Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

January/February, 1996

Associate Commissioner Daniels Commends DDSs; Stresses SSA Goals
by Lee Ann Tramontin, Kentucky DDS

Associate Commissioner Daniels Commends DDSs; Stresses SSA Goals by Lee Ann Tramontin, Kentucky DDS SUSAN DANIELS, ASSOCIATE COMMISSIONER FOR the Office of Disability, recently spoke to the NADE members at the National Training Conference in Portland, Maine. She began by discussing the performance of the DDSs in 1995. As always, receipts have climbed, this year to 3.6 million. The total pending is now at a four year low. Processing time also continues to decline. Our accuracy rates fluctuate, but are always extremely high. Overall, 28 DDSs have improved their accuracy. Five regions have an accuracy rate of 95% and above.

She stressed the SSAs goal: better, faster, and cheaper. Better, to Ms. Daniels, means more understandable, fairer, and more convenient. Faster means NOW! The way that we do our work must change. Cheaper means we are not likely to see any increases in our budget. Currently, half of the SSA budget serves 12% of the customers. If we receive the workload slated in the Welfare Reform in Congress, we will face a $300 million underfunded workload.

How do we face challenges? We recognize that there is no book with the answers. We all have to try new things and take chances. We must learn to love failure. We can’t make it better, faster, and cheaper without making mistakes. We must have faith in each other. People are skeptical, but we must trust and believe in each other. We must all work together to make the redesign process work.

Ms. Daniels closed by stating that we have risen to every occasion, and that we are capable of building the best disability program possible.