The Social Security Administration has issued its Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2013. The report identifies agency goals that have been met or not met. The most glaring unmet goal is wait time for a hearing before a Social Security Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). That went up substantially in 2013.
Charles, the best thing in the world for us SSD/SSI "attorneys" is longer wait times. More back pay...wohooo.
ReplyDelete9:55, wohoo, you appear to be the same one who made a similar comment in an older blog. I suspect that you are not REALLY an attorney doing SSDI/SSI cases, or you would know that the ALJs are cutting the dates of alleged onset to cut, if not eliminate, past-due benefits from which the fees are calculated. At the ODAR before which 95% of my practice takes place, 75-80% of the DAOs are amended to reduce past-due benefits. My destitute clients, who have waited 2-3 years after their applications, don't want to fight the onset date, no matter how unreasonable, because they are desperate to received even the "crumbs" which the ALJs will throw to them, so they take the "deal" which the ALJ suggests, knowing that the ALJ could deny the case entirely, and it will take at least another year before the Appeals Council will hand down a decision. From your statement, I suspect that you may be a right-wing troll or a shill.
ReplyDeleteIf they are going to reduce the backlog, I believe the Agency should raise the attorney fee rate to 33 percent, or keep it at 25 percent but eliminate the cap.
ReplyDelete@ 1:42. I am attorney. I do know all about ALJ's cutting backpay by moving onset dates. What does that have to do with the backlog again? If anything you should want the backlog to be longer that way you can recoup some of your losses on the cases where you get cut on onset dates.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should note that Michael Astrue is no longer Commissioner at SSA. The reduction of the Hearings workload was his primary focus from his first day in office to the last. It is only natural that with his departure these numbers would slide.
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