The man-year and productivity data for this certification work are as follows: A gain in productivity of 3.9 percent is expected from 1965 to 1967. Claims inquiries 5,996. 3 The man-years allocable to claims inquiries include time spent in field offices answering general inquiries from beneficiaries as well as inquiries handled at headquarters. Man-year requirements for 1966 and 1967 are estimated to continue at the 1965 level of 80.7 man-years. Amendment work The 1965 amendments to the Social Security Act made major changes in the old-age and survivors and disability insurance programs, which required the Railroad Retirement Board to make adjustment in its benefit rates in order to restore the relationship in benefits under these systems as required by law. Railroad retirement benefits are always at least 10 percent higher than the amount the social security system would pay. Because of this special guarantee, most survivors and some retired employees became entitled to increases in their annuities because of the increases in social security rates. Also, a large number of wives of retired railroad employees became entitled to increases because the maximum amount that can be paid to the wife was raised; and various additional adjustments became necessary under other provisions of law. The 1965 amendments to the Railroad Retirement Act eliminated the requirement that reductions be made from spouse annuities by the amounts of other annuities for which the spouse would be eligible as a wage earner, which required the Board to make additional adjustments in benefit rates and to process applications from spouses not on the rolls who became newly eligible for benefits. The amendments also require the Board's participation in the administration of the new programs of hospital and medical insurance benefits. The Board will participate in the administration of the hospital insurance program under the provision of the 1965 Amendments to the Social Security Act which requires that the Board certify to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare the names of individuals who have attained age 65 and who are entitled to an annuity under the Railroad Retirement Act or would be entitled to such annuities had the individuals ceased compensated service. The Board will participate in the administration of the medical insurance program under the provision of the 1965 amendments which requires that with respect to individuals electing to participate in the program and who are entitled to receive annuities under the Railroad Retirement Act, the required monthly premiums shall be collected by deducting the amounts thereof from railroad retirement annuities. To make such deductions, the Board will ascertain from its annuitants whether they wish to enroll for the medical insurance program and accept their commitment. The man-year requirements for handling work created for the Board by the 1965 amendments are as follows: Effecting benefit rate changes and processing applications from individuals who became newly eligible for benefits as a result of amendments. Participation in administration of hospital and medical insurance programs. Total... 1 102.2 33.2 Includes 88 man-years to be financed by a supplemental appropriation. Provision is made in 1966 for 58.7 man-years to process 385,000 adjustments in benefit rates made necessary because of the 1965 Amendments to the Social Security Act and to process 17,000 applications from spouses who became newly eligible for benefits as a result of the 1965 Amendments to the Railroad Retirement Act. Of the 385,000 benefit adjustment cases, an unusually large number could not be processed by the computer and required manual examination and development work. Provision is made in 1967 for 2.7 man-years for some further adjustments in spouse rates which become effective in January 1967. The manpower required for the Board's participation in the administration of the hospital and medical insurance programs is estimated at 43.5 man-years in 1966 and 30.5 man-years in 1967. Activities in 1966 include contacting by mail 510,000 eligible individuals on the beneficiary rolls to determine if they wish to elect coverage under the supplementary medical plan; processing applications for eligibility to hospital and medical benefits from 40,000 individuals age 65 and over who had not ceased compensated service; preparation of a roster of enrolled individuals; handling inquiries; etc. Activities in 1967 include development actions for 40,000 individuals becoming newly eligible for hospital and medical benefits; maintenance of the roster of 550,000 enrolled individuals; collection of premiums from those individuals on beneficiary rolls who enrolled for the supplemental medical insurance; handling inquiries regarding the health and medical insurance programs; administering the hospital insurance program for eligible Canadians; etc. 3. Maintenance of beneficiary rolls This activity covers the maintenance of the monthly rolls of retirement and survivor beneficiaries. The volume of monthly benefit payments tends to grow steadily larger as the system ages. This growth will continue until the retirement system reaches maturity, a number of years hence. The costs of this activity have been subdivided into the two categories of (a) accounting activities, and (b) investigations of continuing eligibility, with each of the categories being handled separately in the explanations that follow. Accounting activities Once the individual applicant has been certified as entitled to monthly payments, subsequent monthly recertification is required to continue such payments. This activity covers operations involved in