Post by ssaer on Feb 24, 2015 17:31:45 GMT -5
From the Deputy Commissioner's message to ODAR staff minutes ago (emphases supplied):
"Quite simply, more work is coming into ODAR than is going out the door, resulting in more claimants at the hearings level and at the Appeals Council. Additionally, our average processing time is drifting higher. The explanation is simple—we do not have enough ALJs on board right now. We finally received a new ALJ register from the Office of Personnel Management, and we are hiring aggressively. We have hired 90 ALJs in fiscal year (FY) 2015 so far, and we do not plan to stop until we have 250 new ALJs on board this fiscal year. But, the dearth of ALJ and staff hiring in FYs 2013 and 2014, combined with the government shutdown and the massive influx of individuals filing claims as a result of the recession, really hit us hard. We were in terrific shape with pending cases in FY 2012, but that progress has eroded due in part to factors outside our control. Please remember that each case file represents an individual waiting for a decision in his or her case. Please do your best to issue a quality decision in a timely manner.
I am hopeful about the future though. FY 2015 will be the year when we finally start to catch up on staffing levels. We will be hiring hundreds of employees. We will continue to ensure claimants receive timely hearings by using video hearings and balancing the workload in our offices."
"Quite simply, more work is coming into ODAR than is going out the door, resulting in more claimants at the hearings level and at the Appeals Council. Additionally, our average processing time is drifting higher. The explanation is simple—we do not have enough ALJs on board right now. We finally received a new ALJ register from the Office of Personnel Management, and we are hiring aggressively. We have hired 90 ALJs in fiscal year (FY) 2015 so far, and we do not plan to stop until we have 250 new ALJs on board this fiscal year. But, the dearth of ALJ and staff hiring in FYs 2013 and 2014, combined with the government shutdown and the massive influx of individuals filing claims as a result of the recession, really hit us hard. We were in terrific shape with pending cases in FY 2012, but that progress has eroded due in part to factors outside our control. Please remember that each case file represents an individual waiting for a decision in his or her case. Please do your best to issue a quality decision in a timely manner.
I am hopeful about the future though. FY 2015 will be the year when we finally start to catch up on staffing levels. We will be hiring hundreds of employees. We will continue to ensure claimants receive timely hearings by using video hearings and balancing the workload in our offices."
