00:00Thank you very much, Chair Wieden, and I want to thank you and Ranking Member Crapo for
00:04having this hearing, and to our witnesses, thank you for being here.
00:07Thank you for the work you do.
00:10Associate Commissioner Wilski, I want to start with a question to you.
00:14Social Security Disability Insurance supports individuals with disabilities who are unable
00:19to engage in substantial employment because of their disability.
00:23We know that some work limiting disabilities, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder,
00:29are often diagnosed in early adulthood, and I know Senator Cassidy gave you an example
00:35earlier about a constituent of his who had a diagnosis in early adulthood.
00:42And as you know, Senator Cassidy and I are introducing the Bipartisan Fairness for Disabled
00:47Young Adults Act, which would increase the age threshold for SSDI disability diagnoses
00:53for adult children from age 22 to 26.
00:56So can you please give the committee a sense of how the timing of a disability diagnosis
01:01figures in the process a family has to go through to apply for SSDI benefits for their
01:07adult children with disabilities?
01:10Thank you for the question.
01:12As you state, an individual has to have a disability that's established before age 22
01:19in order to qualify for disabled adult child benefits on the parent's record.
01:24Right.
01:25So obviously, again, if you have a diagnosis at age 23 or 24, you are suddenly in a different
01:31category unable to essentially use your parent's record.
01:37That's correct.
01:38All right.
01:39Okay.
01:40Another question for you, Associate Commissioner, and it follows up on what the chair was just
01:43talking about.
01:44The committee has worked across the aisle on ways to prevent undue harm on Social Security
01:49recipients when they receive overpayments.
01:52Recipients are often unaware that they were overpaid by the Social Security Administration
01:56until the agency requires them to quickly pay back hundreds or thousands of dollars.
02:01Senator Cassidy and I wrote a letter on this issue, and the agency announced in March that
02:06it would change its overpayment recovery process to better protect vulnerable individuals from
02:11significant financial harm.
02:13How has the rollout of the improved process gone, and what impact do you expect it to
02:17have on beneficiaries and agency operations?
02:22Thank you for the question, and as you know, Commissioner O'Malley has been very committed
02:26to addressing overpayments, and we have made several changes.
02:29Really, the rollout of that is outside my purview, but I would be happy to take that
02:33back for response.
02:34Okay.
02:35Again, I will just add to what Senator Wyden was asking about here.
02:38We really would like an update and really understand how it is working.
02:43And I'm seeing Ms. Zuliger say that she might have something to add here.
02:47Yes, I can give you the perspective from the front line, from the field offices.
02:51The rollout was welcome.
02:54It was a change that we really appreciated, even on the front lines as employees, because
02:59we do recognize what a hardship it is for individuals, and to be able to say that only
03:0510 percent is going to be withheld instead of the whole benefit is a welcome relief,
03:09and the rollout has gone fairly smoothly from the front lines.
03:13Well, thank you.
03:14And thank you for that insight.
03:15I really appreciate it.
03:16I have a question for Ms. Gotland.
03:20Social Security work incentive programs are complex and can be hard to navigate.
03:25Congress created programs like the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance Program to provide
03:29SSDI and SSI beneficiaries with trusted expert counseling on navigating the system's complexities.
03:36How effective has the program been, and what improvements do you recommend?
03:43Thank you for the question.
03:45We agree that WIPA is an important program that should be examined.
03:49GAO has not conducted an independent evaluation of the impact of WIPA.
03:55It has come up in a number of our reviews, including on transitioning youth.
04:02We've heard that counseling services can be very beneficial in understanding how to
04:09access complex federal work incentives.
04:12However, we also have recent information from the literature in at least one demonstration
04:18project that SSA tested, where they tested variations in the intensity of WIPA and found
04:24no significant differences in employment outcomes.
04:28We believe that this is another area that could be potentially beneficial for GAO to
04:32look into.
04:33Thank you very much, and Mr. Chair, I yield the rest of my time.
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