantial Gainful Activity

SSA Social Security Administration

SSN Social Security Number

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SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Executive Summary 

This strategic plan is our blueprint for responding to the challenges we face today and in the future

and for delivering results for the American people through four strategic goals.

Several external factors shaping our world present SSA with great challenges and opportunities.

° Demographics –Trends in population growth and composition, notably the aging of baby

boomers, will profoundly affect Social Security retirement and disability programs and workloads.

Trust fund surpluses will diminish and the number of beneficiaries will increase as the population

ages.

° Health and DisabilityTrends – The shift away from physically demanding work, technological

improvements in health care and increasing emphasis on rehabilitation initiatives will provide

greater employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

° Technological Advances – Increased Internet usage provides the Agency with more ways to

deliver services and improve productivity. New technologies raise far-reaching questions about

security, safety, and privacy.

° Workforce Trends – An employee “retirement wave” presents SSA and the DDSs with the

challenge of hiring and retaining a highly skilled and diverse workforce in an expected competitive

job market.

Strategic Goal: To deliver high-quality, citizen-centered service 

Our service goal encompasses SSA’s traditional

and electronic services to applicants for

benefits, beneficiaries and the general public,

as well as services to and from States, other

agencies, third parties, employers and other

organizations such as financial institutions and

medical providers.

Our goal supports the delivery of citizencentered service and the expansion of the EGovernment element of the President’s

Management Agenda. We aim to deliver quality 

service. The attributes of service that define

quality include accuracy, productivity, cost,

timeliness and service satisfaction.

Our strategic objectives focus on these aspects

of service:

° One of SSA’s highest priorities is to

improve service to individuals filing

disability claims and appeals. The time it

Key Outcomes 

° Reduce significantly the time it takes for

a disability claimant to receive a final

Agency decision

° Eliminate backlogs for initial disability

claims, hearings and appeals

° Increase by 50 percent from 2001 levels,

the number of people with disabilities

who achieve employment

° Establish with the DOL a nationwide

network of employment support staff in

One-Stop Centers to serve Social

Security beneficiaries with disabilities

° Test the impact of early intervention and

work

° Eliminate backlogs for postentitlement

services

° Substantially increase use of electronic

youth transition

now takes to process these actions is unacceptable. Delays place significant burdens on applicants

and their families and an enormous drain on Agency resources.

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SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

° Currently, only 0.55 percent of DI beneficiaries work and earn enough to leave the rolls

permanently, while only 0.2 percent earn enough to leave the rolls temporarily. Only 0.4

percent of SSI disabled beneficiaries earn enough to leave the SSI payment rolls. This plan

focuses on significantly increasing the number of disability beneficiaries who achieve steady

employment.

° Improved productivity is essential to meeting the converging workload and retirement wave

challenges ahead.Technology is essential to achieving efficiencies and enabling employees to

deliver the kind of service that every claimant, beneficiary and citizen needs and deserves.

Strategic Goal:To ensure superior stewardship of Social Security 

programs and resources 

Ensuring program stewardship is an

inherent aspect of the Agency’s

responsibility to provide good service to

the public. The people of America who fund

the Social Security programs through

payroll tax contributions and the SSI

program through income tax payments

expect and deserve well-managed

programs. Taxpayers must be confident that

their tax dollars are properly spent.

Beneficiaries must know that their benefits

are correctly paid.

Good stewardship also demands the

effective and efficient use of the resources

SSA receives to administer the programs.

This goal addresses three areas of the

President’s Management Agenda aimed at

sound financial management: Competitive

Sourcing, Improved Financial Performance,

and Budget and Performance Integration.

Finally, good stewardship involves more

than money. It also encompasses the

responsibility to ensure the security of

SSA’s information systems and the integrity

and privacy of the personal information that

SSA maintains. And it includes the

obligation to make certain that our offices

are safe and secure for employees and the

public alike.

Key Outcomes 

° Increase SSI payment accuracy to 96 percent

(free of preventable error) and to 95 percent

(free of error)

° Maintain OASDI payment accuracy at 99.8

percent

° Increase the percent of outstanding debt that

is in a collection arrangement

° Remain current with DI and SSI continuing

disability reviews

° Finish processing special disability cases

° Reduce the backlog of workers’

compensation cases

° Ensure SSNs are only issued based on

verified documents

° Remove earnings items from the suspense

file and post them to the correct earnings

record

° Compete or convert 50 percent of

commercial positions

° Annually receive an “unqualified opinion” on

SSA’s financial statements with no material

weaknesses reported by auditors

° Implement core functionalities of a

comprehensive cost accountability system

and a unified measurement system

° Increase productivity by at least 2 percent

annually on average

° “Get to green” on all five President’s

Management Agenda items

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SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Strategic Goal: To achieve sustainable solvency and ensure Social 

Security programs meet the needs of current and future generations 

With the aging of the population, the long-term

solvency of current Social Security programs is

unsustainable. New patterns of work and earnings,

marriage, divorce and childbearing are changing the

characteristics of American families.Americans are

living longer and healthier lives. The Americans with Disabilities Act and medical and technological

advances are altering the concept of disability. Social Security programs must respond to these

developments. This goal addresses the Agency’s responsibility to continually assess the programs

in the context of societal trends and support reforms to ensure the programs meet the needs of

today’s and tomorrow’s beneficiaries.

Key Outcome 

°

term solvency

Achieve reform that ensures longStrategic Goal: To strategically manage and align staff to support SSA’s 

mission 

During this decade, SSA and DDS employees will

retire in greater numbers. This retirement wave,

already underway, not only will affect our ability to

deliver service to the American public, but also will

result in a significant drain on SSA’s institutional

knowledge. SSA and the State DDSs will be faced

with the continuing challenge of hiring and retaining

a highly skilled and diverse workforce in what is

expected to be a very competitive job market.

Key Outcomes 

° Demonstrate an improvement in the

retention rate

° Implement a new performance

management system

opportunities and training

° Ensure ongoing job enrichment

SSA’s response to these challenges is framed by and addresses the President’s Management Agenda,

which directs all agencies to make government citizen-centered through the strategic management

of human capital.The President has directed agencies to redistribute staff from higher-level positions

to front-line service delivery, capture the knowledge and skills of retiring employees through

knowledge management systems and make better use of personnel flexibilities to acquire and

develop talent and leadership.As SSA deals with significant workload growth and its own increasing

numbers of retirements, we will continue our efforts to recruit, develop and retain the highperforming workforce the President’s initiatives envision.

3
4
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Part I: SSA’s Mission,Values, Programs and Responsibilities

SSA’s Mission

To advance the economic security of the nation’s people through

compassionate and vigilant leadership in shaping and managing America’s social

security programs

SSA’s Mission Statement explains the Agency’s purpose. It provides the foundation of our response 

to the major challenges we face now and in the years ahead: delivering high-quality, citizen-centered 

service; ensuring superior stewardship of Social Security programs and resources; achieving 

sustainable solvency of programs that must continue to meet the nation’s needs; and ensuring the 

Agency continues to have the best employees possible in service to the public. 

SSA’s Values 

° Respectful –SSA employees believe in treating people with equal regard, 

dignity, courtesy and compassion.We respect diversity among ourselves and 

among those we serve.We remember that each of us is responsible for 

fostering the positive environment that makes SSA a good place to work. 

° Responsive –SSA employees know that listening carefully and acting on what 

we hear is the cornerstone to good service. In a rapidly changing world, we 

embrace change.We believe in keeping the public informed, investing in 

continuous learning, and breaking barriers to citizen-centered service 

wherever they exist. 

° Reliable –SSA employees are proud stewards of the public trust. Citizens can 

count on us to meet our commitments, to act with integrity, to work 

efficiently and effectively and to ensure quality in all our endeavors. 

Meeting Our Commitment to Service and Results 

The nation’s citizens expect SSA’s employees to be Respectful, Responsive and Reliable. These 

Values describe employee actions in service to the public and each other. 

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5
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

SSA’s Programs and Responsibilities 

SSA promotes the nation’s economic security by administering America’s major income support 

programs for the elderly, disabled, and their dependents: 

° Old-Age and Survivors Insurance; 

° Disability Insurance; and 

° Supplemental Security Income. 

The programs administered by the Social SecurityAdministration touch the lives of over 95 percent 

of all Americans. We provide service to individuals at critical junctures in their lives, be it the onset 

of an unexpected disability, the untimely loss of a spouse or a parent, the inability to meet basic 

needs as a senior citizen, or exiting the workforce due to retirement. 

The combined OASDI programs, commonly referred to as Social Security, have significantly improved 

the economic well being of the nation. Poverty among the elderly has been reduced by 54 percent 

over the past 30 years. In 1936, when Social Security numbers were first assigned to workers, most 

of the nation’s elderly were living in poverty. Today, monthly Social Security benefits are an important 

contributor to the quality of life of elderly Americans and millions more who are protected in case 

of a worker’s death or disability. 

