This Annual Report summarizes the Social Security Advisory Board’s work during fiscal year 2019 and provides detailed information regarding Board accomplishments.
In 2019, the Board continued its work on representative payees by assisting and funding an independent study, submitting comments to the Federal Register, and publishing key themes from a September forum. The Board also published a report on Social Security’s death information collection, reporting and dissemination process and a Supplemental Security Income Statement detailing the complexity of dedicated accounts for children.
During this year, the Board-commissioned independent Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods released its final report on the assumptions and methods used in projecting the finances of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance trust funds. The Board also appointed an independent Information Technology Systems Expert Panel to review Social Security’s efforts to modernize its systems.
Finally, in 2019, the Board worked to respond to Congressional and Social Security Administration (SSA) requests. In May, in partnership with SSA, the Board held a policy forum on microsimulation modeling. The Board also began work to respond to two requests from Congress to examine the impact of Social Security’s decisions to close field offices on the quality and accessibility of services received by the public as well as improvements to the initial and reconsideration levels of the disability determination process.