From The NOSSCR Conference -- Comissioner Astrue

To continue with the reports from the NOSSCR Conference, here are the points that I picked up from Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue's speech:

• 55% of the $250 economic stimulus checks went out last week. Most of the stimulus checks going out to SSI recipients will go out in the next two days.
• Astrue expects to send proposed regulations on "single decision-maker" to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval soon.
• He expects to hold two more compassionate allowance public hearings this year -- on Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. [I have a suggestion. Why not just make a simple confirmed diagnosis of schizophrenia enough to meet the Listing. That is what is happening anyway.]
• The actuaries predict a million more disability claims in the next three years as a result of the recession. Astrue seemed skeptical of the actuaries' ability to predict this. [I'm with Astrue, although maybe for different reasons. In my experience the number of claims filed has much more to do with public perceptions of the adjudicative climate at Social Security than with economic circumstances. At any given time there are several million people who could file a claim for Social Security disability benefits but do not have a claim pending. The decisions of members of this group to file or not file have little to do with the state of the economy.]
• Precessing times at state Disablity Determination Services (DDSs) will get worse this year.
• 8% of New York state DDS employees are being laid off due to state budget problems, even though Social Security is willing and able to pay for the New York DDS to hire 15% more employees.
• He believes that Social Security is hiring at an "incredible" rate, attempting to hire 6,400 employees this fiscal year.
• For four straight months the number of cases pending at Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) has gone down.
• Social Security plans to send a proposal for an extension of the senior attorney program to OMB for approval.
• ODAR will be adding 1,000 new staff on top of attrition this year. Many of those have already been hired.
• 157 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are bing hired this month -- in the next week or so.
• Another 208 ALJs are to be hired before the end of the next fiscal year (September 30, 2010), with perhaps 55 of those to be hired in September of this year (which would still be in this fiscal year).
• Finding enough office space for additional ALJs is a problem which could hold back some hiring.
• Social Security is now aiming for 1,400 to 1,450 ALJs total.
• Social Security now has goal of an average ratio of 4.5 staff to each ALJ.
• Astrue expects to open 14 additional hearing offices in FY 2010.
• Astrue noted that it takes the General Services Administration (GSA) 18 to 24 months to lease space for federal agencies. This slows down the process.
• Astrue said that Fayetteville, NC would have a full hearing office once space can be leased which will take time. In the meantime, a large remote video site would be opened. I had previously posted that I thought it misleading for Astrue to talk about opening a hearing office in Fayetteville when all that was planned was a large remote hearing site. Astrue made reference to this blog and to me by name in his remarks, though not in an unfriendly way. He did not think what he had said was misleading. [Local Social Security employees were unaware until quite recently that a true hearing office was coming to Fayetteville.]
• Astrue hopes for a real turaround in electronic records in the next three years, which will help Social Security reduce the time it takes to adjudicate claims.