The SSI program, which is funded through general revenues, provides cash assistance to financially 

needy individuals who are aged, blind or disabled. SSA also provides service delivery support to 

the Medicare, Medicaid, Black Lung, Railroad Retirement and Food Stamp programs. 

SSA makes federal benefit payments each month to more than 50 million people. In addition to 

providing monthly benefit payments, SSA’s ongoing operational responsibilities include: 

° Taking applications for and issuing Social Security numbers after obtaining and evaluating 

evidence of identity; 

° Processing and maintaining life-long earnings records for most of the working population; 

° Issuing Social Security Statements required by law or requested by individuals; 

° Taking claims, evaluating evidence, and making determinations of eligibility for monthly benefits; 

° Adjudicating appeals of disputed decisions; 

° Processing millions of actions to keep beneficiary records current and accurate; 

° Conducting continuing eligibility reviews to avoid erroneous payments to Social Security 

and SSI beneficiaries if factors affecting their eligibility or monthly benefit amount have changed; 

and 

° Managing the Ticket to Work program to help disability beneficiaries achieve self-sufficiency. 

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6
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Our Organization 

The Social Security Administration’s organization is centrally managed with a decentralized 

nationwide network of over 1,500 Regional Offices,Teleservice Centers (800-Number), Program 

Service Centers and Hearings Offices. Our organizational structure is designed to provide timely, 

accurate and responsive service to the American public. By integrating support services for all of 

our programs, we enhance efficiency,avoid duplication of effort and increase opportunities to provide 

one-stop service to the public. 

Field Offices are the primary points for face-to-face contact with the public. Teleservice Centers 

offer national toll-free telephone service (at 1-800-772-1213). Our Program Service Centers process 

a wide variety of workloads, as well as take 800-Number calls. The Office of Central Operations, 

which includes the Data Operations Center, processes a wide variety of workloads involving 

disability, international and earnings operations and also has an expanding role in taking 800-Number 

calls.The Hearing Offices and Appeals Council adjudicate appeals of SSA determinations in claims 

for benefits. 

About 60,000 of SSA’s 64,400 employees deliver direct service to the public or directly support 

the services provided by our front-line workers (see chart below).The public is most familiar with 

our 34,300 employees in Field Offices and Teleservice Centers, but they are also directly served by 

another 19,800 employees in the components described above, as well as the Office of Quality 

Assurance and Performance Assessment. Another 6,000 SSA employees in headquarters and regional 

offices directly support the services delivered by our front-line workers.These include the employees 

who build and maintain our expanding Internet services. 

SSA’s remaining employees 

perform equally important 

functions in developing other 

information technology and 

public information products, 

ensuring sound fiscal 

stewardship, developing and 

implementing uniform 

program policy and 

procedures, and supporting 

our workforce by providing, 

maintaining and safeguarding 

our work spaces. The State 

DDSs, funded by SSA, add 

another 15,000 front-line 

employees, such as disability 

examiners, to the total 

workforce providing direct 

60,000 SSA Employees in Direct 

Services and Direct Service Support 

19,800 

6,000 

34,300 

HQ and RO employees in direct support of front line 

PSC, DOC, OCO, HO and AC employees 

Field Office and Teleservice Center employees 

service to the public.Whether in SSA or a DDS, each and every employee in front- line and staff 

positions plays an important role in the success of the nation’s Social Security programs. 

xi

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SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Part II: Environmental Factors 

In mapping our plans for the next several years, SSA examined external and internal factors that 

will shape the world in which we will exist. Among an array of environmental factors that are 

relevant to SSA’s mission and strategic goals, four dominant factors emerge as driving forces: 

demographics, health and disability trends, technological advances and workforce trends. 

Demographics 

The effect of the “baby boom” population on the Social Security trust funds has been well 

documented, and it remains one of the critical factors in our future planning. As the population 

ages and the ratio of workers to beneficiaries decreases, trust fund surpluses will vanish. Today, 

about 3.3 people pay in to Social Security for every person receiving benefits. According to the 

2003 Annual Report of the OASDI Trustees, by 2030 the ratio is projected to decline to about 2.2 

to 1. As a result, with currently scheduled taxes and benefits, Social Security will face large and 

growing deficits. 

With the aging of the baby boomers, an increasing number of people will enter their most disabilityprone years and begin to retire during the next ten years. By the end of 2012, these demographic 

changes will result in DI rolls that are 35 percent higher than today’s levels. Over that same time 

period, OASI beneficiaries will increase by 18 percent, and SSI beneficiaries will increase by 12 

percent. As a result, there will be great pressure to accomplish our work more efficiently. 

Beneficiaries in payment status, at end of calendar years 2003-

(in millions) 

0 

5 

10 

15 

20 

25 

30 

35 

40 

45 

50 

2003 2008 2012 

OASI DI SSI 

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SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Health and Disability Trends 

In many respects, the quality of life for Americans has dramatically improved over the years. 

Americans are living longer today, with an average life expectancy now up to 77 years. By 2030, 

average life expectancy is projected to increase to 80 years. In general, the health of the population 

is better than it has ever been, and people who are healthier tend to work longer. 

Notwithstanding improvements in the health of the general population, the number of disability 

beneficiaries has increased over the past 10 years and the incidence and prevalence of disability is 

projected to continue to grow. Shifting employment away from physically demanding work, 

technological improvements in health care and increasing emphasis on rehabilitation initiatives will 

provide greater employment opportunities for people with disabilities. 

Technological Advances 

Increased Internet usage is providing the Agency with more ways to deliver services and improve 

productivity.The Internet is already altering the way the public interacts with SSA, making it easier 

for them to get information and assistance, identify and obtain services, file applications, and conduct 

other transactions. By 2007, Internet access will rival that of cable and satellite television. More 

than 75 percent of U.S. households are expected to have Internet access, up from 58 percent in 

2001.The number of individual online users in the U.S. is projected to grow from 50 percent in 

2001 to 73 percent in 2007. 

Technological advances are providing employers and organizations in both the public and private 

sector the means to do business with SSA electronically. Information technology will continue to 

transform the way that SSA does business internally by providing efficient and responsive systems 

to support administrative tasks, improve communications and process work. 

The increased use of new technologies provides significant benefits but also raises far-reaching 

questions about its effect on security, safety, and privacy. The widespread interconnectivity of 

computer systems creates new vulnerabilities for the critical operations and infrastructures they 

support. SSA will need to maintain its vigilance in identifying vulnerabilities and safeguarding its 

information technology systems against potential intrusions. 

Workforce Trends 

Like the baby boomers in the general workforce, SSA and DDS employees will begin to retire in 

greater numbers. SSA estimates that during this decade over 28,000 of its federal employees will 

retire and another 10,000 will leave the Agency for other reasons. This is approximately 59 percent 

of the current workforce. This “retirement wave” will affect our ability to deliver service to the 

American public. It will also result in a significant drain in SSA’s institutional knowledge. 

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SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

The annual rate of growth in the size of the labor force is projected to decline from 1.1 percent 

during the 1990s to an average of 0.9 percent over the next decade.With the slowing growth in 

the labor force, SSA and the DDSs will be faced with the challenge of hiring and retaining a highly 

skilled and diverse workforce in a very competitive job market. To be successful in attracting 

employees, employers will need to consider the differing generational expectations of the future 

workforce, in areas such as career development, job and organizational loyalties, lifestyle values, 

communication, and problem solving styles. The future employers of choice will likely be those 

who offer flexible benefits and working arrangements, as well as training and professional 

development opportunities. SSA must continue to build upon its excellent record in strategic 

workforce planning to ensure it maintains the quality staff needed to carry out the Agency’s mission. 

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SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

xvii

Part III. Strategic Goals and Objectives 

Introduction 

Today, SSA faces great challenges: giving the American people the service they expect and deserve, 

particularly as the number of beneficiaries increases each year with the aging of the baby boomers; 

improving program integrity through sound fiscal stewardship; ensuring the program’s solvency for 

future generations; and maintaining the quality staff SSA needs to meet these challenges. Our 

strategic goals—Service, Stewardship, Solvency and Staff—directly address these challenges. 

Our four strategic goals are comprehensive. They link directly to our total resource needs and 

provide employees direction in all major areas of their work. Our nine supporting strategic objectives, 

reduced from over 20 objectives in prior strategic plans, focus on key areas of strategic importance 

or those needing improvement.The indicators SSA will use to gauge progress towards our objectives 

in annual performance plans also focus on these priority areas. However, we will continue to 

internally track other areas of performance to ensure balance among competing workloads.We 

will be vigilant in maintaining and improving our performance in all workloads. 

In determining our strategic goals and objectives, we used numerous internal and external evaluations, 

many of which are highlighted in the issues section under each objective.We looked at information 

from our ongoing service satisfaction surveys and quality assurance reviews as well as many other 

internal studies of targeted areas. 

