1. Summary Table of FY 2000 Performance Goals
2. Crosswalk of Performance Goals to SSA’s Major Programs
3. Descriptions of Key Initiatives

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is responsible for administering three major programs: the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) programs, commonly known as "Social Security," and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.

Social Security is the most successful domestic program in the nation’s history and arguably the single most effective antipoverty program ever created. Today, without Social Security, about 50 percent of the elderly would be living in poverty. Social Security also pays benefits to young survivors and spouses of workers who have died, as well as to disabled workers and their families. In fact, disability and survivors benefits make up about 30 percent of all Social Security benefits paid. They provide important protection for younger workers before retirement, protection that is often difficult or costly to obtain through private insurance.

SSI provides cash assistance to financially needy individuals who are aged, blind or disabled. To be eligible to receive SSI benefits individuals must have little in the way of personal savings or income. In providing a basic subsistence level, currently 74 percent of the poverty level, SSI is the safety net that protects them from destitution.

The government will collect $473 billion in Social Security taxes in 2000. These taxes will be credited to the OASI and DI trust funds, along with more than $56 billion in interest on Treasury securities held by the trust funds. FY 2000 estimates by program of benefit outlays and the number of beneficiaries are shown below.

Programs	FY 2000 Benefit Outlays ($ Billions)	FY 2000 Beneficiaries (Millions)
Old Age and Survivors Insurance	$346.9	38.4
Disability Insurance	$54.4	6.6
Supplemental Security Income	$32.0	6.6

To administer these programs, SSA issues Social Security numbers (SSN), maintains earnings records for wage earners and self-employed individuals, takes claims and determines eligibility for benefits, updates beneficiary eligibility information, educates the public about the programs, and conducts research, policy analysis and program evaluation. SSA integrates these activities across all programs through a single national service-delivery structure. By doing so, SSA is able to enhance efficiency, avoid duplication of effort and increase opportunities to provide one-stop service to our customers. SSA’s total administrative budget proposal for all programs is $6.889 billion, an amount equal to 1.6 percent of total program outlays.

SSA’s Agency Strategic Plan (ASP) paints a broad picture of where we are going and why. It examines the internal and external environment under which SSA will operate and outlines the strategic goals and objectives that guide SSA’s course for the next 5 years. SSA’s five strategic goals cut across all programs and encompass all of the Agency’s administrative activities. They are:

• To promote valued, strong and responsive social security programs and conduct effective policy development, research and program evaluation

This document, SSA’s FY 2000 Annual Performance Plan (APP), provides the details of what we are doing over the next two years to progress toward the long-range, strategic goals and objectives set out in the ASP. As a bridge between the ASP and the budget, the APP describes, out of the universe of broad goals, objectives and strategies of the ASP, specific levels of performance and key activities the Agency is committed to achieve in the near-term budget years.

Achievement of the performance goals included in this plan is predicated on approval of the President’s total SSA administrative budget request of $6.889 billion for FY 2000. Successful implementation of this plan also is predicated on certain environmental assumptions (e.g., no new congressional or judicial mandates), as well as certain demographic, economic and other related assumptions.

The FY 2000 administrative budget request includes an estimated $38 million in resources for SSA to conduct in-house research, promote research by others, frame policy discussions, and refine policies in response to the changing needs of society.

The potential scope of issues facing SSA is enormous, including the role of Social Security programs in income security and prevention of poverty, the role of other legs of the income security stool (i.e., savings, pensions, etc.), and the effects of demographic and economic changes on the ability of the programs to perform their functions of providing an adequate base of economic security and protecting vulnerable populations. SSA’s FY 2000 budget includes resources to conduct a number of data gathering and research efforts that will help policymakers in addressing these program issues.

Medical advances, changing attitudes toward disabled beneficiaries and their ability to work, and improved medical treatments and technology require the disability program to evolve. Part of this evolution will occur by updating SSA’s disability medical listings to reflect new treatments and technologies. SSA is developing a model that may be used and adapted to validate medical listings. SSA also is conducting an extensive survey of the disabled population and promoting external research in order to improve the Agency’s ability to respond to changes in medical, technological, demographic, and other trends.

Many beneficiaries with disabilities want to be independent and work, and many can work despite their impairments if they receive the support they need. As part of the President’s initiative on adults with disabilities, the budget proposes legislation that will enable more beneficiaries with disabilities to participate in the workforce by giving them control and flexibility to secure employment support services tailored to their needs. In the future, our success in this effort will be measured by the number of people for whom cash benefits end as a result of work. However, our strategy for achieving this objective will require legislation and take several years to implement and begin yielding results. Consequently, as interim indicators of our progress, we are using milestones and deliverables related to supporting research and policy development efforts, and measures of the increase in the number of SSI and DI beneficiaries who are working but still receiving benefits.

In FY 2000, SSA plans to define and establish a baseline for "barometer" measures to provide information on how Social Security programs, in combination with many related factors, affect the economic well-being of the public. This information will help decisionmakers identify areas where policy changes may be needed to strengthen the programs.

SSA also plans to develop in FY 2000 a customer satisfaction survey and data collection mechanism in order to obtain feedback on the responsiveness of research and analysis products as well as the extent to which SSA helps identify and explain new or emerging issues for decision makers. Additional key performance goals for FY 2000 are to:

• Prepare analyses on the distributional and fiscal effects of solvency proposals developed by the Administration, Congress, and other policymakers;

• Complete a pilot study for the Disability Evaluation Study;

• Prepare a research design to develop techniques for validating medical listings;

• Prepare a final report on the effects of 1996 welfare reform legislation on SSI children with disabilities;

• Increase by 10-percent the number of DI beneficiaries who begin a trial work period; and

• Increase by 10-percent the number of SSI disabled beneficiaries, age 18-64, participating in 1619(a) status.

An estimated $5.1 billion, 74 percent of SSA’s total FY 2000 administrative budget, is devoted to the substantial day-to-day work generated by requests for service from our customers. Chief among these services are processing claims and appeals for benefits, issuing SSNs, and updating our records to reflect changes reported by customers in circumstances that affect the amount or continuation of payments.

Providing world-class service, however, is more than a matter of producing outputs. As it is the customer who is the ultimate judge of whether we are providing service that is world-class, satisfied customers are the overall outcome of this goal. Data from customer satisfaction surveys have indicated consistently that telephone access and field office waiting times have an effect on customer perception of all other aspects of service. The level of funding requested in the FY 2000 budget will enable SSA to maintain current performance for these two important aspects of service.

We also know from our customer satisfaction surveys that disability customers continue to rate most aspects of customer service significantly lower than other customer groups. The strongest factors affecting their satisfaction are processing times, and of course, whether the claim is awarded. SSA will continue evaluating pilot test results of new features designed to streamline the disability determination process and will begin to make decisions on implementation of some of these features. Because many benefits of redesign will not materialize until after FY 2000, SSA’s goal is to sustain current disability processing time performance while improving accuracy for initial disability claims in the interim. However, for hearings, SSA is continuing to implement several short-term initiatives that are expected to help improve processing time and is budgeting to significantly reduce average hearing processing time in FY 1999 and FY 2000.

The vast majority of SSA customers have said that they prefer to deal with us over the telephone and, when they do, they want their business completed in one contact. A growing number of customers want to conduct government business electronically as they become accustomed to doing commercial business in this way. To provide customer-responsive service, SSA will be making available several new services over the phone or electronically in FY 2000.

SSA’s key performance goals for FY 2000 are to:

• Have 88% of SSA’s core business customers rate SSA’s overall service as "excellent," "very good," or "good," with 37% rating it as "excellent;"

• Have 95% of callers successfully access the 800-number within 5 minutes of their first call with 90% getting through to the 800-number on their first attempt;

• Have office waiting time of 10 minutes or less for 85% of customers with an appointment;

• Have office waiting time of 30 minutes or less for 70% of customers without an appointment;

• Reduce the average time to process a hearing to 268 days;

• Maintain the average time to process a disability claim at 100 days;

• Continue processing 83% of OASI claims by the time the first regular payment is due or within 14 days of the effective filing date, if later;

• Take retirement or survivors claims immediately over the telephone, or in person, as long as the applicant has all the information needed;

• Provide overnight electronic Social Security number verification for employers; and

• Give employers the option to transmit wage reports to SSA electronically using a personal computer or high-speed data transmission lines.

The FY 2000 administrative budget includes an estimated $1.6 billion for activities that SSA, including the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), undertakes to ensure the integrity of records and payments and protect the taxpayer’s investment in the trust funds and general funds. These activities include establishing and maintaining a record of an individual’s earnings for use in determining entitlement to benefits and payment amounts, making accurate eligibility and entitlement decisions, detecting overpayments, deterring fraud, collecting debt and ensuring that we carry out our operations efficiently.

From the program management perspective, SSA’s annual program outlays are so large that even small percentages of payment error can mean millions of dollars paid incorrectly. Paying benefits accurately is also a critical component of best-in-business program management--that is, making sure that the right people get the right payment.

SSA already is achieving a high level of accuracy--99.8%--in OASI payment outlays and there is little we can do to noticeably raise the level of performance in this area. Still, from a program management standpoint, customers are affected by payment inaccuracies, no matter how few, and we are taking steps to ensure that slippage in performance does not occur.

Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) are the most effective mechanism SSA has for determining whether DI and SSI disability beneficiaries have medically improved and no longer meet the statutory definition of disability, and therefore should be removed from the rolls. SSA is in the midst of implementing a 7-year plan for eliminating the backlog of CDRs that built up prior to FY 1996. The FY 2000 budget includes the funds necessary to keep the plan on schedule.

