Disability Determination Services Disability Decisions

In a February 12, 2008 letter to the Inspector General, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio requested that the Office of the Inspector General investigate the claims made in a January 2008 CBS Evening News report that (1) the Social Security Administration (SSA) has instituted quotas for the number of individuals who may have their claims for Social Security Disability Insurance approved, (2) SSA maintains a culture to deny disability claims, and (3) employees are told by their supervisors to deny a certain number of disability claim applicants. In response to Senator Brown’s request, we assessed the organizational culture at the disability determination services (DDS) for approving and denying disability claims.