SSA is conducting a service delivery assessment, examining current business processes and times, 

and identifying improvements needed to meet each of SSA’s operational responsibilities.The service 

delivery assessment will examine all SSA programs and processes with fresh eyes, drawing on the 

expertise from staff in the field as well as in headquarters.We began the service delivery assessment 

with a focus on the processing of claims for Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental 

Security Income disability benefits.The assessment results to date were fundamental to development 

of SSA’s multi-year service delivery plan, as well as this plan. 

We also considered various GAO reports and OIG audits on areas identified as the Agency’s 

major management challenges, reports by the Social Security Advisory Board on the challenges 

facing SSA, and the concerns of the Congress raised in hearings. 

A key force in shaping our strategic direction is the President’s Management Agenda (PMA).The 

PMA identifies five government-wide initiatives intended to work together as a mutually reinforcing 

set of reforms to improve federal management and deliver results that matter to the American 

people. These five initiatives—Strategic Management of Human Capital, Competitive Sourcing, 

Improved Financial Performance, Expanded Electronic Government and Budget and Performance 

Integration—are interwoven into the means and strategies for achieving our strategic objectives. 

The section that follows conveys the performance issues the Agency faces, identifies the specific 

outcomes we aim to achieve and describes our means and strategies for achieving them. To 

provide further context for decisions on needed improvements outlined in this plan, SSA has 

developed a service delivery plan that identifies the workload production goals over the next five 

years to accomplish our strategic goals and objectives. 

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SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

xviii

Strategic Goal: To deliver high-quality, citizen centered service 

Our service goal encompasses SSA’s traditional (in-person, telephone) and electronic services to 

applicants for benefits, beneficiaries and the general public, as well as services to and from States, 

other agencies, third parties, employers and other organizations such as financial institutions 

and medical providers. This goal addresses the full meaning of the term “citizen-centered” service 

and the full scope of the “Expanding E-Government” item in the President’s Management Agenda. 

That is: 

° Making it simpler to receive quality service regardless of contact mode; 

° Providing a choice of ways to access service; 

° Increasing collaboration among agencies to provide more transparent government; 

° Making it easier for business to comply with reporting responsibilities; and 

° Sharing information more quickly and conveniently between federal agencies and States. 

This goal covers all attributes of service that define “quality” as a balance of accuracy, productivity, 

cost, timeliness and service satisfaction. The creation of a new Office of Quality Management, 

within the Office of the Chief Strategic Officer, signals the Agency’s overarching committment to 

quality. We are working to build an in-line quality system for all the Agency’s business processes 

including disability. 

Our strategic objectives focus on disability processes and on improving service through technology. 

To ensure that high levels of performance continue in other areas, we will also continue to closely 

monitor overall public satisfaction with our service and our performance in the areas of retirement 

and survivors claims, SSI aged claims and both pre-claim and postentitlement actions. 

SSA’s strategic objectives for this goal are to: 

° Make the right decision in the disability process as early as possible; 

° Increase employment for people with disabilities; and 

° Improve service through technology. 

Strategic Objective: Make the right decision in the disability process as 

early as possible 

Issues 

One of SSA’s highest priorities is to improve service to the public in the disability programs from 

the initial claim through the final administrative appeal. Each Social Security and Supplemental 

Security Income disability claim represents a person and often a family.The length of time it takes 

to process these claims is unacceptable. It places a significant financial and emotional burden on 

applicants and their families. It also leads to recontacts and rehandling, placing an enormous drain 

on Agency resources. 

According to our service delivery assessment of the disability process, persons pursuing their 

disability claims through all levels of Agency appeal wait an average of 1,153 days for that final 

decision. Due to backlogs, cases that go through all levels of appeal spend nearly 50 percent of the 

14
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

time (525 days) “in queue,” waiting for SSA action. A 

variety of factors account for the remaining delay time 

(621 days), including factors outside of SSA’s control 

such as time periods afforded claimants to request the 

next step in due process (more than 200 days). Actual 

hands-on or task time takes only seven days, less than 

one percent of the elapsed time. 

The most significant external factor affecting SSA’s 

ability to improve service to disability applicants is 

the dramatic growth of workloads. Ongoing 

application receipts are rising.They will continue to 

rise as the baby boomers enter their disability-prone 

and then retirement years. Furthermore, an 

unexpected near-term surge in disability claims 

receipts is adding to the problem. With DI rolls 

projected to grow 35 percent in the ten years ending 

2012, SSA cannot keep doing things the same way. We 

Disability Processing Time 

Through the Appeals Council 

From the Claimant's Perspective 

Less than 1% 

(7 Days) 

Task Time 

) 

e 

Total Processing Time 1153 Days 

(Based on FY 2001 Data) are responding directly to the challenge. 

Means and Strategies 

There is no one solution to making the disability 

decision process faster and better.More efficient 

processing will require many improvements – 

some large, some small – to achieve SSA’s 

service goal. Recent and current initiatives 

include introduction of an Internet Social 

Security disability application, issuance of 

proposed rules that update the medical listings, 

updating vocational policy to reflect market 

changes (including development of new, reliable 

sources of occupational data to replace the 

Dictionary of OccupationalTitles), and improving 

training of disability examiners. We have also 

implemented a number of short-term initiatives 

to improve service in the hearings process. 

Key Outcomes 

Success in meeting this objective will be 

measured in our annual performance plans by 

our progress towards achieving the following 

key outcomes: 

° Reduce significantly the time it takes for 

claims, hearings and appeals by 2008. 

° Eliminate backlogs for initial disability 

Agency decision; and 

a disability claimant to receive a final 

xix

SSA’s near-term efforts to substantially reduce processing times, improve the process for both 

claimants and employees, and increase efficiency include: 

° Eliminating Backlogs: Elimination of backlogs is a prerequisite to reducing processing time. 

SSA’s service delivery plan does that over a 5-year period. 

° Accelerating the Electronic Disability Initiative (AeDib):To reduce delays inherent in mailing, locating 

and organizing paper folders, SSA is accelerating its transition to an electronic disability folder 

through the AeDib Agency initiative. Rollout begins in January 2004, with full implementation 

15-18 months later. Components will then be able to work claims by electronically accessing 

and retrieving information that is collected, produced and stored as part of an electronic disability 

15
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

folder. A significant change in and of itself,AeDib will also enable other major business process 

changes to improve service, efficiency and accuracy. 

° Improving the Initial Disability Determination Process: SSA is considering the implementation of 

tested initiatives that show the most promise, including: 

- Expanding the authority for State DDS examiners nationwide; and 

- Encouraging early and frequent contacts with claimants during the development process. 

° Improving the Appeals Process: 

- Include Administrative Law Judges in early case screening to more quickly identify cases for 

dismissal and on-the-record decisions; 

- End the requirement that cases be certified “ready-to-hear”; 

- Expand the use of technology in the Office of Hearings and Appeals, including video 

teleconferencing, speech recognition and digital recording of hearings; 

- Issue decisions from the bench; and 

- Contract out file assembly. 

These are just the first steps that SSA will take to meet the challenge of providing a timely, efficient 

and quality disability process. As a part of the service delivery assessment, SSA has compiled a 

range of ideas and reccommendations on potential improvements to the disbility process from a 

variety of sources. These are being evaluated for possible implementation. 

Strategic Objective: Increase employment for people with disabilities 

Issues 

The Social Security Administration is responsible for the nation’s two major federal disability 

programs, Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. We recognize that many people 

with disabilities want to be employed, educated and fully participating citizens—and, we are working 

to ensure that these goals become reality for more people. Currently, only 0.55 percent of all DI 

beneficiaries work and earn enough to leave the disability rolls permanently (benefit termination), 

while only 0.2 percent work and earn enough to leave the rolls temporarily (benefit suspension). 

Only 0.4 percent of SSI disabled beneficiaries earn enough to leave the SSI payment rolls.We are 

dedicated to significantly increasing the number of DI and SSI beneficiaries who achieve employment. 

Two federal laws enacted in recent years reinforce the fact that people with disabilities have the 

ability and the right to work.The Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, supports this 

right. The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 increases beneficiaries’ 

access to employment and support services. Under this law, SSA has a major role in bringing 

beneficiaries and these services together. 

Means and Strategies 

SSA is working to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to learn and develop skills, 

engage in productive work, make choices about their daily lives and participate fully in community 

life. Our strategies, which directly support the President’s New Freedom Initiative, include: 

xx

16
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

° Through theTicket toWork program, which was launched in February 2002 and will be available 

nationwide by January 2004, we are providing beneficiaries with more choices and expanded 

opportunities to help them go to work. The Ticket program allows beneficiaries to select the 

service providers of their choice including vocational rehabilitation, job training and other 

community-based support services. The program also includes expanded health care coverage 

- a critical feature since the loss of health 

care has been a significant disincentive for 

people with disabilities to return to work. 

° As an offshoot of the Ticket to Work, we 

worked with the DOL to develop a new 

service to help employers locate and recruit 

skilled job candidates with disabilities. This 

service, “Ticket to Hire” is a free, national 

referral service for employers to recruit 

workers from the Ticket to Work program. 

