No More Corners To Cut

From the Las Vegas Sun:

The Social Security Administration is being slammed by a surge in disability and retirement claims that is threatening to shortchange applicants and cripple a system that, even before the downturn, was starved for resources.

To cope with the growing tsunami, the agency is putting pressure on its ranks of administrative law judges, both here and nationally, to clear a massive backlog of disability appeals cases. But the union representing those judges says the hearing officers are overworked — and that some, under threat of disciplinary action, have been cutting procedural corners to hit the agency’s mandate of 500 to 700 cases a year.

Since October, the number of people waiting to have a claim processed has jumped more than 30 percent, from about 556,000 to 736,000 last month. Although most of those initial claims will be denied, many will end up before an administrative law judge on appeal. Nearly 750,000 people are waiting for a hearing before overwhelmed judges.

“No one ever says, ‘do a sloppy job,’ ” said Marilyn Zahm, executive vice president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges. “But to pretend you can keep pumping out decision after decision and spend the requisite amount of time on each case is foolish. That’s shortchanging people, and the system will lack integrity if you do not require everyone to do a good job.” ...

“Corners are being cut in order to accommodate a backlog and at the end of the day everyone is going to suffer,” she said. “People have a right to expect due process ... At a certain point, no more corners can be cut.” ...

“Hearings are being shortened, not all information in the file is being reviewed, not all medical reports are being obtained, and full and legally defensible decisions may not be rendered, either because due consideration hasn’t been given or the decision is poorly written,” she said. “When people have too much work to do in the amount of time allotted to do it, you get sloppy work.”