We held discussions with 154 of the 250 sampled applicants and found the applicants had a positive experience filing for DIB online. In fact, we found that the majority of the applicants understood the questions asked of them in the iClaim application, found the iClaim application easy to navigate, and were able to easily save their progress and return to the application if needed.
We also found that not all applicants completed and submitted the Authorization to Disclose Information to the Social Security Administration to SSA. Further, applicants did not always use the online version of the Disability Report-Adult. However, those applicants who did complete the Report online understood the questions it asked.
I have to say that the fact that many claimants did not use the online version of the Disability Report-Adult is a bigger deal that OIG recognizes. The whole issue for Social Security is having the claimant -- or anyone other than Social Security -- do the inputting of data into their computer systems. Which form is it that requires major inputting of data on a DIB claim? It's the Disability Report-Adult. If claimants frequently fail to use that online form, then Social Security personnel frequently have to do a lot of data inputting. Also, although it was outside the scope of this study, the inability to file Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims online is a huge problem.
5 comments:
Hopefully they will come to see it as a problem that not all the paperwork is being filled out online. The online process could be an outstanding one but it sounds like there are still a few problems.
SSI is way too complex to enable amateurs to file online. The medical questionnaire is fine, but no way with the non-medical. No one who is not an SSI specialist within the agency can possibly begin to fathom the minefield that is SSI. Generalists even have problems, and T2 specialists are at as much of a loss as anyone else.
If neither attorneys nor claimants care if the retroactive SSI benefit is determined to be zero when the non-medical evidence is provided after 1 or 2 or 3 years of waiting, then self-help SSI claims might be a good idea.
SSI has been off and on the GAO high risk list for a long time. Self-help SSI claims will guarantee that SSI will never be paid correctly.
OIG under the present commissioner has a remarkable way of arriving at conclusions that support the commissioner's actions or the actions he proposes. I wouldn't place much stock in anything they say
OIG agents in general have shown over the years little actual personal knowledge of SSA's programs. It has always seems ironic to me to have to explain even the simplest concepts to the same agents over and over.
I have no doubt that the folks do these investigations operate at a similar level of competence.
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