° SSA and the DOL are funding a two-year 

demonstration project to establish 

specialists, called Disability Program 

Navigators, to serve as a resource to and 

advocate for people with disabilities who 

seek training and employment opportunities. 

Working in DOL’s One-Stop Career 

Centers, Navigators will link people with 

disabilities, including Social Security DI and 

Key Outcomes 

Success in meeting this objective will be 

measured in our annual performance plans by 

our progress towards the following key 

outcomes: 

° By 2008, increase by 50 percent from 

2001 levels the number of DI and SSI 

disability beneficiaries who achieve 

employment; 

° Establish with the DOL a nationwide 

network of employment support staff in 

One-Stop Centers to serve Social 

Security beneficiaries with disabilities; 

and 

° Test the impact of early inter

youth transition. 

vention and 

xxi

SSI beneficiaries, with employers and with benefit planning, assistance and outreach organizations. 

Navigators will have expertise regarding Social Security employment support programs, work 

incentives, and Ticket to Work.They will facilitate other SSA demonstration projects focused 

on improving employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. 

° SSA has a major initiative underway to convert its paper-driven disability claims system into an 

electronic format. 

disabilities to participate in this work, thus maximizing their economic self-sufficiency. 

• SSA’s multifaceted approach to helping beneficiaries with disabilities obtain accurate and timely 

information regarding work includes the planned creation of a Work Incentive Specialist corps. 

Certain SSA field employees, to be designated asWork Incentive Specialists,will provide technical 

information and assistance to both beneficiaries and outside groups. At the same time, we plan 

to provide a customized training curriculum targeted to each employee’s role in administering 

employment support programs. 

reported wages with a beneficiary’s disability record in a more timely fashion. 

° We are working on the following disability program initiatives to test the impact of early 

intervention and youth transition—these initiatives may lead to program changes, depending 

on the outcome of the demonstrations: 

- Many experts believe that providing intervention methods to individuals 

with disabilities as close to the disability onset as possible significantly improves their chance 

17

SSA will look for opportunities for Social Security beneficiaries with 

In addition, we are developing new systems to help us associate 

Early Intervention: 
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

xxii

of returning to work. SSA, in collaboration with the Disability Research Institute, is developing 

a demonstration project that will test a variety of interventions such as early medical insurance, 

employment supports, etc., for the first time on DI applicants. The goal of the project is to 

assist persons with disabilities in returning to work as soon as possible rather then transitioning 

to long-term dependency on the DI rolls. 

- Youth employment: Many children receiving Supplemental Security Income stay on the rolls for 

life, and many lose benefits at the required age-18 medical redetermination without any supports 

for becoming self-sufficient. In addition, a significant number come onto the SSI rolls at age 18 

when their parents’ income no longer counts towards eligibility. We are developing a youth 

demonstration project that would test interventions to support the transition of young SSI 

beneficiaries to adulthood through higher education or employment supports. The goal is to 

help SSI youth maximize their economic self-sufficiency. 

Strategic Objective: Improve service through technology 

Issues 

Improved productivity is essential to meeting the challenges ahead.The Social Security Advisory 

Board has noted that the combination of dramatic workload growth and SSA’s employee retirement 

wave “will place extraordinary pressures on the Agency to meet the public’s need for service.” In 

the face of these challenges, technology is essential to achieving efficiencies and enabling employees 

to deliver the kind of service that every claimant, beneficiary and citizen needs and deserves. 

SSA recognizes the imperative to move forward in providing citizen-centered electronic 

governmental services. GAO has observed SSA’s “substantial progress in modernizing workstations 

and local area networks to support its work processes,” and has approvingly commented that SSA 

“has clearly defined its business process needs and linked information technology projects to its 

strategic objectives.” Furthermore, as the President’s FY 2003 Budget chapter on SSA notes, “SSA 

has taken constructive steps in the last 2 years by rapidly expanding online customer service 

options. These include retirement claims, Medicare replacement cards, online account status, access 

to change one’s address and telephone number, and direct deposit.” 

SSA continues to develop and offer new Internet services on a regular basis.Visits to SSA’s website 

rose to over 28 million during FY 2001, an increase of 115 percent over FY 2000.Visits during FY 

2002 climbed to almost 40 million, 40 percent higher than in FY 2001. SSA will encourage usage by 

enhancing our current applications and continuing to develop additional informational and 

transactional offerings. 

Our current beneficiary populations are significantly less likely to use the Internet than their 

children will be. GAO points out that SSA“must effectively address dual modes of service delivery”— 

its traditional services via telephone, face-to-face, and mail contacts... as well as a more interactive, 

on-line,Web-based environment....” 

Systems security poses a special challenge. SSA will maintain its excellent track record of safeguards 

as it encourages increased citizen use of SSA’s Internet and Web-based services. 

18
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Means and Strategies 

In moving into the Internet world,SSA’s 

initial focus was to provide information 

online. Information continues to be a 

major strength of the website and the 

Internet has proven to be an effective 

vehicle for the timely and efficient 

dissemination of Social Security 

information.To meet increasing public 

demands, we have also aggressively 

pursued a portfolio of services that 

enable online transactions. While 

Key Outcomes 

Success in meeting this objective will be measured in 

our annual performance plans by our progress towards 

achieving the following key outcomes: 

°

2008. 

° Eliminate backlogs for postentitlement work by 

and 

Substantially increase use of electronic services; 

xxiii

continuing to add services, we are focusing more on increasing the public’s usage of these 

transactional services. For this reason, we plan enhancements promoting ease of use. 

this will mean greater convenience and access. For SSA, this translates into more efficient and 

effective public service. 

Expansion and improvement of SSA’s web-based services will positively affect other services and 

operations: 

° Callers to SSA’s National 800-Number will benefit. Currently, automated information services 

are available via the 800-Number 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Already, some callers can 

access their Social Security records information using PIN and password. SSA’s shift to 

transactional technology will further improve 800-Number service. 

° Employees will benefit. Expansion of SSA’s Intranet to provide easier access to information 

will reduce the need for paper communications and the time it takes for employees to find 

needed information. 

SSA will intensify its technology research and development activities through a cross-component 

process, which focuses technological research and development on areas deemed most critical in 

meeting the Agency’s service objectives. We will move these critical technologies forward through 

all stages, from focused research to non-production testing (development) to production testing 

(pilot) to implementation. 

SSA will continue to give high priority to projects that promise large productivity increases and 

support the President’s government-wide e-Government initiative. Our initiatives include: 

E-Government-to-citizen – 

° Redesigning the SSA Internet website to make it easier for individuals and organizations to get 

the services they need; 

° Expanding/increasing self-service through user-friendly electronic service delivery options, 

featuring secure and friendly authentication services and real-time customer support; 

° Integrating the various ways (in-person, telephone, Internet) the public can access our services 

so they can switch from one “channel” to another. To this end, we are piloting new technologies 

to transform the 800-Number network into a network of Multimedia Contact Centers providing 

a full range of electronic channels and Internet inquiries; 

° Accelerating eDib, including storage/retrieval of disability records using electronic folders; 

° Developing electronic services for post-entitlement actions such as continuing disability reviews; 

19

For citizens, 
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

° Improving hearings process productivity through expanded Video Teleconferencing, digital 

recording of hearings, and application of speech recognition software for dictating decisions; 

° Improving policies/systems processes to allow employees to work more cases to completion 

without the need for handoffs; and 

° Improving explanations and tutorials to reduce recontacts. 

E-Government-to-business – 

° Increasing electronic wage reporting to reduce earnings discrepancies and make it easier for 

business to comply with reporting responsibilities; 

° Allowing electronic verification of accuracy of employees’ name/SSN; and 

° Building a web presence that supports e-procurement and e-grants through Agency participation 

in government-wide e-Gov Quicksilver and other initiatives. 

E-Government-to-government – 

° Implementing “eVital.” SSA has a lead responsibility for this cross-government Quicksilver 

initiative to establish timely electronic access and/or transmittal of birth and death records 

among State and federal users; 

° Providing key support in over half of the 24 Quicksilver initiatives, including eAuthentication; 

° Actively collaborating with other federal agencies serving our beneficiary population (such as 

CMS and the Railroad Retirement Board) to promote electronic services; and 

° Supporting implementation of the Government Paperwork Elimination Act. 

xxiv

20
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

xxv

Strategic Goal: To ensure superior stewardship of Social 

Security programs and resources 

Ensuring program stewardship is an inherent aspect of the Agency’s responsibility to provide good 

service to the public. The people of America who fund the Social Security programs through 

payroll tax contributions and the SSI program through income tax payments expect and deserve 

well-managed programs. Taxpayers must be confident that their tax dollars are properly spent. 

Beneficiaries must know that their benefits are correctly paid. 

Good stewardship also demands the effective and efficient use of the resources SSA receives to 

administer the programs. This goal addresses three areas of the President’s Management Agenda 

aimed at sound financial management: Competitive Sourcing, Improved Financial Performance, and 

Budget and Performance Integration. 

