Plans for Streamlining Social Security to Be Announced : Retirement: White House says the way future recipients are paid and apply for benefits to be changed. Better claims processing a goal.

The White House plans to streamline the Social Security Administration by changing the way future retirees receive their checks and apply for benefits, and may pressure states to improve the processing of disability claims, Clinton Administration officials said Sunday.

The changes are scheduled to be announced Wednesday as part of the Administration’s “reinventing government” initiative. The officials said the changes, which include the closing of five regional Social Security offices, are expected to save about $800 million over five years.

Under the White House plan, future retirees would no longer receive their Social Security check at the beginning of each month, usually the third day, as they now do. Instead, the government would stagger the mailing over four payment dates, relieving itself and the post office of the traditional rush and, it is hoped, freeing up toll-free telephone lines jammed at the start of each month by recipients with questions or complaints.

Officials also said they will seek to move all retirees with bank accounts into a direct deposit program, and may allow banks to issue a single debit card that would add Social Security benefits to other federal payments, such as welfare or food stamps, that now may be paid via “smart cards.” About half of Social Security’s 44 million beneficiaries now receive their checks through electronic deposit.

Under the current system, Americans apply for Social Security through the mail, by telephone or by visiting one of the agency’s 1,300 field offices across the country. The White House plan would let retiring workers apply through their company’s personnel office, which would electronically forward the information to Social Security.

Another proposal, the one change still awaiting President Clinton’s approval, could force states to compete for federal funds in the area of disability claims. Social Security now pays state agencies to screen disabled Americans who no longer can work. To cut down on processing errors, the White House may allow Social Security to warn poorly performing states that they could lose the program. If a state failed to improve, Social Security would be able to hand the program over to another state that produced more accurate records.

The Administration will recommend that most of the proposed changes apply only to future retirees, said Elaine C. Kamarck, a senior policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore.