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Post by mamaru on Nov 25, 2014 14:29:44 GMT -5
Speaking from my outsider level of ignorance, I assumed that's what the first two levels of review were supposed to do. Not the case, I see. I came into the agency several years ago assuming the same - never having done SS cases. I think it is a misperception among the congressional folks who were hotseating those outliers awhile back that we are reversing a decision made by "experts" below. The theme seemed to be, Why all of a sudden are you paying these people? As the writers above have stated, there are a lot of good reasons to pay a case at our level.
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Post by redryder on Nov 25, 2014 15:38:53 GMT -5
Even with all of these variables, there is still some basis upon which to question the pay/denial rates that are at the extremes of the bell curve. Within a given office, the judges are hearing cases for the same population, give or take a few for those dockets that may come from outside their assigned jurisdiction. But given that cases are assigned on rotation, it is hard to understand why one judge in an office pays greater or denies greater than 80% of the cases assigned while no one else in the office comes close to these percentages.
From office to office? Or region to region? With that in mind, I can easily see that the ALJs who hear cases for persons who are agricultural workers, age 50+ and do not speak English may have a higher pay rate than the urban judges who have English-speaking high school grads and PRW.
Unfortunately when one looks at the information that has been posted, this is not the case. If you don't believe this is so, go to the ODAR public site and pull up the disposition info. Sort it by offices and scroll through. Then you will see some of the anomalies that are causing the rest of us indigestion.
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Post by philliesfan on Nov 25, 2014 17:17:08 GMT -5
One thing that never seems to come out is that the vast majority of claimant's who are awarded benefits are awarded at the initial level. While I do not have the stats in front of me, there are over 3,000,000 applications filed in recent years. The national average pay rate at the initial level is between 30 and 40 percent. Therefore, at least a 1,000,000 claims are paid initially. About 10 percent are paid on recon. I think ODAR ALJs disposed of about 700,000 claims last fiscal year with a national pay rate of about 42 percent or just under 300,000 claims. I do not defend the so called outliers. I know some. I am not one of those, but it seems to me the elephant in the room is the initial pay rate at the DDS. Yet Congress has not focused on that.
BTW, I agree with what the other ALJs have said about record development, attorney involvement, and the passage of time, etc.
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Post by 71stretch on Nov 26, 2014 1:36:43 GMT -5
And yet another thread morphs into a discussion that has nothing to do with the title. It's a great discussion, but I'd never know to find it here....
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Post by gary on Nov 26, 2014 1:43:15 GMT -5
And yet another thread morphs into a discussion that has nothing to do with the title. It's a great discussion, but I'd never know to find it here....
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 26, 2014 3:35:31 GMT -5
And yet another thread morphs into a discussion that has nothing to do with the title. It's a great discussion, but I'd never know to find it here.... It isn't the first time this has happened and likely will not be the last time it happens either.
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Post by JudgeRatty on Nov 26, 2014 19:54:47 GMT -5
Apologies for hijacking the thread. Back to the subject of the thread: Are they gonna make offers to all 250 at the same time with staggered start dates, or are they gonna stagger the offer dates? I bet they stagger offers like in years past. With that said I would love to know as much in advance as possible since I will be selling my house etc but folks with private practices no doubt want even more notice for good reason.
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Post by gary on Nov 26, 2014 22:39:12 GMT -5
I think they'll have to at least make the offers in the order of the training classes. They wouldn't have time to make all 250 hires before the January class starts. I would guess they might do several waves of offers, rather than make all the hires in one fell swoop.
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Post by hopefalj on Nov 26, 2014 23:56:42 GMT -5
That will do a good job of prolonging the uncertainty. I had settled down after the OPM interview, got back to work, and put the ALJ hiring out of my mind. Then suddenly I get an email after 14 months summoning me for an interview on a week's notice. Now we're back to "maybe this month, maybe February, maybe April ... yada yada." My wife, who is retired military, seems to be taking it all in stride. Business as usual. Me, not so much. I believe second cert hires will be completed by the end of January with at least two different start dates, possibly three, and around 75-85 new hires. Those of us not picked up off cert two will then get to wait until April/May for the third cert. If we make a city or 40, then we won't have to interview, but we will get to speculate on when those hires will occur and continue waiting to see if we're hired then. I imagine the hires from this group will be wrapped up in 3-4 weeks once they start.