Finally, good stewardship involves more than money. Its also encompasses the responsibility to 

ensure the security of SSA’s information systems and the integrity and privacy of the personal 

information that SSA maintains. And it includes the obligation to make certain that our offices are 

safe and secure for employees and the public alike. 

SSA’s strategic objectives for this goal are to: 

° Prevent fraudulent and erroneous payments and improve debt management; 

° Increase the accuracy of earnings records; 

° Strengthen the integrity of the SSN; and 

° Efficiently manage Agency finances and assets and effectively link resources to 

performance outcomes. 

Strategic Objective: Prevent fraudulent and erroneous payments and 

improve debt management 

Issues 

The President’s Management Agenda initiative on Improved Financial Performance directs agencies 

to “establish a baseline of the extent of erroneous payment and goals to reduce erroneous payments 

for each program.” om SSA’s own analysis, as well as assessments by the OIG, the Social Security 

Advisory Board and the GAO, several major areas susceptible to erroneous or fraudulent payments 

have been identified. 

In January 2003, GAO removed the SSI program from its high-risk list of government programs 

considered especially vulnerable to waste, fraud or abuse. In doing so, GAO recognized SSA’s 

efforts to improve the management of the program.The Agency has developed a Corrective Action 

Plan and has implemented many initiatives over the last few years to prevent and detect SSI 

overpayments. In general, the initiatives have proven to be highly successful. The Office of Child 

Support Enforcement wage alerts have been primarily effective in detections. High error-prone 

profile redeterminations have been effective in detection, prevention and collection. Building upon 

that success, SSA will implement additional initiatives designed to improve prevention and detection 

of overpayments as discussed under the “Means and Strategies” section below. 

21

Fr
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Overall, SSA achieves a high level of accuracy in OASDI payments with 99.8 percent of OASDI 

payments free of error. We have pinpointed two areas of inaccuracy that have created a backlog of 

cases requiring corrective action. SSA identified a number of SSI beneficiaries who have earned 

sufficient work credits to qualify for benefits under the DI program. Although we have taken the 

appropriate steps to keep this from happening in the future, there remains an enormous backlog, 

467,000 cases, we must review to ensure these individuals receive all the benefits due them. The 

Agency also identified a number of DI beneficiaries whose workers’ compensation payments changed, 

but their DI benefits were not adjusted accordingly. Since the amount of workers’ compensation 

can affect the amount of DI benefits paid, these cases must be reviewed to verify the amount of 

workers’ compensation payments and correct the DI payments, as appropriate. 

SSA appoints representative payees for individuals who are incapable of directing or managing 

their benefits. Each representative payee, whether an individual who represents only one beneficiary 

or an organization that represents hundreds, is required to account for the benefits received for 

each beneficiary and how they were spent. In light of intense congressional, media, OIG and 

advocate scrutiny, and based on an in-depth Agency analysis, SSA is reexamining the operations of 

the representative payee program. 

The most significant issue affecting our ability to improve payment accuracy is adequate funding. 

Unlike a corporation, SSA does not have a single “bottom line.” SSA’s administrative budget funds 

the competing demands of both service and stewardship. Currently it is difficult to ensure adequate 

funding for stewardship activities when they compete with service delivery for the same discretionary 

dollars. We know that program integrity efforts such as continuing disability reviews and SSI 

redeterminations pay for themselves many times over. Given the significant return delivered by 

these investments, SSA promised the establishment of earmarked funds for program integrity 

initiatives in its Service Delivery Budget and these funds are included in the FY 2004 President’s 

Budget. 

Means and Strategies 

The companion document to this strategic 

plan, the FY 2004 President’s Budget, outlines 

the financial means for SSA to meet both the 

Agency’s stewardship responsibilities and 

overall service demands. It includes 

earmarked funding to enable the Agency to 

implement program integrity initiatives (i.e., 

SSI redeterminations, continuing disability 

reviews, and detecting and collecting 

overpayments) that will pay for themselves. 

The resource needs identified in the FY 2004 

President’s Budget, including dedicated 

program integrity funding, will allow SSA to: 

° Continue processing continuing disability 

reviews to ensure that only those people 

who continue to meet the disability 

requirements remain on the disability 

rolls; 

Key Outcomes 

Success in meeting this objective will be 

measured in our annual performance plans by 

our progress towards achieving the following key 

outcomes: 

° Increase SSI payment accuracy to 96 

percent (free of preventable error) and to 

95 percent (free of error) by 2008; 

° Maintain OASDI payment accuracy at 99.8 

percent; 

° Increase the percent of outstanding debt 

that is in a collection arrangement; 

° Remain current with DI and SSI continuing 

disability reviews (if dedicated funding is 

compensation cases. 

available); 

° Finish processing special disability cases; 

and 

° Reduce the backlog of workers’ 

xxvi

22
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

xxvii

° Continue to conduct significant numbers of SSI redeterminations, periodic reviews of the 

income and resources affecting SSI eligibility and payment amounts, to reduce erroneous SSI 

payments; and 

° Process the backlog of special disability and workers’ compensation cases. 

SSA is not solely relying on an infusion of resources to meet its stewardship obligations. Key 

strategies aimed at changing our processes and policies to improve payment accuracy are: 

° Continue implementation of the Agency’s SSI Corrective Action Plan issued in June 2002.The 

plan outlines initiatives designed to improve the integrity of the SSI program across three 

fronts: 

- Preventing overpayments by testing and implementing, as appropriate, automated means 

for beneficiaries to report income to SSA and electronic means for SSA to access records 

of financial institutions, credit bureaus and other public databases to detect unreported 

income and resources; 

- Increasing detection of erroneous payments by moving to electronic verification and 

exchanges of information in partnership with federal and State agencies. “E-Vital,” a 

government-wide initiative led by SSA, includes two key projects – ElectronicVerification of 

Vital Events and Electronic Death Registration – to automate exchanges of vital statistics 

data; and 

- Increasing collection of debt by fully implementing all collection tools available under existing 

law, including mandatory cross program recovery, credit bureau referrals and administrative 

offset and administrative wage garnishment. 

° Develop legislative proposals to simplify the SSI program to make reporting requirements 

less burdensome to beneficiaries and less costly for SSA to administer; and 

° Develop new systems to help us associate reported wages with a beneficiary’s disability 

record in a timely fashion. 

Strategic Objective: Strengthen the integrity of the Social Security 

Number 

Issues 

The original purpose of the SSN was to enable SSA to keep an accurate record of earnings 

covered under Social Security and to pay benefits based on those earnings. Over time, use of the 

SSN as a convenient means of record keeping has grown, not as a result of one single step, but from 

a gradual extension for a wide variety of purposes. As a result, the SSN has become a primary 

means of identification in both the public and private sectors. 

As use of the SSN has grown, so has identity fraud, leading the Social Security Advisory Board, the 

GAO and SSA’s Inspector General all to identify SSN misuse and identity fraud as a significant 

management issue. The tragic events of September 11, 2001 have further heightened the awareness 

of the need to strengthen safeguards to protect against misuse of the SSN. 

Identity fraud takes several forms. 

the SSN or other personal identifying information of another person to “become” that person. 

Another type of identity fraud involves the creation of a false identity through the use of counterfeit 

23

One type of identity fraud is identity theft, which involves using 
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

SSNs and other false documents for purposes of establishing identity for employment and other 

benefits. 

Most instances of identity fraud result not from any action or failure to act by SSA, but from the 

proliferation of personal information in our society. Recognizing this fact, the GAO has recently 

recommended to the Congress that a unified approach involving intergovernmental collaboration 

is required to safeguard the SSN whenever used in all levels of government and particularly those 

displayed in public records. Many institutions besides SSA have a role in combating identity fraud, 

including the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Homeland Security. SSA must do 

its part by strengthening its capability to prevent those with criminal intent from obtaining and 

using SSNs and Social Security cards. 

Means and Strategies 

SSA is strengthening the SSN application process to respond to issues highlighted by the terrorists 

attacks on September 11, 2001, and to deal with the problem of identity fraud. These changes 

include: 

° Verifying with custodians the 

records of any birth certificates 

submitted by U.S.-born citizens 

age one or older applying for an 

SSN; and 

° Verifying all alien documentation 

submitted by non-citizens in 

support of applications for an 

original or replacement SSN card. 

Key Outcome 

Success in meeting this objective will be measured in 

documents. 

° Ensure SSNs are only issued based on verified 

achieving the following key outcome: 

our annual performance plans by our progress towards 

xxviii

Our continuing strategy will build upon these efforts to ensure the Agency issues SSNs only to 

those individuals with valid identity documents. 

