Backlogs and Delays at SSA

Richard Warsinskey, the President of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA), testified before the House Appropriations Committee on March 29, 2006. He gave the Committee stark evidence of the massive workload problems facing the Social Security Administration:

• In 1999 SSA had 311,000 hearings pending. As of the end of February there are now about 725,000 hearings pending, an increase of 133%. The average hearing processing time continues to go up. Current processing times are 476 days, up from 443 days last fiscal year. The average Administrative Law Judge has approximately 710 cases pending per available judge. As a result the average time to receive a hearing decision is often more than two years.

• SSA’s Program Service Centers (PSCs) have seen their pending cases more than double in the past two years, increasing by more than 350,000 cases. Backlogs in the PSCs have contributed to an increase in requests from Congress for status of cases by over 40% and requests for special high priority payment of cases by over 110%. The PSC backlogs have been exacerbated because so many of the employees must assist in answering the 1-800 number.
• Waiting times in Field Offices rose dramatically for the first six weeks of the year. Walk-in traffic increased by approximately 40% for the first six weeks of the year. Since then traffic has moderated somewhat but walk-in traffic is currently up an estimated 25%.
• SSA’s 1-800 number has received nearly 4.4 million more calls this year compared to the same time last year.