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 27, 2014 6:58:59 GMT -5
That will do a good job of prolonging the uncertainty. I had settled down after the OPM interview, got back to work, and put the ALJ hiring out of my mind. Then suddenly I get an email after 14 months summoning me for an interview on a week's notice. Now we're back to "maybe this month, maybe February, maybe April ... yada yada." My wife, who is retired military, seems to be taking it all in stride. Business as usual. Me, not so much. I believe second cert hires will be completed by the end of January with at least two different start dates, possibly three, and around 75-85 new hires. Those of us not picked up off cert two will then get to wait until April/May for the third cert. If we make a city or 40, then we won't have to interview, but we will get to speculate on when those hires will occur and continue waiting to see if we're hired then. I imagine the hires from this group will be wrapped up in 3-4 weeks once they start. Hopefalj I think you are spot on. The hires total here will be somewhere between 70 and 80 total ALJs over two classes. Then, after another month or two another cert for another hiring of 70 or 80 more ALJs. Probably, one more cert with a hire of 70 to 80 ALJs prior to fiscal year end.
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 27, 2014 7:12:46 GMT -5
Apologies for hijacking the thread. Back to the subject of the thread: Are they gonna make offers to all 250 at the same time with staggered start dates, or are they gonna stagger the offer dates? I bet they stagger offers like in years past. With that said I would love to know as much in advance as possible since I will be selling my house etc but folks with private practices no doubt want even more notice for good reason. Sratty, I like your confidence and I wish I was as confident as you are. My only question is, if you don't get the position will you still be selling your house?
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Post by JudgeRatty on Nov 28, 2014 8:34:13 GMT -5
I bet they stagger offers like in years past. With that said I would love to know as much in advance as possible since I will be selling my house etc but folks with private practices no doubt want even more notice for good reason. Sratty, I like your confidence and I wish I was as confident as you are. My only question is, if you don't get the position will you still be selling your house? No, I will only sell if I get an offer. My home city is not on my cert list, so I would need to sell if I am so lucky as to receive an offer. Otherwise, I will be plugging away in my current job and not selling. I only meant "will be selling" in the context of getting an offer and that is not guaranteed by any means as we all know. I'm not that confident! LOL!
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 28, 2014 8:41:38 GMT -5
Sratty, I like your confidence and I wish I was as confident as you are. My only question is, if you don't get the position will you still be selling your house? No, I will only sell if I get an offer. My home city is not on my cert list, so I would need to sell if I am so lucky as to receive an offer. Otherwise, I will be plugging away in my current job and not selling. I only meant "will be selling" in the context of getting an offer and that is not guaranteed by any means as we all know. I'm not that confident! LOL! Sratty you know I was just "busting your chops" regarding the home sale. As to confidence, I am more confident for your chances to be hired than mine because of your "liked" insider status. By the "liked" here I just don't mean your insider status, but the fact you are well thought of in SSA circles based upon your work ethic and you have some management experience to boot.
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Post by JudgeRatty on Nov 28, 2014 8:55:57 GMT -5
No, I will only sell if I get an offer. My home city is not on my cert list, so I would need to sell if I am so lucky as to receive an offer. Otherwise, I will be plugging away in my current job and not selling. I only meant "will be selling" in the context of getting an offer and that is not guaranteed by any means as we all know. I'm not that confident! LOL! Sratty you know I was just "busting your chops" regarding the home sale. As to confidence, I am more confident for your chances to be hired than mine because of your "liked" insider status. By the "liked" here I just don't mean your insider status, but the fact you are well thought of in SSA circles based upon your work ethic and you have some management experience to boot. It's all good MPD! I know you know what I mean, but I didn't want others to think anything otherwise. I do think your 30 years experience may trump my insider status though! LOL!
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Post by gary on Nov 28, 2014 9:21:34 GMT -5
Sratty you know I was just "busting your chops" regarding the home sale. As to confidence, I am more confident for your chances to be hired than mine because of your "liked" insider status. By the "liked" here I just don't mean your insider status, but the fact you are well thought of in SSA circles based upon your work ethic and you have some management experience to boot. It's all good MPD! I know you know what I mean, but I didn't want others to think anything otherwise. I do think your 30 years experience may trump my insider status though! LOL! I like the chances of both of you.
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Post by anotherfed on Nov 28, 2014 10:57:50 GMT -5
It's all good MPD! I know you know what I mean, but I didn't want others to think anything otherwise. I do think your 30 years experience may trump my insider status though! LOL! I like the chances of both of you. So do I.
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Post by Gaidin on Nov 28, 2014 14:39:26 GMT -5
Yep. I suspect you both have excellent chances.
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Post by moopigsdad on Nov 28, 2014 18:21:28 GMT -5
Only time will tell as to anybody's chances in the long run.
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Post by orchid on Nov 28, 2014 21:08:14 GMT -5
Only time will tell as to anybody's chances in the long run. Yes.
Sooner rather than later I hope:)
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Post by anotherfed on Dec 1, 2014 7:40:33 GMT -5
Bump
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