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Washington — Adequate funding for the Social Security Administration (SSA) is the only way to stem—much less reverse—the outrageous growth in the number of long-pending claims for disability benefits, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees told a House subcommittee today.

“Currently, there is an unacceptable backlog of Americans waiting for resolution of their disability benefits applications,” President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said in testimony submitted to the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee. The House hearing is addressing Social Security and economically vulnerable beneficiaries.

NTEU represents some 900 SSA employees in the agency’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR). It formerly was known as the Office of Hearings and Appeals.

Last fall, when NTEU called for additional SSA funding, President Kelley put the number of pending disability claims at a record 753,000—more than double the 311,000 at the start of the decade, with processing times having climbed to 512 days from 275 days over the same period.

ODAR employees “continue to perform their duties at exemplary standards,” Kelley said, “yet suffer from a lack of resources.” She called on the administration and Congress to provide an SSA funding level well over the $11 billion needed in fiscal 2009 to stop the backlog. “Disabled Americans have been left with no income as their applications wait to be reviewed,” she said.

On related matters, the NTEU leader repeated her call for repeal or significant modification of both the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), both of which severely penalize federal retirees by reducing their Social Security benefit.

“Federal retirees often first become aware of the existence of these provisions at the time they apply for Social Security benefits,” she said. “With record numbers of retirements from federal employment expected, continuation of such policies will make many people feel as if they are being penalized for having chosen to enter public service.”

According to the Congressional Research Service, Kelley said, there are more than 400,000 recipients of a Social Security spousal benefit whose income is reduced by the GPO. About 75 percent of those impacted are women; they are hurt the most by the GPO because of career interruptions arising from work breaks to raise children, or because they worked in lower-paid positions.

The WEP is believed to adversely impact the Social Security benefits of more than 970,000 federal retirees—often cutting the benefit by nearly 50 percent.

Kelley said she is pleased that the House has under consideration several bills that would amend the Social Security Act to repeal or reduce the impact of the WEP and GPO. She welcomed the subcommittee’s hearing, calling it “the next step toward providing relief to federal retirees from the financial devastation of these two provisions.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.