Social Security Administration: Many Letters Difficult to Understand (Testimony, 03/22/94, GAO/T-HEHS-94-126). The Social Security Administration (SSA) each year sends letters to more than 44 million people. To accommodate this extremely high volume, virtually the entire process is automated. SSA relies on these letters to officially notify individuals about their eligibility for benefits or adjustments SSA is making to their benefits. SSA has had longstanding problems communicating clearly in its letters. Although SSA's recently revised communication standards appear to be a positive step, they do not address problems such as illogically ordered information or missing details. GAO staff trained in accounting and the Social Security program examined a representative sample of 500 letters and found them hard to understand. GAO concludes that SSA needs to establish overall communication objectives, including identifying its customers' preferences and measuring progress toward achieving such objectives. --------------------------- Indexing Terms ----------------------------- REPORTNUM: T-HEHS-94-126 TITLE: Social Security Administration: Many Letters Difficult to Understand DATE: 03/22/94 SUBJECT: Computerized information systems Beneficiaries ADP Systems conversions Overpayments Eligibility determinations Communications operations Data transmission operations Social security benefits Data base management systems IDENTIFIER: Supplemental Security Income Program Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program Social Security Program ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We regret that electronic text of GAO Testimony is not available at this time. See the GAO FAQ - Section 2.0 for printed copy ordering information. The FAQ is automatically retrieved with all WAIS search results or can be obtained by sending e-mail to: [email protected]