In FY 2000, SSA is taking significant measures to strengthen the integrity of the SSI program by increasing the number of non-disability SSI redeterminations conducted, increasing debt collections and combating SSI program fraud. The most powerful tool for ensuring the accuracy of SSI payments is the redetermination process, which assesses the income and resources factors affecting eligibility and payment amounts. As a means to detect and prevent overpayments, SSA is aggressively pursuing more frequent matches for current data exchanges and new matches that will provide more information on income, resources and institutionalization. And, to prevent and detect fraud, increased OIG investigative resources will be directed toward operations focused on the major areas of vulnerability in the SSI program.

Additionally, in an effort to enhance stewardship of the SSI program, SSA is submitting a number of proposals to expand the pool of data available for making payment determinations, assess penalties on individuals who knowingly misrepresent facts to become eligible for benefits, secure additional overpayment recovery tools, and revise the treatment of assets placed in trusts.

SSA’s key performance goals for FY 2000 are to:

• Maintain the dollar accuracy of OASI payment outlays at 99.8%;

• Complete 63% of the multi-year (FY 1996-2002) plan to become current with DI and SSI CDR requirements;

• Increase the dollar accuracy of SSI payment outlays to 95%;

• Increase SSI dollar amounts reported from investigative activities to $55 million; and

• Increase SSI debt collected to $617.3 million.

Unlike our four other strategic goals that address SSA’s core functional responsibilities, this goal addresses the Agency’s most important asset--the employees of SSA and the State Disability Determination Services. The focus of this goal is to ensure that SSA continues to have the highly skilled, high performing and highly motivated workforce that is critical to achievement of our mission. It also reflects SSA’s conviction that employees deserve a professional environment in which their dedication to the SSA mission and to their own goals can flourish together.

A critical challenge that SSA will face over the coming years is the "retirement wave." As large numbers of experienced employees start to retire, SSA must prepare to replace these losses. Potential program changes, an increasingly diverse customer base, and the "baby boom" workloads present further challenges. SSA is taking a number of actions in FY 2000 to address these challenges, including developing a workforce transition plan, utilizing competency-based human resource tools and implementing career development and leadership training programs.

In SSA’s rapidly changing environment, employees have to adapt quickly to policy and systems changes, perform a wider variety of functions, employ multiple automated systems and master new technologies. At the same time, workload demands minimize the time employees have available to spend in a learning environment away from the work site. To address this, SSA will expand the number of offices with access to interactive video training in FY 2000 to the extent demonstrable benefits for the Agency are shown.

To provide a physical environment that promotes the health and well-being of employees, the Agency is continuing to implement ongoing programs both for assessing and addressing security requirements and for identifying and resolving existing and potential environmental health and safety problems.

Key FY 2000 performance goals are to:

• Provide 100% of offices with access to Interactive Video Training/Interactive Distance Learning (IVT/IDL);

• Have 33 1/3% of managerial staff participate in management/leadership development experiences;

• Complete environmental indoor air quality surveys for 20% of facilities and complete 75% of corrective actions called for by survey results;

• Complete water quality testing in 600 facilities and complete 100% of corrective actions called for by survey results; and

• Conduct security surveys for 150 relocated offices and complete implementation of 85% of accepted security recommendations.

SSA’s FY 2000 administrative budget proposal includes an estimated $103 million for the development, production and distribution of products to educate the public about the benefits available to them individually under the Social Security programs and the impact of the programs on society as a whole.

An integral part of SSA’s public education effort is the issuance of the Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES), a report of the life-long earnings record maintained by SSA on each worker covered by Social Security and an estimate of the worker’s potential future Social Security benefits. As required by law, in FY 2000, SSA will begin issuing PEBES to all eligible workers age 25 and over for whom we can obtain a mailing address. A primary activity in FY 2000 will be to continue with a major public education campaign to let people know they will be getting PEBES and how the information can help them plan their own financial future based on an increased understanding of Social Security programs. SSA currently is redesigning the PEBES to make it easier to read and comprehend; the new design will be implemented with the FY 2000 mailing.

In FY 1999 SSA is developing an objective baseline measure of the public’s knowledge of Social Security. Based on the baseline data, SSA will establish performance goals for FY 2000 and future years. SSA’s performance goal in FY 2000 is to:

• Issue PEBES to 100% of individuals (123 million in FY 2000 initiated by SSA plus an estimated 3 million upon request) as required by law.