° Eliminating drivers’ licenses as a valid reason for issuing a non-work SSN; 

° Decreasing reliance on applicant-submitted evidence through Enumeration-at-Entry, a process 

whereby SSA will assign SSNs to new arrivals based on data collected by the Department of 

State and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), formerly the Immigration 

and Naturalization Service, at the time right-of-entry into the U.S. is authorized. 

receive the data electronically from BCIS with no need for further document review and 

verification; 

° Limiting the number of replacement Social Security cards issued to each individual; 

° Tightening up other evidentiary requirements through regulatory changes to require mandatory 

interviews for all applicants age 12 or older and evidence of identity for all applicants, regardless 

of age; 

° Making better use of the information in automated systems to detect potential fraud; 

° Testing the effectiveness of Social Security Card Centers, such as the one in Brooklyn, 

New York – the purpose being to improve and expedite the document verification process; 

and 

° Collaborating with Homeland Security to achieve improved SSN integrity. 

24

It entails: 

SSA will 
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

SSA also is investigating additional measures to strengthen the integrity of the SSN such as including 

additional, more robust, security features in the Social Security card itself. 

Strategic Objective: Increase the accuracy of earnings records 

Issues 

The accuracy of the earnings records that SSA maintains is critically important to workers. SSA 

uses these records to determine whether an individual has earned enough wage credits to be 

eligible for benefits and the amount that will be paid. Despite the Agency’s good record in accurately 

posting earnings – 99 percent of earnings are assigned correctly to individual workers’ records – 

the amount of earnings each year that cannot be assigned to an individual’s work record has been 

growing in recent years and is of concern to the Agency.As a result, SSA’s Office of the Inspector 

General has designated the integrity of the earnings reporting process as a significant management 

issue. 

The information that SSA uses to credit earnings to a record comes from over 250 million reports 

submitted annually by employers. About 8 million records annually cannot be matched to an 

individual’s record due to an invalid name/SSN combination. SSA maintains information on these 

earnings in a file called the “suspense file” for potential future reconciliation.There are various 

reasons why the name/SSN reported by employers do not match the name/SSN on SSA’s records. 

Some are due simply to mistakes or clerical errors (e.g., transposition of numbers in the SSN). 

Other factors may also contribute to SSA’s inability to match the report to our records including 

the following: the worker uses a different name at work than is shown on our records; issues 

related to a multicultural society where the name used may be different than originally provided at 

enumeration; the transient nature of some occupations such as the agriculture and service industries; 

and undocumented aliens. 

While SSA has limited control over the factors causing incorrect wage reports, the Agency is doing 

what it can to provide employers tools for improving the accuracy of wage reports. SSA also is 

undertaking an educational campaign to inform the wage reporting community of the various 

tools available. However, use of the tools by employers remains voluntary. 

Means and Strategies 

Strategies for achieving our key outcomes of reducing the size and growth of the suspense file 

include: 

° Employing new software routines that enable matching greater numbers of suspense file items 

to the correct earnings record; 

° Notifying employees and employers submitting large numbers of incorrect wage reports of 

name/SSN discrepancies and requesting corrections; and 

° Collaborating with IRS to achieve more accurate wage reporting. 

xxix

25
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

In addition, we are undertaking the following efforts to help prevent inaccurate earnings reports: 

° Increasing use of electronic filing by 

employers; 

° Providing online filing status and error 

information; 

° Encouraging greater use of SSN 

verification services that allow employers 

to verify online a valid name/SSN 

combination; and 

° Undertaking an aggressive educational 

campaign to inform the wage reporting 

community of the various verification 

tools and error detection utilities available 

to them. 

SSA is currently gathering and analyzing 

baseline information concerning the impact 

Key Outcomes 

Success in meeting this objective will be 

measured in our annual performance plans by 

our progress toward achieving the following key 

outcomes: 

° By 2005, remove at least 30 million items 

from the suspense file and post them to 

the correct earnings record; and 

earnings record. 

file each year and post them to the correct 

the earnings items added to the suspense 

° Beginning with 2005, remove 5 percent of 

xxx

of these initiatives on the accuracy and growth of the earnings suspense file. 

SSA will continue to examine its key outcomes and strengthen its performance measures accordingly. 

Strategic Objective: Efficiently manage Agency finances and assets and 

effectively link resources to performance outcomes 

Issues 

Our plans must be shaped by the requirements of tomorrow as well as the realities of today. We 

must find ways to achieve efficiencies that will help to offset the costs of keeping up with the 

unprecedented workload growth SSA will face with the aging of the baby boomers. 

Recognizing the importance of good management to the efficient and economic delivery of desired 

results, the President’s Management Agenda identifies five government-wide initiatives intended to 

work together as a mutually reinforcing set of management reforms. The Administration uses a 

scorecard of red (unsatisfactory), yellow (mixed results—achieved some but not all of the criteria) 

and green (success) to rate agencies on the status and progress of each initiative. In the PMA 

scorecard issued in December 2002, SSA’s status and progress in implementing the initiatives was 

recognized with one of the best evaluations overall, as compared with other departments and 

major agencies. OMB has specified areas that SSA must further address to fully succeed in achieving 

the President’s agenda. 

The President’s Management Agenda initiatives are addressed as follows: 

Issues surrounding the Human Capital initiative (Status:Yellow, Progress: Green) are addressed as a 

part of our Staff goal. 

Competitive Sourcing (Status: Red, Progress:Yellow) – SSA is building the infrastructure needed to 

support public-private competition and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Agency 

processes. 

26

Based on this analysis, 
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Improve Financial Performance (Status:Yellow, Progress: Green) – SSA has received an unqualified 

opinion on its financial statements since 1994. OMB has noted, however, that SSA needs more fully 

integrated financial and performance management systems that support day-to-day decisionmaking. 

Another important aspect of this initiative, to reduce erroneous payments, is addressed under the 

Strategic Objective: Prevent fraudulent and erroneous payments and improve debt management. 

Issues surrounding the Electronic Government initiative (Status:Yellow, Progress: Green), are addressed 

as a part of our Service goal. 

Budget and Performance Integration (Status:Yellow, Progress: Green) – OMB has indicated that SSA 

must present a budget that permits direct comparison between incremental funding amounts and 

the performance outcomes of specific activities. SSA’s Inspector General has also cited performance 

management and data reliability as significant management issues. SSA is developing a new budget 

formulation system that will have modeling capabilities to estimate what level of performance to 

expect for different levels of funding. 

Apart from the PMA, SSA’s OIG has designated systems security as a major management issue. 

While recognizing SSA’s efforts to provide for systems security, OIG states, “SSA needs to take 

steps to strengthen its information security framework and improve its overall critical information 

infrastructure.” Information is a critical Agency asset. Maintaining the security of the information 

that SSA holds is an important management responsibility. As we come to rely more and more on 

technology and as the demand for online service increases, it is critical that SSA’s systems be 

protected from cyber fraud. 

Means and Strategies 

To address the President’s Management 

Agenda and other significant management 

issues described above, SSA will: 

° Establish a public-private competition 

process that ensures competitive sourcing 

is used to improve the efficiency and 

effectiveness of Agency processes and 

provide the greatest benefit to the 

taxpayer; 

° Complete program evaluations using the 

OMB’s PART and use the evaluations to 

make improvements where appropriate; 

° Develop and implement integrated work 

measurement, budget formulation and 

financial and cost accounting systems that 

fully and accurately capture the work that 

we do and provide the detailed 

information managers need to make 

informed decisions on how best to manage 

performance and resources; 

xxxi

Key Outcomes 

Success in meeting this objective will be 

measured in our annual performance plans by 

our progress towards achieving the following 

key outcomes: 

° Compete or convert 50 percent of 

commercial positions; 

° Annually receive an “unqualified opinion” 

on SSA’s financial statements with no 

material weaknesses reported by auditors; 

° Implement core functionalities of a 

comprehensive cost accountability system 

and a unified measurement system by 

2008; 

° Increase productivity by at least 2 percent 

annually on average; and 

° “Get to green” on all five President’s 

Management Agenda items. 

27
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

° Develop a comprehensive quality management plan for reviewing business processes and 

ensuring the effective integration of process evaluation across component lines; and 

° Implement and maintain a strengthened Agency security plan, a comprehensive program for 

ensuring continuity of operations and information systems security through rules of behavior 

and personnel controls, training, incident response capacity, risk management, contingency 

planning and disaster recovery. 

Through SSA’s service delivery assessment, we are reexamining all programs and processes and 

identifying new ways to achieve efficiencies and improve service. Several major initiatives we are 

undertaking to increase productivity are: 

° Accelerating implementation of an electronic disability process that will capture and store all 

essential material from the disability claims folder, allowing all components in the disability 

claims process immediate access to the file; 

° Continuing modernization of the OASDI and SSI processing systems to provide employees 

greater capacity to process work at the first point of contact and online access to comprehensive 

information; 

° Employing technology such as digital recording of hearings, speech recognition software, video 

teleconferencing and bar coding for case tracking to improve productivity and streamline 

workflow in hearings offices; 

° Increasing the range and use of services we offer electronically to the public, businesses and 

other government agencies; and 

° Increasing online SSA access to information held by States and other private and public entities 

needed to administer our programs and deliver service to the public. 

xxxii

28
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

xxxiii

Strategic Goal: To achieve sustainable solvency and ensure 

Social Security programs meet the needs of current and 

future generations 

The American population is growing older, with profound, long-term effects on the sustainable 

solvency of Social Security programs. In the 2003 Annual Report of Social Security’s Board of 

Trustees, which includes 75-year projections, theTrustees state that Social Security is unsustainable 

over the long term at present payroll tax and scheduled benefit levels. Additionally, the Comptroller 

General of the United States also has repeatedly testified that Social Security is unsustainable over 

the long term. 

