The Social Security Administration's Buffalo office has a lot of cases to process. And the delays in getting those cases resolved has raised a lot of questions.
According to the SSA it takes 669 days, or nearly two years, for the average Western New Yorker to have their case heard and processed. Also, each Administrative Law Judge in Buffalo has on average 895 cases pending.
"It's unacceptable," said Congressman Brian Higgins (D) (Buffalo). "People in this community are hurting. When they file a claim, they're not looking for benefits two years from now, they're looking for benefits right away."
Higgins wants to know why ten new administrative law judges have been added to New York in 2008, and none of those ten have been assigned to Buffalo. "We need more administrative law judges to get these claims processed in an expeditious way," he said.
Note that the Congressman is asking a question that has not been asked by Congressmen in the past. How does Social Security decide which hearing offices to assign new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) to. From what I have seen, the assignment of new ALJs seems to have little to do with need. There are legitimate questions to ask.
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