In October 1997, SSA published "Keeping the Promise", the Agency’s third strategic plan (ASP), and the first under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). It is also the first strategic plan since SSA became an independent agency in 1995. In developing the ASP, SSA looked at its traditional role of administering the Social Security programs in light of its new status as an independent agency. While our emphasis remains on our longstanding commitment to service and effective program administration, we also acknowledged our broadened role in providing program leadership. With these considerations in mind, our mission is:

To support this mission, SSA has established five broad strategic goals that encompass all our program activities. Each goal has supporting strategic objectives that add specificity and define what the goals will mean to SSA over the period covered by the strategic plan (FY 1998 through FY 2002). The five strategic goals are:

• To deliver customer-responsive, world-class service

Challenging Business Environment: SSA faces an increasingly challenging business environment. On one hand our customer base is expanding with the aging of the baby boomers and enhanced life expectancy. Additionally, customers everywhere have come to expect continually improved service from SSA and other Federal sector organizations. On the other hand, given the current budget caps established under the Budget Enforcement Act, all agencies are operating in an era of scarce resources. It is also a fact that our workforce continues to age along with the rest of the population, and, as noted in the ASP, SSA will be facing a critical loss of knowledge and experience within the next 5 years due to increased retirements of experienced employees.

Long-Term Solvency: The aging of the baby boom generation creates long-term funding issues for the Social Security trust funds. While revenues currently exceed benefit payments, the trust funds are projected to be depleted by 2032 under current law, at which point revenues will support only about three-fourths of benefits due. In his 1998 State of the Union address, the President called for a national dialogue on the critically important issue of long-term solvency of the Social Security system. The dialogue began with a series of nonpartisan regional forums jointly held by the American Association of Retired Persons and the Concord Coalition and culminated with an end-of-year White House Conference on Social Security. In his 1999 State of the Union address, the President proposed action that would ensure Social Security trust fund solvency through 2055. He has also called for bipartisan agreement on further action that can ensure solvency for at least the next 75 years. Since the President first made Social Security reform a national priority, SSA has worked to ensure that information is available for people to understand the essentials of the program as the Administration and Congress examine how best to strengthen Social Security for the future.

Customer Expectations: Customer service is a major strategy driver in SSA, and it is the basic framework for all our planning activities. However, customer expectations are continually balanced against budgetary restraints, and resources are focused on areas that provide the best payoff. We measure customer satisfaction through a formal survey that has been our main barometer since 1984. According to the latest survey data, the following service elements were rated most important by our customers:

• Knowledgeable staff who give clear explanations
• Staff who care about helping
• Clear and easy-to-understand mail
• Easy-to-complete forms
• One person handling the case
• Complete business with one call or visit
• Easy-to-reach 800-number service
• Prompt decisions and actions on cases
• Convenient office locations
• Easy-to-reach local telephone service
• Short in-office waits

Employee Expectations: Through focus groups, we have also solicited the opinions of our workforce. For the most part, their vision of SSA’s service mirrors the answers of the public. They also voice concerns about their own working environment. Among the actions they think SSA should take:

• Aggressively protect the trust funds and prevent fraud
• Clearly state SSA’s mission and support it through decisions that SSA makes
• Use a variety of media to educate the public
• Provide guidance to help employees understand the Agency’s workload priorities
• Provide strong and visible leadership
• Provide a work environment that promotes safety, health and well-being of employees
• Provide better training, technology and communications to increase employee and management effectiveness
• Develop a managed strategy to attract and retain capable employees

Since publishing the ASP and in the course of developing our FY 2000 APP, SSA made minor adjustments to the strategic objectives that support the goal "to promote valued, strong and responsive social security programs and conduct effective policy development, research and program evaluation." The following table displays those changes:

In addition, we have made minor adjustments to several of the performance indicators related to our strategic objectives, as compared to the performance indicators used in the ASP and the FY 1999 APP for these objectives. These changes are discussed in the sections describing the individual indicators.

The "Introduction and Overview" section of this document explained that SSA is responsible for three major programs:

• Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI);
• Disability Insurance (DI); and
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

SSA also provides support for the Medicare, Medicaid, and Black Lung programs.

The following discussion provides a brief overview of SSA’s unique budget account structure, which has evolved over a number of years in response to changes in SSA’s responsibility.

SSA’s budget is best viewed in two distinct segments—the program budget and the administrative budget. In the simplest possible presentation, the program budget covers benefit payments to individuals, while the administrative budget covers the costs of accomplishing SSA’s mission.

Under the Budget Enforcement Act, the program budget is considered part of the entitlement portion of the Federal budget. SSA’s administrative budget is considered discretionary spending and, as such, must compete for scarce resources with the budgets of other Federal agencies within an overall spending cap.

Seven separate accounts comprise SSA’s overall budget. These accounts are generally categorized by the type of appropriation from which they are funded, as displayed below.

SSA’s permanent appropriations provide the funding needed to pay all entitled Social Security beneficiaries automatically; the amount spent each year is not determined through the annual appropriations process. Therefore, Social Security retirement, survivors and disability insurance benefits increase automatically as additional persons meet eligibility requirements and as benefit levels increase based on cost-of-living adjustments. These OASDI trust fund accounts are considered off-budget. SSA’s permanent appropriations fall under the purview of the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees.

SSA’s annual appropriations are those for which Congress approves a specified funding level through legislation each fiscal year and are under the purview of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

A very brief sketch of each SSA budget account follows.

Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund: These accounts receive revenues from Social Security contributions and disburse benefit payments (entitlements) upon retirement, disability, or death to insured workers and their families. Social Security benefit payments make up the overwhelming bulk of SSA’s overall budget. These accounts are permanent appropriations.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI): The activities of this annual appropriation involve:

• Providing means-tested Federal payments for aged, blind and disabled persons;
• Providing vocational rehabilitation services and research funding; and
• Reimbursing the Social Security trust funds for the SSI program’s share of SSA’s administrative expenses.

Special Payments for Disabled Coal Miners (Black Lung): SSA makes payments of cash benefits to certain coal miners who are disabled due to coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (black lung) and to their widows and certain other dependents.

Payments to Social Security Trust Funds (PTF): This account provides general fund payments to the Social Security trust funds intended to reimburse the trust funds for certain benefits or administrative expenditures (e.g., special payments for certain uninsured persons and costs associated with pension reform) that are chargeable to Federal funds.

Office of the Inspector General (OIG): The OIG account is an annual appropriation that funds the administrative expenses of the Inspector General. Financing is provided from both the Social Security trust funds and general revenues to reflect the fact that OIG monitors the Social Security, SSI and Black Lung programs.

Limitation on Administrative Expenses (LAE): The Limitation on Administrative Expenses, SSA’s basic administrative account, is an annual appropriation and is financed from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. The trust funds are reimbursed for the administrative expenses for the SSI program, which are covered by Federal funds, from the SSI account. The following table displays the LAE account by funding source (using FY 1998 actual data for illustrative purposes).

The LAE account funds:

• Salaries and benefits of SSA’s Federal employees (excluding the Office of Inspector General);

• Related costs for space, equipment, supplies, travel, printing and other non-payroll expenses;

• System and telecommunications activities; and

• Expenses of the State Disability Determination Services (DDS), which make disability determinations on behalf of SSA.

The program and financing schedules for SSA in the President’s budget do not include program activities, per se. For example, under the heading "Obligations by Program Activity," SSA’s LAE account displays total obligations by direct program and reimbursable program.

SSA has aligned the strategic goals in our ASP and, accordingly, the performance goals in our APP, by our major functional responsibilities rather than by program or budget account.

SSA’s programs share many customers in common and rely on a common set of business processes. To highlight just a few examples:

• Many of our SSI applicants are also OASI or DI applicants;
• While there are slight legislative differences in the disability criteria for the DI and SSI programs, the processes we use to determine eligibility for disability benefits under the two programs vary only slightly;
• Much of our research and policy development in the area of disability supports both the DI and SSI programs; and
• We maintain earnings records in support of the OASI, DI and Medicare programs.

Fitting with common characteristics of our programs, SSA has a single national service-delivery structure that does not specialize by program. By integrating services across all of our programs at the level of the customer, SSA is able to enhance efficiency, avoid duplication of effort and increase opportunities to provide one-stop service to our customers. As noted above, SSA’s administrative costs, for all programs and associated functional responsibilities, are funded for the most part by the LAE appropriation.

The following chart links funding amounts within the LAE, OIG and research budgets to our four functional strategic goals. As the fifth goal, "valued employees," supports accomplishment of all our basic functions, the resources related to it are allocated across the other four goals.

This section, covering our performance goals and the means and strategies for achieving them, is organized by the general goals and supporting objectives established in the ASP.

Ongoing Activities and Budgeted Resources by Goal: The introductory section under each goal describes the scope of ongoing activities SSA performs in support of the goal and the amount of resources in SSA’s budget that are associated with these activities. Because the "valued employees" goal supports accomplishment of our other functional goals, the resources related to this goal are allocated across the other four goals.

Where activities relate to more than one goal, we include the resources that support them only once under the goal to which they are most relevant. For example, as a service to the public, PEBES relates in part to our "world-class service" goal. However, because it is an instrumental tool for educating the public, we have presented all resources associated with issuing the PEBES under the "public understanding" goal.

Crosscutting Areas with Other Federal Agencies: Under each goal, we highlight major partnerships formed with other agencies to help us achieve our objectives.

Key Legislation and Regulations: Under each goal, we identify any legislation or regulations that are critical to implementation of the strategies we have developed for achieving the goal’s supporting objectives.

Performance Indicators and Goals: Under each strategic objective, we present a general rationale for the indicators we have selected to represent our performance and our performance goals for FY 2000. As appropriate, baseline performance data, data sources and pertinent background information and/or definitions are provided for each indicator. In the case of non-quantifiable goals, we also describe how we will consider them to have been achieved. A summary table of FY 2000 performance indicators and goals for all of our strategic objectives is included as an appendix to this document.

Means and Strategies: SSA has developed a set of strategies, called programs for objective achievement (POA), that will lead to achievement of each strategic objective identified in the ASP. Each POA is supported by one or more Key Initiatives for implementing required change activities. For each objective, we generally describe the Key Initiatives that we will be pursuing over the FY 1999-FY 2000 period, not only to achieve our near-term FY 2000 performance goals, but also to enable achievement of the longer-term objectives. Additional information on selected Key Initiatives is provided as an appendix to this document.

