With a massive backlog of pending disability cases continuing to build in Buffalo’s Social Security hearing office and other offices across New York State, U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton today demanded that the Social Security Administration (SSA) revamp their efforts to reduce case backlog. SSA recently announced that they hired 135 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) to help ease the burden so many offices across the country are feeling. However, only ten of these new hires were assigned to New York hearing offices, despite the fact that New York residents wait on average a year before they even receive an initial hearing of their case and almost two years before their cases are fully processed. Of the nine New York State hearing offices, only four were offered new staff. ...If Obama is elected and Astrue decides to hang on, he is going to end up feeling like a punching bag.
Today, in response to the weak arguments involving office space and the disappointing allocation of new hires to New York SSA hearing offices, Schumer and Clinton wrote to Commissioner Astrue, demanding a detailed explanation of the allocation process and how the SSA assignments would help reduce backlog in New York. The senators also urged SSA to reconsider their current allocation plan so additional placements could be made the high-traffic New York hearing offices as soon as possible.
“It is beyond unacceptable that we have Buffalo residents waiting over a year or more for SSA to process their disability cases,” said Senator Schumer.
Jun 10, 2008
Pressure For More ALJs in NY
From a press release issued by Senator Clinton (emphasis added):
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3 comments:
what?! the national hearing center hasn't brought this backlog under control yet??? what a failure of the system. LOL
They just approved a $ 290 billion dollar farm subsidy bill, and they can't come up with another lousy billion for SSA? $ 240 mil is a complete joke. This Congress is pathetic. They make it sound like it is SSA's own fault, when it is their inaction that is exacerbating the crisis.
That press release is from April, according to Clinton's web site. You have posted more recently that several new ALJs will indeed be allocated to the buffalo area. Perhaps your post here needs a correction to date the press release.
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