SSA opens online application for core disability program

The Social Security Administration is taking online applications for one of its main disability programs after years of trying to simplify and move the process online, an effort the agency’s former commissioner Martin O’Malley has previously described as SSA’s “white whale.”

Over 7.4 million people got Supplemental Security Income — a means-tested program for people with disabilities and older adults with little to no income or resources — in 2022, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The number of claims has gone down since the pandemic, David Camp, CEO of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, previously told Nextgov/FCW.

The new SSI online application is “part of the agency’s overall commitment to improving access to our benefits and programs,” an SSA blog post on the news said. “The rollout of the streamlined online application is the first phase of a multi-year effort to simplify the disability application process and improve access for those who may be eligible.”

For now, though, the online version is only available for some adults — those who are between 18 to 64 years old and ten months; applying for both SSI and Social Security Disability Insurance; not married and never have been; and have never before applied for SSI for themselves or for a child. 

Previously, people could apply for SSDI online, but not SSI, although claimants could establish a “protective filing date” to start the clock of “past-due benefits” that the agency would pay if a person is approved. 

The agency said when it first previewed the online application that it intended to expand the availability of the online application to all applicants in 2025 and 2026. SSA also plans to offer the streamlined process for all applicants filing in offices, over the phone and online, the agency said in its new blog post.

For now, the limits on who can use the online application leave out people like children and those who are married — both groups that have to answer additional questions, Camp told Nextgov/FCW previously. The agency also said in August that it intended to make a simplified adult application and separate application for children. 

The new application is meant to be simpler and is informed by customer testing, SSA said. It will be pre-populated where possible, and have as few as 12 questions — down from 54. 

"The actual policy part of SSI, the stuff that Congress controls, is really quite complex,” Betsy Beaumon, the agency’s chief transformation officer, said at a Dec. 9 Nextgov/FCW event. "Our policy group and others did a lot of work to say, ’How can we most effectively simplify the questions?’”

The new online offering comes as the agency is still trying to cut down on long wait times for those that do submit their applications for SSI. The average processing time for SSI and SSDI applications in fiscal 2025 so far is over 200 days, according to public SSA data. O’Malley has described the agency as being in a “customer service crisis.”

"Our challenge is that we are at the highest number of customers served,” said Beaumon, “and the lowest staffing in 50 years."