Social Security Hrgs Backlog Down

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www.socialsecurity.gov/pressoffice/pr/hearings-backlog-pr.htm

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 Mark Lassiter, Press Officer
For Immediate Release 410-965-8904
[e-mail]
SOCIAL SECURITY
News Release
Social Security Hearings Backlog Down for First Time in Decade
Productivity and Processing Times Also Improve
(Printer friendly version)
Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that for the first time since 1999, the agency has ended the year with fewer disability hearings pending than in the prior year. Social Security ended fiscal year (FY) 2009 with 722,822 hearings pending compared to 760,813 hearings pending at the start of the year, a reduction of more than 37,000 cases. Over the same period, the average processing time for these cases improved from 514 days in FY 2008 to 491 in FY 2009.

“Our backlog reduction plan is working, and progress is accelerating,” Commissioner Astrue said. “Even in the face of a significant increase in our workloads as a result of the worst recession since the Great Depression, we have reduced the hearings backlog for nine consecutive months. Thanks to the efforts of thousands of hardworking Social Security employees and the additional funding we received from President Obama and the Congress, we have exceeded our backlog reduction goal for this year.”



To achieve its backlog reduction goals, the agency has embarked on the largest expansion in decades of its capacity to hear disability appeals. This year, the agency hired 147 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and 850 support staff and plans to hire 226 additional ALJs plus support staff in FY 2010. To provide flexibility to assist the most backlogged hearing offices, the agency opened three new National Hearing Centers (NHCs) in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Baltimore, Maryland; and Chicago, Illinois. The agency also has aggressive plans to open 14 new hearing offices and 4 satellite offices by the end of next year with the first of those new offices opening in Anchorage, Alaska in the next few months.

In addition to reducing the number of cases awaiting a hearing decision, the agency again targeted the oldest and most difficult cases for processing. Beginning in FY 2007 with 65,000 cases that were 1,000 days old or older, the agency has continually attacked its “aged” cases. This year, the agency targeted 166,838 cases that were 850 days or older and virtually eliminated this entire universe of cases. The goal in FY 2010 has been reset again to eliminate cases over 825 days old.

Social Security’s ALJs also continue to increase their productivity. The agency averaged 570 dispositions (2.28 per day) per available ALJ in FY 2009, an upward trend that has continued for the last three years.

For more information about Social Security’s hearings process and backlog reduction initiatives, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/appeals.

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I just saw this-isn't that ALJ hiring number larger than what we had heard earlier. That really makes a difference if they don't reopen the application process.


Below is a portion of an October 9 article below from the Union City Tennessee paper, the largest paper in the Congressional District of Congressman John Tanner, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, on SSA's efforts on the disability backlog.



U.S. Rep. John Tanner, chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, praised the Social Security Administration for the success of its ongoing efforts to reduce the unprecedented backlog in disability appeals hearings.



The number of pending disability hearings declined during fiscal year 2009 for the first time since 1999. SSA projects that with adequate funding, it will eliminate the hearings backlog by the end of fiscal year 2013.



“Social Security’s disability hearings backlog has skyrocketed in recent years due to a lack of resources,” Tanner said in a press release. “This has caused untold hardship for many Tennesseans and Americans with severe disabilities who must often wait years to receive benefits for which they are eligible.



“Eliminating this backlog is a top priority of our subcommittee. We are very pleased that, due to the increased commitment from Congress and the concerted efforts of the Social Security Administration and its hard-working staff, we have finally turned the corner; the backlog is decreasing for the first time in nearly a decade.”
The Ways and Means subcommittees on Social Security and Income Security and Family Support held a joint hearing in March to examine SSA’s progress in reducing the hearings backlog and urge SSA to continue to make this a top priority.



The economic downturn brought a steep increase in disability applications, threatening backlog reduction efforts. To allow SSA to process these increased claims and keep on track with the backlog reduction plan, Congress provided $500 million in funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.



The increased funding allowed SSA to hire 190 additional administrative law judges in fiscal year 2008 to conduct hearings, and an additional 147 ALJs in fiscal year 2009, as well as critically-needed support staff for these judges. SSA plans to hire 226 more ALJs, plus support staff, in FY 2010, increasing the size of its ALJ corps to 1,450. The agency also plans to open 18 new full-service hearing offices by the end of fiscal year 2010.



Chairman Tanner's press release can be accessed at: www.house.gov/tanner/press111-045.html .





Thank you all for your continued hard work and commitment to working down the disability backlog.



David V. Foster

Deputy Commissioner

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Depends on if they count the current case as fiscal 09 or 10!