The majority of disability  claims remained pending because they took significantly more time to  process than death and education claims. All Education Claims and Over Three-Quarters of Closed Death Claims Were Approved, while Most Disability Claims Remained Pending

While we estimated that about 80 percent of all PSOB program claims  initiated in fiscal years 2006 through 2008 were closed as of April 2009, we  found that the closure rate varied by type of claim—about 100 percent for  education claims, 78 percent for death claims, and 31 percent for disability  claims. According to PSOB officials, obtaining this documentation  may take months or years. However, we could not determine how long the attorney review  portion of the process took because of the PSOB Office’s inconsistent  claim file documentation on the dates during which the reviews occurred. Some State and Local Officials We Interviewed Were Concerned about Their Lack of Awareness of Some Program Benefits, Difficulties with Establishing Eligibility, and Perceived Long Wait Times for Benefits

State and local officials were not always aware of PSOB program benefits,  especially those for disability and education. Overall,  officials most frequently expressed concern about what they believed to  be a long wait time for PSOB benefits, and frustration about the lack of  communication from the PSOB Office about claim status and estimated  wait times for receiving benefits. Officials Said That Submitting All Necessary Paperwork to Prove Eligibility Was Difficult and Time-consuming

Officials in all five states we visited also told us that when applying for  benefits, submitting all the necessary paperwork to prove eligibility was  difficult and can be time-consuming. While It Is Taking Steps to Improve, the PSOB Office Does Not Yet Follow Government Guidelines for Performance Monitoring

Overall, we found that while it is taking steps to improve, the PSOB Office  does not follow government standards and guidelines for setting goals and  monitoring performance. However, we found that other federal programs that provide  benefits after work-related injury and illness have been able to set  strategic goals and monitor performance. In addition, the PSOB program has initiated several efforts in an attempt to  address concerns about the lack of program awareness, the burdensome  application process, and obtaining claims status. Without this information, the  program office cannot communicate with claimants and other public  stakeholders about how long the claims process is expected to take and  whether program constraints, such as required procedures and limited  resources, are affecting the process. (2) What issues, if any, were raised by state and local agencies and  advocacy organizations seeking benefits on the behalf of claimants? (3) To what extent does the PSOB program follow recognized government  standards and guidelines for effective program management? As shown in table 3, the states were selected based on  geographic location, the percentage of the national total number of public  safety officers that was in a state for calendar years 2006 to 2008, the  number of work-related deaths among public safety officers in a state for  calendar years 2005 to 2007, variation in the amount of state workers’  compensation benefits, variation in the availability and amount of state  lump-sum death benefits, and recommendations from advocacy groups  and employee organizations. To evaluate the effectiveness of the PSOB program’s management, we  interviewed program officials and reviewed and analyzed available  documents on performance monitoring, program outreach and assistance  for those seeking benefits, and current and future plans for automating the  claims process.
Why GAO Did This Study

In 1976, Congress established the Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) program, which is administered by the Department of Justice (Justice) and provides lump-sum payments to eligible public safety officers and their survivors after a line-of-duty death or permanent and total disability. The program also provides educational benefits to an eligible officer's spouse and children. GAO was asked to determine (1) the extent to which claimants receive PSOB program benefits and how long the claims process takes, (2) any issues raised by state and local agencies and others who assist claimants in seeking benefits, and (3) the extent to which the PSOB program follows recognized government standards and guidelines for effective program management. To address these objectives, we reviewed PSOB claims that were opened during fiscal years 2006 to 2008 for all three types of claims, reviewed relevant agency documents, and interviewed PSOB program officials, representatives of advocacy organizations, and state and local officials in five selected states.

What GAO Found

GAO found that all education claims and over three-quarters of death claims opened in fiscal years 2006 through 2008 were closed and approved as of April 2009, while only about 31 percent of disability claims initiated during that period had determinations. The majority of disability claims remained pending because they took significantly longer to process than other claims--while education and death claims were generally processed in under a year, disability claims took between 17 and 26 months. GAO was unable to pinpoint which steps of the claims process were most time-consuming because claims files that GAO reviewed did not consistently document the date when claims passed through each step of the process. State and local officials GAO interviewed were generally concerned about their lack of awareness of certain PSOB program benefits, challenges with establishing eligibility, and the perceived long wait time for benefits. Specifically, officials were generally more aware of death than disability and education benefits. Officials also stated that submitting all the necessary paperwork to prove eligibility was difficult and time-consuming due, in part, to how long it took to obtain necessary documents from other organizations. Officials most frequently expressed concern about perceived long wait times for receiving benefits and also reported difficulties obtaining information about claims status. While it is taking steps to improve, the PSOB program does not follow government guidelines for performance monitoring. Specifically, according to Justice officials, the PSOB program has not set strategic goals and measures, monitored performance, or reported results because it is a payment program, and its budget is largely mandatory. However, other federal programs that provide benefits after work-related injury and illness have established performance measures, such as ones for claims-processing timeliness, and report their results publicly. Also, while the PSOB program has initiated several outreach and assistance efforts to claimants and state and local agencies in recent years, these efforts are not monitored, resulting in uncertainty as to whether they are adequate.