New patterns of work and earnings, marriage, divorce and childbearing are changing the 

characteristics of American families.Americans are living longer and healthier lives. Eighty million 

baby boomers are approaching retirement, and, in about 30 years, there will be nearly twice as 

many older Americans as there are today.The birth rate is below the population replacement rate 

of 2.1 births per woman. The Americans with Disabilities Act and medical and technological advances 

are altering the concept of disability.This and other related concerns led the General Accounting 

Office to add modernizing all federal disability programs to its high-risk list. 

must respond to these developments. 

This goal and single strategic objective address the Agency’s responsibility to continually assess 

the retirement and disability programs in the context of societal trends and support reforms to 

ensure the programs meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s beneficiaries. 

Strategic Objective: Through education and research efforts, support 

reforms to ensure sustainable solvency and more responsive 

retirement and disability programs 

Issues 

Today, about 3.3 people pay into 

Social Security for every person 

receiving benefits. 

is expected to decline to about 2.2 

to1. Social Security now collects more 

in taxes than it pays out in benefits. 

Within 15 years, we will begin paying 

more in benefits than we collect in 

taxes. 

exhausted and the payroll taxes 

collected will be insufficient to pay 

the benefits owed. 

One way to illustrate the financial 

shortfall of the Social Security system 

over the next 75 years is to examine 

the cumulative value of taxes less cost, 

assuming currently scheduled benefits and tax rates. As the chart on this page shows, in today’s 

29

Cumulative Social Security Taxes 

Less Scheduled Benefits 

-35 

-30 

-25 

-20 

-15 

-10 

-5 

0 

5 

2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 

Year 

Trillions of 2003 Dollars 

Social Security programs 

By 2030, this ratio 

By 2042 the trust funds will be 
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

xxxiv

dollars and assuming that Social Security 

could borrow atTreasury interest rates, the 

shortfall is $34 trillion. In present-value 

terms, the shortfall is $3.5 trillion, which is 

roughly equivalent to the total U.S. 

government debt held by the public today 

(see chart 

Without reforms, benefits scheduled to be 

paid under present law would have to be 

reduced by 35 percent by the end of the 

next 75 years, or, if scheduled benefits were 

paid, payroll tax rates would ultimately be increased by about 50 percent over that same period. 

President Bush established a bipartisan Commission in May of 2001 to address the long-term 

future of Social Security and to make recommendations to reform the program without raising 

payroll taxes, reducing benefits for current and near retirees, or investing by the government in the 

stock market, while still preserving disability and survivors benefits. 

directed that the Commissioner’s recommendations include individually-controlled, voluntary 

retirement accounts to augment Social Security. The Commission proposed three alternatives, 

which all included personal savings accounts as a way to increase investment returns and ensure 

Social Security programs meet the needs of current and future generations. 

The President, Social Security’sTrustees,the Social Security Advisory Board, the Comptroller General 

and many members of the Congress have stated that the sooner reforms happen, the more gradual 

and less costly the changes will be. As the debate moves forward on how best to strengthen Social 

Security for the future, SSA must work to ensure that policymakers and the public have the 

information needed to assess the implications of all proposals under consideration. 

Key Outcome 

Success in meeting this objective will be measured in 

our annual performance plans by our progress toward 

achieving the following key outcome: 

° Achieve reform that ensures long-term solvency. 

Indicators of our progress in supporting reform will 

appear in the annual performance plans in the form of 

analyses and recommendations. These are the 

deliverables we will provide to the Administration and 

Congress on Social Security reform.We also will measure 

the extent to which the public is knowledgeable about 

Social Security programs and issues, including long-range 

financing. 

Means and Strategies 

Serving as the expert source of 

information on the different solvency 

proposals offered, SSA will: 

° Maintain an in-house capacity of 

policy, actuarial, and legislative 

expertise 

decisionmakers’ questions about 

the fiscal, distributional, and 

administrative 

proposals to modernize the 

Social Security programs; 

° Continue to educate the public 

about financing challenges facing 

the Social Security programs 

through the Agency’s ongoing 

communications program; and 

° Work with the Administration and Congress as legislative proposals to achieve sustainable 

solvency are developed, and subsequently implement such proposals. 

30

at right). 

In addition, the President 

to respond to 

aspects of 
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Strategic Goal: To strategically manage and align staff to 

support SSA’s mission 

SSA’s employee retirement wave not only will affect our ability to deliver service to the American 

public, but also will result in a significant drain of SSA’s institutional knowledge. SSA and the State 

DDSs will be faced with the continuing challenge of hiring and retaining a highly skilled and diverse 

workforce in what is expected to be a very competitive job market. 

SSA was early in recognizing the implications of the retirement wave and in taking actions to 

address it. Ongoing retirement wave analysis and succession planning have led SSA to implement 

aggressive employee development programs at all levels and redeploy positions to direct service. 

The Agency also has emphasized recruitment of Presidential Management Interns and outstanding 

scholars and increased use of hiring flexibilities. SSA continues to build on these early efforts. 

As SSA deals with significant workload growth and its own increasing numbers of retirements, we 

will strive to maintain a high-performing workforce and enhance productivity through automation, 

job enrichment opportunities and training, redistribution of staff to direct service positions, 

succession planning, leadership development, new performance management systems, and other 

service enhancements. Through this goal, SSA addresses each dimension of the President’s 

Management Agenda Human Capital initiative: 

° Align human capital policies to support the Agency’s mission, goals and strategies; 

° Recruit, hire, develop and retain employees with mission-critical strategic competencies; 

° Ensure leadership in the Agency inspires and motivates others towards goals, and models high 

standards of integrity and respect for individuals; 

° Motivate employees for high performance, based on their contribution to the work of the 

organization, and common values while ensuring fairness in the workplace; and 

° Promote a knowledge-sharing culture, openness, and continuous learning and improvement. 

Strategic Objective: Recruit, develop and retain a high-performing 

workforce 

Issues 

GAO has expressed concern that SSA’s ability to continue providing high quality service is 

potentially weakened by our oncoming employee retirement wave.Vacancies will be filled by 

ever-increasing numbers of new hires and newly promoted trainees.The loss of so many experienced 

employees at all levels and position types is one major concern. Maintaining skill levels and 

experienced leadership in the face of growing workloads is another. But the wave presents an 

opportunity as well. In recent years, SSA used “early out” retirements to flatten the retirement 

wave, as well as to help move staff from support services to direct services. SSA’s response to 

these challenges is framed by and addresses the President’s Management Agenda, which directs 

agencies to make government citizen-centered through the strategic management of human capital. 

Towards this goal, the President has directed agencies to: 

° Reduce the distance between citizens and decisionmakers, by reducing the number of managers, 

the number of organizational layers, and the time it takes to make decisions; 

31
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

° Redistribute staff from administrative positions to front-line service delivery; 

° Capture employee knowledge and skills through knowledge management systems; and 

° Make better use of personnel flexibilities to acquire and develop talent and leadership. 

SSA is not alone in its human capital challenge. Every federal agency faces a similar retirement 

wave.This means SSA is in direct competition with the rest of Government, as well as the private 

sector, in its need to recruit and retain an outstanding workforce. 

SSA must be prepared to realign and reposition employees to enable us to adapt quickly to 

accommodate changes brought about by new technologies and competitive sourcing initiatives. 

SSA is and has long been citizen-centered. For many years, citizens have been in direct contact 

with the front-line service delivery employees who are the decisionmakers of their claims and 

pre- and post-entitlement actions. During the past decade, we have also significantly added to the 

number of direct service personnel by converting support positions. OMB points out,“Given the 

expected future workloads and the state of customer service, there is a compelling argument for 

additional redeployment of staff to front-line positions.” Recognizing this, SSA has already transferred 

nearly 300 positions to direct service, and is continuing its work in this direction. 

