The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers the retirement, survivors, and disability insurance programs under title II of the Social Security Act (the Act) and the supplemental security income (SSI) program under title XVI of the Act. For the most part, SSA's regulations do not impose burdens on the private sector or on State or local governments. Our regulations codify the requirements for entitlement to benefits under the programs we administer.
SSA's eight entries for The Regulatory Plan represent areas of major importance in benefit program administration of the retirement, disability, and supplemental security income programs.
In response to the Reinventing Government Initiative to create a Federal Government that works better and costs less, SSA lists three regulatory initiatives. Cycling Payment of Social Security Benefits for future beneficiaries is designed to pay social security benefits on several payment dates each month instead of making all the payments on the same date, as is our current practice. The current use of one payment date creates a workload spike each month for SSA, for other Federal agencies, and for financial institutions and other businesses which participate in or depend on issuance of social security benefits. Spreading the issuance of benefit payments throughout the month and reducing workload spikes for SSA and others will result in better service to our customers. We expect that our customers will have better access to SSA personnel and services in our field facilities and through use of our national 1-800 teleservice network. Current beneficiaries can expect to continue to receive their benefit payments on the third of each month. The additional payment dates will be assigned to new beneficiaries as their benefit awards are processed.
Our second entry related to a Reinventing Government Initiative is Enumeration of Aliens With the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The goal of this process is to coordinate services to customers who, under current procedures, must deal with multiple Federal agencies to establish their status as alien residents of the United States. The proposed regulatory authority would support a pilot project with INS whereby it would transmit data to SSA electronically so that SSA can issue social security numbers to certain resident aliens.
Our third entry related to a Reinventing Government Initiative is the Elimination of Mandatory Annual Earnings Reports. These regulations, proposed in the spirit of improved service to the public, concern beneficiaries who are under age 70 and who work and earn more than the applicable exempt amount. Currently, these beneficiaries are required to report their earnings to the Social Security Administration (SSA) within 3 months and 15 days following the close of their tax year (usually April 15). Under these proposed rules, beneficiaries, in most instances, will not have to file a report. Instead, we will consider the W-2 report filed by the employer with SSA or the self-employment income tax return filed by the beneficiary with the Internal Revenue Service to be the report of earnings. We will use the information (wages and net earnings from self-employment) contained in those reports to adjust benefits under the earnings test.
SSA is currently testing elements of a reenginered disability process that, when fully tested and implemented, will prove that complex Government operations can deliver dramatically better customer service at a lower cost. Successful implementation of the reengineered disability process is one of the highest priorities of the Social Security Administration. Four of SSA's eight regulations on The Regulatory Plan implement parts of the Disability Redesign.
Three of our entries implement several proposals of our Process Unification Initiative. The aim of the Process Unification Initiative is to foster use of the same adjudicative standards by disability adjudicators at all levels of adjudication. The first, Weight of Disability Determination Service (DDS) Medical Consultant Opinions, will define the specific weight to be given to DDS medical consultant opinions in hearing decisions. The second, Assessment of Residual Functional Capacity, will clarify the guidelines in our regulations used in determining whether an individual lacks the capacity to perform less than a full range of sedentary work. The third, Quality Review of Administrative Law Judges' Decisions, provides for a preeffectuation review of decisions made by Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) administrative law judges. Favorable decisions that appear to be unsupported by the evidence of record will be forwarded to the OHA Appeals Council for review in accordance with 20 CFR 404.970 or 416.1470.
The fourth regulatory initiative related to Disability Redesign, Prehearing Procedures and Decisions by Adjudication Officers, will provide the authority to establish the position of an adjudication officer who will be the focal point for all prehearing activities when a request for a hearing before an ALJ is filed. These procedures are currently being tested in a number of locations throughout the United States. We plan to implement the procedures nationally only after completion of testing and evaluation of the test procedures.
We are also including in this year's Plan regulations which will implement provisions of The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Welfare Reform), Public Law 104-193. The changes modify the standard of disability for children under the Supplemental Security Income program.
Consistent with the President's Regulatory Reinvention Initiative, we are working diligently to improve our program benefit regulations and to develop partnerships with large segments of the community of stakeholders interested in Social Security programs. We expect that the partnerships will contribute to the successful development of our Regulatory Plan entries.