preparing, verifying, balancing and scheduling for payment of the monthly roll of annuity payments, making changes in the roll required by new awards, terminations by death or changes in benefit status, changes of address, and other servicing of the payment roll. The workloads, man-years and productivity for this activity are as follows: The Board expects to be able to limit man-year usage in 1966 and 1967 to the 1965 level even though workloads will rise by approximately 4 percent from 1965 to 1967. Investigation of continuing eligibility Until fiscal year 1962, the principal method used by the Board to check on the eligibility of beneficiaries to continue to receive monthly benefits was through the use of annual questionnaires. With the installation of the computer, plans were made to develop a more comprehensive program of checking Social Security Administration records for disqualifying data by means of magnetic tape. In fiscal year 1963, the Board and the Social Security Administration had in operation an electronic program for exchanging information for use in coordinating the activities of both agencies and for policing beneficiaries on their respective rolls. Under this program, each agency earmarks its master tape record to indicate the data required by the other. Periodically, each agency notifies the other of the occurrence of events which would affect the benefits payable by the other agency. This program brought about a significant expansion in the number of individuals policed for disqualifying events. However, it was incomplete in that it did not cover any beneficiary who did not have a social security account number of his own reflected in Board records. To close this gap, questionnaires were released to beneficiaries with no SSA number. The Board then furnished the Social Security Administration with identifying data derived from the questionnaires to have the information included in SSA's National Employee Index File. Completion of this project in 1966 will make it possible for SSA to notify the Board if any RRB beneficiary is issued a social security number in the future. Also, SSA will notify the Board if any of the RRB beneficiaries file a social security application where eligibility is on the basis of some other person's wage records. The requirements for the investigation of the eligibility of beneficiaries to continue to receive benefits are as follows: Man-years for policing are expected to increase to 42.4 in 1966 because of nonrecurring work relating to the further expansion of the policing program. Then, man-years for 1967 are expected to decrease to 40.8, which is necessarily higher than the 37.6 man-years expended in 1965 because of the greater number of cases disclosed that will require investigation and adjustment. The introduction of electronic processes into the policing program has resulted in a very sharp rise in productivity, if measured by relating the man-years expended to the number of cases subject to verification under the policing program. This expanded policing program, of course, is producing large savings to the trust fund. The tape exchange program has disclosed overpayments of $7.6 million to date. More important, the expanded program reduces hardship to beneficiaries, because disqualifying events now are disclosed sooner, preventing large accumulations of overpayments for subsequent collection. 4. Hearings and appeals Individuals whose claims for annuities or benefits are disallowed or who dispute the award have the right to appeal to the Board's appeals council and subsequently to the Board itself, prior to the judicial review afforded by section 11 of the Railroad Retirement Act. The workloads and the man-year requirements for this activity are as follows: There is little change in man-year requirements for this activity in the years under comparison. 5. Actuarial services This activity includes the work of preparing actuarial valuations of assets and liabilities of the railroad retirement system as required by law; preparing projections, cost estimates, and other reports relating to the existing benefit program as well as proposed amendments to either the Railroad Retirement Act or the Social Security Act; and conducting studies for the financial interchange with the social security system. These latter studies determine the amounts for transfer between the social security trust funds and the railroad retirement account to place each trust fund in the same position in which it would have been if employment under the Railroad Retirement Act after December 31, 1936, had been employment under the Social Security Act from that date. The importance of these studies, which are required annually, can best be realized from the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars are involved in the financial interchanges. The files of statistical data compiled for analytical and actuarial purposes also have great administrative value. They have been used to give rapid effect to changes in benefits under amendments and to identify those beneficiaries who come under the several policing programs. The savings accruing to the Board over the years from these files have been very great. Requirements for this activity were 23.1 man years in 1965 and are estimated to be the same in 1966 and 1967. 6. Administration This activity embraces the functions of executive direction and general administration, including activities such as personnel, fiscal property management, budgeting, administrative planning and control, and other similar activties. The Board expects to decrease manpower required for general administration from 97.8 man-years in 1965 to 97 in 1966 and 95 man-years in 1967. |