Capital Investments: This section addresses SSA’s capital investments and capital investments control processes, which are important to accomplishment of our strategic objectives. Because SSA has a single service-delivery infrastructure for fulfilling all of our functional responsibilities under each of the programs we administer, our capital investments generally support all strategic goals.

As an independent agency, SSA has assumed its responsibility to take a leadership role in addressing critical long and short-term Social Security issues by conducting in-house research, promoting research by others, framing policy discussions, and refining policies to meet the needs of society. The FY 2000 budget request includes an estimated $38 million related to activities that support this goal.

SSA has revised the strategic objectives, indicators and performance goals under this strategic goal to more accurately reflect the Agency’s responsibility for providing information and policy options and for working to improve program outcomes to the greatest possible extent. While Social Security programs have a very important impact on the economic well-being of millions of Americans, the Agency will not exclusively utilize program outcome goals to measure the performance of policy development, research, and program evaluation. Instead, this strategic goal utilizes a mix of program outcome goals and goals that measure the extent to which critical information is available for use by decisionmakers. The mix of goals also reflects the fact that the effects of policy development, research, and program evaluation are difficult to quantify and measure, since many factors (e.g. difficulties implementing changes, unrelated changes in law, economic forces, etc.) affect program outcomes related to a change in policy.

However, SSA recognizes the importance of monitoring the performance of Social Security programs. In areas where specific program outcome goals cannot be defined for the reasons mentioned above, "barometer" measures will provide information on how Social Security benefits, in combination with many related factors, affect the economic well-being of the public. This information will help decisionmakers identify areas where policy changes may be needed to strengthen the programs.

Many societal changes, for example in demographics, family structure, and attitudes toward work and retirement, have occurred since the OASI and DI programs were originally created. This strategic objective addresses the need to continually assess program performance in the context of societal trends, so as to ensure an adequate base of economic security for workers at many socioeconomic levels while maintaining sufficient long-term financing.

Strategic Goal: To deliver customer-responsive world-class service

This goal encompasses the range of services that SSA provides in response to customer demand, across all the programs that we administer--RSI, DI and SSI--and through all modes that we use to interface with the public--telephone, in-office, mail, automated self-service and third parties. Chief among these services are processing claims and appeals for benefits, issuing SSNs, and updating our records to reflect changes in circumstances reported by customers that affect the amount or continuation of payments.

An estimated $5.1 billion, 74 percent of SSA’s total FY 2000 administrative budget is devoted to the substantial day-to-day work generated by requests for service from our core business customers.¹ The following table displays the funding arrayed by the workloads processed in support of this strategic goal. (Dollars in Millions)

Strategic Objective:

By 2002, to have 9 out of 10 customers rate SSA’s service as "good," "very good" or "excellent," with most rating it "excellent"

Context
As it is the customer who is the ultimate judge of whether we are providing service that is world-class, this objective defines the overall outcome of the strategic goal that it supports. The other two objectives under the "world-class service" goal serve to place added emphasis on particular aspects of service that are important contributors to customer satisfaction. Consequently, activities and indicators of performance under those objectives support this objective as well.

The overall customer satisfaction rate is the most direct and highest-level measure of performance under this objective. To help us pinpoint areas needing improvement, SSA also measures customer satisfaction with specific aspects of service. And, to help us manage day-to-day, we use an array of lower-level, operational indicators to track performance throughout the year.

Data from customer satisfaction surveys have indicated consistently that telephone access and field office waiting times have an effect on customer perception of all other aspects of service. Because they are key to customer satisfaction, we have included in this plan our lower-level goals for the operational indicators that we use to measure 800 number access and field office waiting times. SSA will be developing a methodology for measuring telephone access in field offices.

In addition, we have included operational measures used to assess whether teleservice employees are providing accurate information and taking appropriate actions. As such, these measures provide an indication of staff knowledge, another important factor influencing customer satisfaction according to our customer surveys.

Virtually all of SSA’s Key Initiatives will contribute to achievement of this strategic objective to have 9 out of 10 customers rate SSA’s service as "good," "very good" or "excellent," with most rating it "excellent." To achieve "world class" satisfaction ratings, however, we are pursuing two strategies:

Data Gathering: SSA needs to understand more fully what makes our customers satisfied. Different populations often have different needs and different levels of satisfaction and perception of service because of the nature of business they conduct. An external consultant found that, although SSA does a good job collecting some market information, data are not gathered from all market segments and are not gathered in a systematic way. Accordingly, we have developed and begun to implement an integrated Market Measurement Program to provide comprehensive data about all of our major customer groups. We are also developing an Agency-wide system called TLC for "Talking and Listening to Customers." This system will serve two primary goals, i.e., to address individual customer complaints and compliments as well as identify and analyze systemic problems and trends. Easily accessible, spontaneous customer feedback, in conjunction with other customer input, will guide our business planning, policy development, communication strategies, and process improvement.

