I'm at the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) conference in Phoenix and I'm hearing that the job of Social Security Commissioner has been offered to several people by the Trump Administration and they have all turned it down.
I'm also hearing that the backlog of Administrative Law Judge decisions awaiting decision writing has more than doubled in last year to more than 70,000. There are problems like this throughout the agency. These backlog problems may be one of the reasons no one wants the job.
I'm also hearing that the backlog of Administrative Law Judge decisions awaiting decision writing has more than doubled in last year to more than 70,000. There are problems like this throughout the agency. These backlog problems may be one of the reasons no one wants the job.
14 comments:
I can see the problem. Trump, if we take him at his word, does not want Social Security cut. The Republican powers that be in Congress want to cut Social Security. Democrats, and the many beneficiaries effected, will cry bloody murder when anyone tries to cut Social Security. Anyone taking the job will immediately plop hip-deep into that pile of political fertilizer.
in the long run the backlogs are going to go down significantly just based on the decreased receipts we've seen lately, but if we aren't given a good budget that allows sufficient hiring, that natural decrease will take a long time to kick in and, if there is any unanticipated uptick in claims or anything else that negatively affects processing time, we could be in big trouble.
Always, always, always remember that SSA is rocking with roughly 60,000 employees when we had in the 80,000s in the 1990s with less work to do and we've not seen some magical technology or anything else that has given us greater efficiency to make up for that difference. Like Astrue said, if you give us sufficient funds, we'll give you the results.
What's the pitch? "Let me offer you a job where you get to battle multiple unions, have an enormous backlog that Congress is pressing us to knock down, have to deal with federal courts pushing for perfect decisions to pass judicial review, has a large number of dead-weight employees that takes a substantial effort to remove, can't freely hire the best qualified candidates based on federal employment rules, and, oh yeah, we want you to fix all of this while having fewer resources and fewer employees than allotted to your predecessors."
Who wouldn't jump on that?
backlog of decisions waiting to be written (ALJ has issued instructions) is currently at 72,748 (Sept 14). This is up from about 50,000 in February and well up over the recent norm of the past few years of about 20,000-25,000.
Increased ALJ hiring without commensurate decision writer support.
What is the salary for the position? Assume it's not over $200K but maybe. Looks like Berryhill will have to assume this position forever.
He should offer it to me. I have some ideas, based upon reading 3 years of comments here. Increase OTRs by Senior Attorneys, cut dead weight (management positions), increase staff from savings of reduced management, make my SSA more usable, reduce the number of offices in some areas, make the choices for when to get SS more obvious for retirees... I am sure I could think of more. I think I would enjoy the job.
Hats off to AC Berryhill and the rest of SSA leadership for their perseverance and dedicated public service in the face of tons of headaches and ounces of support.
@ 4:38 yes!
Sorry, 2:44. You are short by 24 years of experience required for the job. Notwithstanding the brilliance of your ideas.
@4:38 & 8:23
Oh please, is it even possible to suck up any further? Your noses are so far beyond brown, they stick out like Rudolph the reindeer. FACT: Outright denial of reality is a clear indicator of mental illness.
@2:44 is SPOT-ON, truthful, and certainly, functioning in reality.
@9:47's criticism of 2:44 makes no sense whatsoever, and assumes facts, i.e., years of experience, which are unknown. Although flippant, 9:47 concedes the "brilliance" of 2:44's comment.
Make me commissioner.
Most regional management offices? Closed, staff reassigned.
New regional centers for processing and writing? Give me a list of every metro over 500,000 people that is "rest of the US" in the pay scale, and the average sq ft commercial office space cost. I'll staff those offices with people who think Federal pay is very good instead of people in areas where it is tough to get by on Fed pay.
Future union contract? We are bumping up telework but you are giving up having "your" cubicle.
People want government run like a business? Fine we will outsource most of office space requirements to our employees and we will move our jobs to where the salary costs are lower and we can boost retention by being an employer that is toward the higher end of the local job market.
So much of the regional management is now emailing computer reports, many of which appear to be auto-generated, we can shuffle that work out as well.
Get rid of Gruber, telework and union controlling the Agency and some work might be done... right now there is no accountability, no support staff in ODAR to do the work (they are "working" at home) and even the least productive and most troublesome employees cannot be fired.... Gruber is now trying to blame management... fish rots from the head down...
Well said 4:38, everyone is quick to cast stones but they are far from perfect themselves. Its an impossible position and just keeping anything moving is an accomplishment!
Negative Nellies will whine and moan, but do nothing but whine and moan.
2:44 PM here. SSA could either try to do more with the considerable resources they have... Or, they could continue to do less with less. The Republicans want more denials. However, there is a real devastating effect to people who really can't work when they are denied. Either Reconsideration needs to approve more or it needs to be eliminated. Personally, I think this entire process is way to lengthy with not enough human contact. There also doesn't appear to be any real check on the bureaucracy's power. Basically, ALJs can deny or approve without any real knowledge of what the claimant goes through. So, the word Cancer is scary... Approve. Your disorder is called XXXXX... What is that. Oh, causes pain... Denied. How can you expect a lawyer to understand the medicine when the doctors often don't? If the doctors don't understand why the medications don't help, how can the judge? I did the math on 5 of the medical conditions I have. Over 1 in 200 trillion to one against one person of those 5. Does not include the dry eyes that causes migraines. So, how could anyone else really know how these all impact each other? Sorry, I kind of got off topic. It is easy to get distracted when one side of your face is in spasms, your head is buzzing, your ear is ringing, your other eye is irritated and your whole body hurts.
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