The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee is not happy that the Social Security Administration spent $32 million on employee bonuses last year at the same time it was asking for more money to speed up decisions on disability benefit claims.
"I think this sends the wrong signal to more than half a million claimants who are waiting for the Social Security Administration to process their claims," Sen. Jim Sasser, D-Tenn., said Tuesday.Sasser said he was particularly disturbed that the bonuses were awarded in 1993, a year in which the agency sought $302 million in additional funding for its disability program.
Social Security spokesman Phil Gambino said none of the disability money was spent on bonuses, which rewarded employees stretched thin by a 20 percent cut in the agency's work force coupled with record numbers of disability benefit claims.
Two-thirds of the agency's 65,000 employees collected bonuses, based on performance and salary.
The bonuses amounted to 1.15 percent of the agency's $2.8 billion payroll, Gambino said.
Sasser acknowledged that the agency is allowed to spend up to 1.5 percent of its payroll costs on performance awards.