Targeted Process Improvement: Pending implementation of these data collection systems, we have analyzed available customer survey findings and focus group results to identify and prioritize specific areas that make the most difference in increasing overall satisfaction. We have identified several areas that provide opportunities for increasing overall customer satisfaction. We are directing improvement activities in those areas as follows:

• Clear and helpful mailings – SSA will provide employees on-line access to notices and improve the clarity of five specific types of notices found to be most problematic. In addition, in response to requirements in a Presidential memorandum, we are developing a Key Initiative to incorporate plain language into all our public documents.

• 800-number access – SSA will take steps to offset the effect of increasing call volumes and expanded service offerings over the 800-number so as to maintain the current access rate. Our strategy is twofold: to enhance network and computer technology to more effectively balance incoming calls among our call centers, and to increase interactive automated services for simple business transactions that do not require interaction with an SSA representative.

• Field office telephone access – Install automated attendant and voice mail in all field offices to improve the ability of customers to get through to field offices by telephone. SSA will also establish a method for measuring access and accuracy of telephone service in local offices.

• Field office reception and waiting times – Explore enhancements to improve the flow of customers through the reception process and enhance the appearance and comfort of waiting rooms.

• Staff knowledge and helpfulness – Implement nationally the Customer Help Information Program, an expert system to support teleservice, and continue training on error-prone issues to improve service accuracy.

Our strategy to improve employer satisfaction with our service is to develop and provide a wider range of more usable and convenient electronic products and services to assist employers in providing quality wage reports. The specific services that we plan to provide are discussed under the next objective.

Additional information is provided in Appendix 3 on the following Key Initiatives that support this objective:

Context

The vast majority of SSA customers have said that they prefer to deal with us over the telephone and, when they do, they want their business completed in one contact. A growing number of customers want to conduct government business electronically as they become accustomed to doing commercial business in this way. To provide customer-responsive service, SSA must continue to carefully monitor the ongoing shift in our customers' preferences and prepare to steadily expand service delivery options in response to customer expectations.

Performance under this objective will be determined by the new services actually made available over the phone or electronically and/or by the increase in the number of customers who successfully complete their business using the new services.

Indicator: New or expanded services available over the phone

Indicator:New or expanded services available electronically

SSA’s debt management program currently makes use of many of the debt collection tools available under existing law, and we are in the process of implementing the remainder.

SSA’s program to improve management of the SSI program includes improved debt recovery performance, which is dependent in part on the enactment of legislation that would extend to the SSI program all debt collection authorities currently available for collecting overpayments under the Social Security program. These include administrative offset against other Federal payments (e.g., vendor payments), Federal salary offset, referral of delinquent debtors to credit bureaus, use of private collection agencies, and charging interest. In addition, SSA plans to implement wage garnishment as authorized under the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996. SSA estimates that it could collect an additional $40 million each year from a collection program strengthened by these tools.

The following are the Key Initiatives through which SSA will achieve this strategic objective:

• Combating Fraud
• Title XVI Debt

Context

Over the next 5 years, projected SSA workloads will increase gradually while resources will not. Looking beyond that period, dramatic growth in workloads will begin to occur as the baby boomers reach their disability-prone years and then retirement age. At the same time, a large number of experienced managers and staff will probably be retiring. This objective, combined with the workforce transition plan, is aimed at ensuring that we have appropriately positioned our resources to accomplish all of the work we will have to do.

SSA currently is exploring how best to measure performance under this objective. Since one aspect of the objective is to address a growing gap between workload demands and available resources, some type of efficiency indicator is a possible consideration, although at present SSA does not have a measure of efficiency at the agency-level.

The Agency Strategic Plan defines success in this objective as whether or not SSA is able to process the workloads we are receiving. Under its world-class service goal, SSA is committing to maintain the pending levels of most of its ongoing workloads by processing the same amount of work as the Agency projects it will receive in FY 1999 and FY 2000. A significant exception is the hearings workload, given the critical number of hearings pending at the present time. As also discussed under the world-class service goal, SSA commits to reduce significantly the number of hearings pending during fiscal years 1999 and 2000.

SSA continually looks for service opportunities and makes changes to its service structure to keep pace with service demands and accommodate changing customer needs and the ability of new technology to deliver service more responsively. To address the tension between growing workloads and constrained resources, SSA is pursuing four strategies.

Implementing enabling technology infrastructure: The IWS/LAN platform is the foundation for expert systems, on-line "help" features, interactive training and a host of other features that enable improved customer service and increased efficiency. SSA expects to complete national roll-out of the IWS/LAN by FY 2000.

SSA’s effort to modify software to recognize a four-digit date in the Year 2000 is critical to the proper functioning of Agency programmatic and administrative systems. SSA became aware of the Year 2000 problem in 1989 and has been in the forefront of government-wide efforts to modify software to recognize a four-digit date. SSA had all mission-critical systems Year 2000 compliant by December 31, 1998.

