Major Management and Performance Challenges
The Office of the Inspector General issues an annual report on the Social Security Administration’s major management and performance challenges
In Fiscal Year 2022, we identified the following management and performance challenges:
- Manage Human Capital: The Social Security Administration (SSA) must adequately plan to ensure it has the staff it needs to meet its mission now and in the future as it finds hiring staff harder in a more competitive job market and when over 40 percent of its workforce will be eligible to retire within 5 years.
- Improve Service Delivery: SSA needs to address growing workloads and the expected retirement of experienced employees as it pursues its mission to deliver quality service to the public.
- Protect the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of SSA’s Information Systems and Data: SSA must ensure its information systems are secure and sensitive data are protected
- Modernize Information Technology: SSA must continue modernizing its IT to accomplish its mission despite budget and resource constraints.
- Improve Administration of the Disability Programs: To better serve its customers, SSA needs to address increasing pending initial disability claims, reconsiderations, and continuing disability reviews (CDR); identify and reduce barriers to the disability program; reduce hearings processing times; and develop better strategies to help disabled beneficiaries return to work.
- Improve the Prevention, Detection, and Recovery of Improper Payments: SSA must be a responsible steward of the funds entrusted to its care by minimizing the risk of making improper payments and recovering overpayments when they occur.
- Respond to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: SSA must ensure safety of both employees and visitors while it resumes in-person services and mitigates backlogs and declines in workloads caused by the pandemic.
The Social Security Administration’s Major Management and Performance Challenges During Fiscal Year 2022