May 10, 2006

Inconsistency Between ALJs

Houston TV Station KHOU has recently run a story on inconsistency between ALJs at the Downtown Houston Social Security hearing office. The percentage of favorable decisions issued by ALJs in that office ranged between 68.11% and 7.19%. Registration is required to watch a video of the story (and even then there may be technical problems.) However, the statistics on ALJ allowance rates in the Downtown Houston office are available as a PDF and the ALJs names are listed. Also there are statistics that show the ALJ allowance rate by state, figures that I have never seen before. It is hard to understand how the reporter obtained the statistics on ALJ allowance rates that list ALJs by name. Social Security has released these numbers previously in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, but not with the ALJs' names listed.

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