Improving processes and systems to achieve efficiencies: SSA is implementing several Key Initiatives, most notably Title II System Redesign and Paperless Processing Centers, that will yield significant efficiencies. These will be achieved primarily by increasing on-line user access to comprehensive customer information, thus enabling the elimination of tasks that no longer add value and the movement of paperwork from one person or location to another.

Providing opportunities for customers to do business with less SSA employee assistance: As described under our goal to provide world-class service, SSA plans to increase the range of services that we provide electronically. In addition to providing more convenient access for our customers, electronic service will decrease costs by reducing manual intervention and errors. Contingent on the development of a means to authenticate customer identity, SSA will add new services over the Internet. SSA also is planning to test user-friendly network devices that would provide self-service options to customers who visit our field offices.

Supplementing administrative resources: The FY 2000 President’s budget includes a legislative proposal that would allow the Agency to charge attorneys representing Social Security claimants a monetary assessment to cover the direct payment service provided to them by SSA.

Appendix 3 provides additional information on the following Key Initiatives that will help to position SSA to meet the challenges of the next few years:

• Disability Process Redesign
• Electronic Payment Services
• Electronic Service Delivery
• Intelligent Workstations/Local Area Networks (IWS/LAN)
• Paperless Processing Centers
• Preparing for the Year 2000
• Reengineered Disability System
• Title II System Redesign
• Competency Based Human Resources Tools
• Integrated Human Resources System

SSA is a major repository of information that is valuable to the business of other agencies, and we ourselves depend on data created and maintained by others to ensure the accuracy of payment under the Social Security programs. Therefore, we have established numerous standing data exchange relationships. Our major partners in program management activities include the following:

Department of the Treasury--SSA provides actual earnings data on which Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) and Self-Employment Contributions Act (SECA) taxes are due in order for Treasury to adjust trust-fund balances appropriately. SSA and Treasury exchange data regarding, for example, enforcement, SSI income, and Continuous Work History Sample. Treasury provides SSA with debt-collection services through the Treasury Offset Program, a more comprehensive program that supersedes the tax-refund-offset program.

SSA receives reports of self-employment income from IRS. SSA posts the wages and self-employment income of every employed person in the nation; IRS uses the data in processing individual income-tax returns. IRS assigns employer identification numbers (EIN), used by SSA in earnings processing; SSA assigns statistical codes to the EIN applications, which allows them to be used by SSA for policy research activities and by IRS for improving tax administration. SSA uses IRS data for enforcement matching.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) -- SSA and HCFA exchange data regarding Medicaid eligibility. HCFA provides data to SSA on nursing homes admissions. The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) provides data to SSA on wages, unemployment compensation and new hires.

Department of Labor (DOL) -- SSA uses information regarding workers’ compensation to ensure the accuracy of disability benefit payments. SSA provides earnings data to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which they use in calculating the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). The CPI-W, in turn, is used to annually adjust benefits for beneficiaries of Social Security and other programs.

Department of Defense (DOD) -- SSA and DOD exchange data regarding military retirement.

Department of Education (DOE) -- DOE and SSA exchange data regarding student loans.

Department of Justice -- Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) notifies SSA of deportations so that program benefits can be suspended as appropriate. Bureau of Prisons provides information to SSA regarding incarcerated felons to help SSA ensure payment accuracy. U.S. Attorneys prosecute Social Security fraud and handle SSA civil suits for recovery of debts.

Department of State -- Foreign Service posts perform validation activities relating to Social Security beneficiaries living abroad.

Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) -- SSA and VA exchange data regarding veterans’ benefits.

Federal Court System -- The Federal courts handle recovery of court-ordered restitutions.

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) -- SSA and OPM exchange data regarding civil service retirement.

Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) -- SSA maintains earnings files on which RRB benefits are based; the Social Security and Medicare trust funds are parties to a financial interchange with the Railroad Retirement Fund.

As noted previously, in the relevant discussions under means and strategies, our ability to achieve the objectives to increase SSI accuracy and debt collections relies in part on passage of legislative proposals included in the FY 2000 budget. These proposals, if enacted, will provide SSA the needed authority and the additional tools required to improve stewardship of the SSI program.

As also noted previously, the proposal to allow SSA to impose a monetary assessment on attorneys for whom SSA approves and certifies direct fee payments will cover the administrative costs SSA incurs when performing these services for attorneys, and will help SSA to meet emerging workloads by supplementing our administrative resources.

Unlike our four other strategic goals that address SSA’s core functional responsibilities, this goal addresses the Agency’s most important asset--the employees of SSA and the DDSs. The focus of this goal is to ensure that SSA continues to have the highly skilled, high performing and highly motivated workforce that is critical to achievement of our mission. It also reflects SSA’s conviction that employees deserve a professional environment in which their dedication to the SSA mission and to their own goals can flourish together.