National Public Radio Report On ALJ Shortage

You can listen to a report on National Public Radio on backlogs in holding hearings on Social Security disability claims. Here are some excerpts from the text:

ALEX COHEN, host:

Americans, who become disabled before they reach retirement age, often rely on the financial support of Social Security disability benefits. More than half a million people have been waiting now as long as three years to see if they’ll actually get these benefits. The Social Security Administration says it’s made some progress in chipping away at its staggering backlog of cases, but there’s still problems with money to support the program. ...

Mr. MICHAEL ASTRUE (Commissioner of Social Security): Last time I checked, which was about a month ago, we were at 1,041 administrative judges, which is really unacceptable. The minimum that we think we need to start driving the backlogs down in a significant way would be about 1250. ...

Mr. ASTRUE: Congress has had other funding priorities in the domestic area and the administrative budget for the Social Security Administration has been losing out consistently for a long period of time and it is starting to show up in the quality of performance.