Commissioner Michael Astrue has penned an op ed piece that is being provided to newspapers. Apparently, it is not drawing much interest since the only newspaper that I have found that has published it so far is the Red Wing Republican Eagle of Minnesota. Here is a brief excerpt:
He goes on to talk about his "aggressive plan" for reducing the backlogs.
I know from personal experience how difficult Social Security’s disability process can be. When my father was 52, he suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage caused by a rare form of brain cancer. As I took care of the application for him, it opened my eyes to the complicated rules associated with our disability programs. ...
That’s why I’ve made improving the disability determination process my top priority. It is our most pressing challenge.
1 comment:
Well here's your backlog What I have suspected all, MODs in the PC and Field Offices are run like sweatshops, but ALJs are in their offices practicing their golf swing. So lets hire some more of them.
http://www.ssa.gov/oig/ADOBEPDF/audittxt/A-07-07-17072.htm
"While ODAR has taken actions to counsel some ALJs on the timeliness of their case processing, it does not have a formal performance accountability process in place to hold ALJs accountable for performance that is below an acceptable level."
"This review focused on increasing the number of cases processed by fully available ALJs because ODAR does not track the number of hours each partially available ALJ is actually available to process cases."
"We believe it is important to note that Hearing Office Chief ALJs (HOCALJ) were included in the partially available ALJ classification for the purposes of our review. HOCALJs were excluded from our analysis of fully available ALJs because, although they are full-time employees, they are given the latitude to spend 25 to 50 percent of their time on management functions, depending on the size of the hearing office. However, we found it interesting that, in FY 2006, HOCALJs processed an average of 657 cases. This average was higher than the average of 485 cases processed by fully available ALJs in FY 2006, although HOCALJs are only partially available to adjudicate cases."
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