SSA 'S 19 98 vs. 20 00 RE T IRE M E N T PR O J EC T IO N S 

0 

500 

1 000 

1 500 

2 000 

2 500 

3 000 

200 0 200 1 20 02 2003 200 4 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2 013 2014 2015 2 016 2 017 20 18 2 019 2 

F ISC A L YEAR 

EMPLOYEES 

1 9 98 P R OJ EC T E D RET IRE M E NT S 2000 P R O J E C TED R E TIR E M E N T S 

32
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Means and Strategies 

SSA strategies to recruit, develop and retain a high-performing workforce include a wide array 

of tools and activities, including: 

° Continued use and expansion of personnel 

hiring flexibilities in strategic areas with above 

minimum pay for systems analysts,awards and 

reemployment annuitant waivers; 

° Development of core competencies and 

delivery of employee competency-based 

training; 

° Technology-based skills training for direct 

service employees, critical to ensure that SSA 

can manage its workloads; 

° Succession planning; 

° National, component and regional leadership 

development programs; 

° Knowledge management strategies, including 

succession analysis, collection of baseline 

training data, filling vacancies before the 

incumbent leaves, and targeting critical 

positions; 

° Improved accountability through new 

performance management systems for Senior 

Executive Service members in FY 2003 and 

Key Outcomes 

Success in meeting this objective will be 

measured in SSA’s annual performance plans 

by Agency progress towards achieving the 

following key outcomes: 

° By 2008, demonstrate an improvement 

in the retention rate; 

° Implement new performance 

management systems to better 

recognize and reward superior 

opportunities and training 

° Ensure ongoing job enrichment 

2005; and 

- GS-14 and below employees by 

- GS-15s by 2004 

- SES executives in 2003 

performance for: 

for General Schedule employees in future years; 

° Flexible work schedules and locations; 

° Maintenance of SSA’s high degree of workforce diversity and continued effort to foster a 

workforce that mirrors the public we serve; 

° Increasing the number of employees in front-line positions, while maintaining proper technical, 

policy, systems and administrative support; and 

° Employee outreach, featuring the development of a new internal communications strategy and 

completion of our improved employee suggestion program. 

33
34
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Part IV: Future Program Evaluations 

SSA continues to build upon its body of program data, research and analysis to identify strengths 

and weaknesses in its programs and processes as well as to evaluate the potential impact of 

proposals for change and the actual effects of proposals after they are implemented. 

Improving programs by focusing on results is an integral component of the President’s Budget and 

Performance Integration initiative. For the FY 2004 President’s Budget, OMB issued the PART, 

which is a diagnostic tool used to examine different aspects of program performance to identify 

the strengths and weaknesses of a given federal program. SSA and OMB recently assessed the 

Disability Insurance and SSI Aged programs. Future program evaluations to be conducted with 

PART are yet to be determined by OMB and the Agency. 

SSA conducts hundreds of process and program evaluations annually. Many are designed to evaluate 

and improve internal processes falling below the strategic level.The following table displays the 

major strategic process or program evaluations scheduled for the FY 2003-2008 period. 

GOAL EVALUATION DESCRIPTION COMPLETION 

DATE 

SE

R

VICE 

Service Satisfaction 

Survey 

Survey of overall public satisfaction 

with service 

Annually in 

September 

Service Expectation 

Study 

Assesses the needs, expectations 

and priorities of each major SSA 

client group 

Annually 

Internet Social 

Security Benefit 

Application Survey 

Measures applicant satisfaction with 

the Internet application process 

FY 2004 

Internet Services 

Satisfaction Surveys 

Satisfaction surveys related to new 

or expanded Internet services made 

available to the public in FY 2003 or 

for other issues related to Internet 

service delivery 

Dates, subject, 

scope, and 

methodology to 

be determined 

based on Agency 

information needs. 

Targeted Notice 

Surveys 

Provides baseline information 

regarding (a) SSA’s most 

problematic Title II notices and (b) 

SSI Award notices 

Completed in 

FY 2003 

Employer Survey Survey of employer satisfaction with 

SSA’s service 

Annually in April 

State Partnership 

Evaluations 

Evaluates the effects of 

demonstration projects to assist 

States in developing integrated 

employment services for disabled 

beneficiaries 

Final results 2005 

xxxix

35
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

GOAL EVALUATION DESCRIPTION COMPLETION 

DATE 

SER

VICE 

Ticket Evaluation Evaluates the effectiveness of the 

“ticket” provisions of the Ticket to 

Work and Work Incentives 

Improvement Act of 1999 

Major Reports 

2005, 2007 

Congressional Report 

on Adequacy of 

Incentives under the 

Ticket to Work 

Program 

Evaluates the extent to which 

payments to Employment Networks 

under the Ticket to Work Program 

provide sufficient incentives to 

ensure that beneficiaries with highcost needs receive adequate 

services 

FY 2003 

STEWARDSHIP 

RSDI Stewardship 

Review 

Review of dollar accuracy of 

payment outlays 

Annually 

SSI Stewardship 

Review 

Review of dollar accuracy of 

payment outlays 

Annually 

SSI Annual Report Commissioner of Social Security 

reports to President and Congress 

on the status of the SSI program 

Annually 

Enumeration Review Review of enumeration process to 

determine the quality of SSN 

issuance 

Annually 

CDR Report to 

Congress 

Reports on SSA’s progress in 

meeting CDR requirements under 

law and assesses effectiveness of 

CDRs 

Annually 

Safeguard Procedures 

Report/Activity 

Report 

Report to IRS on security 

procedures in place for each SSA 

system using or storing IRS data 

Annually 

GISRA Report to 

OMB 

Report on the status of SSA’s 

information security program 

Annually 

SO

L

VENCY 

Trustees Report Board of Trustees Report on the 

OASDI/HI/SMI Trust Funds 

Annually 

Evaluation of Changing 

Benefit Structures 

Evaluates the distributional impact 

of changing OASI and SSI benefits 

Ongoing 

Public Understanding 

Measurement System 

Survey 

Public survey of adults age 18 and 

over to assess their knowledge of 

Social Security programs and related 

issues – National 

Annually 

xl

36
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008

GOAL EVALUATION DESCRIPTION COMPLETION 

DATE 

STAFF 

New Hire Study Evaluates why job candidates select 

SSA, and why they choose to stay 

or to leave early in their careers 

FY 2003 

Competency-Based 

Hiring 

Evaluates use of a claims 

representative assessment tool in 

the hiring process with a pilot to 

run through September 2003 and an 

evaluation in January 2004 

FY 2004 

xli

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38
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

Part V: Consultations

SSA used its existing procedures for consulting with Congress and soliciting and considering the 

views of the Social Security Advisory Board and other interested parties in developing this plan. 

The Agency maintains a close working relationship with key congressional staff, who provide us 

with valuable insight into areas of congressional interest. Congressional hearings provide a key 

venue for discussing with Congress topics of current concern. We have used these opportunities 

to share with Congress our strategies for addressing many of the critical issues identified in this 

plan. Over the last year,we have testified at a number of hearings covering issues including: Integrity 

of the SSN, Major Challenges Facing the New Commissioner, Stewardship of the SSI Program and 

Disability Program Challenges and Opportunities. These hearings also provide another means for 

advocates and other interested parties to provide their opinions on improving Social Security 

programs. We also respond to numerous inquiries from members of Congress and their staff, 

including those that are seeking information, asking for help with a specific problem, or discussing 

suggestions for improving SSA’s programs. 

SSA regularly briefs the Social Security Advisory Board on its plans for addressing areas of particular 

concern to the Board and the Board periodically issues findings and recommendations relating to 

SSA’s programs and processes. The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Panel 

likewise is briefed by SSA and provides recommendations to SSA on return-to-work issues. 

Oversight agencies, most notably GAO and SSA’s OIG, regularly review and audit SSA’s processes. 

Through a formal established process, SSA responds to findings and recommendations and initiates 

action to implement recommendations, where appropriate. 

The Agency has a comprehensive system for collecting direct feedback through a variety of vehicles 

about service needs, expectations and levels of satisfaction from the people who do business with 

us, and from major interest groups. Additionally, the Agency solicits public comments whenever it 

publishes a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register and even publishes notices just 

to request comments on a subject. 

Through a combination of focus groups, service satisfaction surveys, service expectation studies, 

ad hoc special studies and comment cards,we regularly obtain input from the public – SSN applicants, 

benefit applicants and beneficiaries – to help us identify areas for improvement.Through employer 

surveys and focus groups, meetings with industry representatives and annual conferences with the 

payroll community, we solicit the views of businesses, employer groups, and the recipients of SSA 

employer services. 

SSA frequently meets with a wide range of interest groups that advocate for various populations in 

society, for example, the aging, the disabled, women, minorities and young workers. Meetings focus 

on issues of interest to a particular group, such as program financing, return-to-work initiatives and 

electronic service delivery. Periodically, SSA conducts public forums on specific issues.An example 

of recent note is the national dialogue on SSI childhood disability held last year to bring together 

policy analysts, program administrators, community groups and families to discuss trends in childhood 

disability programs. 

39

xliii
SSA Strategic Plan 2003-2008 

SSA has numerous ongoing working relationships with States and other agencies in the federal 

sector to assist us in accomplishing our mission and help them accomplish theirs. The character of 

these relationships ranges from simple data exchanges, through program coordination, to actual 

processing of each other’s work. Our policymakers and process designers regularly consult with 

other federal and State entities with which we share clients and interest groups. Coordinated 

efforts of strategic importance featured in this plan are those with BCIS on enumeration 

improvements; IRS on improving earnings accuracy; the States on increasing electronic access to 

vital statistics information; and DOL, CMS, DOE and DHHS on providing coordinated programs to 

support employment of people with disabilities. 

xliv

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