Social Security: Employment and Health Status of Social Security Denied Applicants

GAO discussed the health and financial status of denied social security disability applicants and commented on the disability determination process. GAO noted that: (1) in 1987, 58 percent of the applicants who were denied benefits in 1984 were not working; (2) over two-thirds of the nonworking had been out of work for at least 3 years, and 54 percent said they did not expect to ever work again; (3) the denied applicants who were not working generally cited poor health, and the self-reported health status of nonworking denied applicants resembled that of allowed applicants; (4) those findings raised some questions about the accuracy of the Social Security Administration's (SSA) disability criteria and determination process in judging an applicant's ability to work; (5) the determinations of claimants' residual function capacity may be causing problems in disability adjudication; (6) budgetary constraints imposed on the disability determination services during the last few years may have adversely impacted the quality of state disability decisions; and (7) the increase in error rates appears to support concerns raised by states about the impact of resource reductions on their case development.