This was published in the newsletter of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) (which is not available online).
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Notice the decline in receipts of new requests for hearings. Note that 46% of cases have been pending over a year. Of course, this includes cases where the request for hearing was filed recently. The average processing time is 613 days. That includes a fair number of cases that are quickly dismissed because the request for hearing was filed too late or too early. Take those cases out and the numbers would look even worse.
16 comments:
I'm not sure about that decline. It looks like 466K vs. 410K if you average the monthly intake and compare the Oct. to May time frame, to compare apples and apples.
But maybe the cases are taking longer at the state agency? Also, receipts may be "seasonal" and may come in stronger during the last 4 months of the FY?
150-175 ALJ's are listed as on duty but apparently not available.
I know some are assigned other duties such as RCALJ, Chief ALJ and Deputy and some special assignments. But I could never add these up to all those considered not available. Can someone explain that number?
Also, why are HOCALJ not being assigned a full case load. It would seem an Agency serious about the backlog would follow an all hands on deck process. That is clearly not the case.
10:57
the HOCALJ for my large office doesn't even meet his 50% productivity target, while the non-HOCALJ members of the management team handle 98% of all management issues. There's absolutely no reason why a HOCALJ cannot do close to a full docket, especially if offices do the sensible thing and let the other members of the management team handle most all things not directly involving ALJs or the legal sufficiency of decision writing. HOCALJs often don't have the first clue about how the non-legal processes in the office work anyway and, in my experience, make poor decisions involving those things over the objections of the non-ALJ managers who actually know about that side of the business.
This really is just another interesting and negative facet of the system that has a judge as the top dog manager at all levels of ODAR until you get to the Deputy Commissioner. There is absolutely no reason why a judge should be the head manager in an ODAR field office, at the regional level, or at HQ, but here we are.
Charles, note that the "duty" and "available" numbers as our budget people use them refer to the total for all ALJs. Downtime for all ALJs, production cuts for new ALJs and HOCALJs and cadre members, etc. come off that "available" total. So it isn't that there are 100-some odd ALJs on duty but not hearing cases, it's that all downtime, production curves, leave, etc. (I believe "available" also takes off time for leave, but I could be wrong) totals to 100-some odd ALJs' worth of time not hearing cases.
My very educated guess here is that the decline in Requests for Hearing is a blip that has to do with cases being held at the DDS level for much longer periods of time. Reconsiderations in my state used to run two months end to end. Now they are HELD for two months before being assigned. In close tracking, I can confirm that decisions at my state DDS released to field offices in early June were not entered or mailed until last week. Adding 90 days or more to state agency adjudication, increasing "hold" status decreases (at least temporarily) receipts at ODAR. And it does not show up in the wait time for a hearing..... This is happening in initial claims as well. When asked about this issue a NOSSCR, SSA officials denied any purposeful DDS delays for massaging the numbers. Having talked to DDS folks who tell me differently, I am skeptical. Also, with a ramp up in CDRs, fewer reviewers available... The measure should be the over wait for a hearing from time of application and not just hearing wait time.
The wide variance in processing time of different ODARs always surprises me. In my state, I have one local ODAR that is running 12-14 months to schedule hearings. But you go two hours and another ODAR is taking 24+ months. Don't understand how offices could be so different.
@ 1:31
If you fill literally as few as the right (or wrong, rather) two or three positions in any ODAR field office with bad people you can devastate an office's production and morale.
Somewhere someone is thinking of applying..All these people in line some for years....those that get priority will apply let's say in October. ..jump in andapply ...get approved...jump out ...be paid by Christmas....while somebody else will wait another year to be DENIED!
I'm not sure why there is any surprise at the decrease in receipts. Disability applications have been declining steadily since their peak in 2010, when they were over 2.9 million. It's not outrageous or even unexpected that fewer hearing requests are being made as a result.
10:57 noted, "150-175 ALJ's are listed as on-duty but apparently not available."
This statistic is quite revealing in that it shows SSA/ODAR has far too many ALJ's and other employees in unnecessary Management positions. There is no way this number comes close to accounting for ALJ's on leave during a 1-month period. No, this number confirms there are far too many ALJ's, including HOCALJ's, in Management positions, which are duplicative and unnecessary. HOCALJ's should carry a full ALJ Hearing schedule, and leave Hearing Office Management to the HOD and GS's. God knows there are far too many GS's in each Hearing Office as it is. One Supervisory Attorney is all that is necessary. The excess number of GS's should be returned to decision writing or SCT positions, and thus would go a long west toward reducing the backlog.
With regard to the 150-175 ALJ's not holding hearings, I propose an investigation be performed in order to determine how much, if any, of this accounts for ALJ's on leave, and how many ALJ's occupy unnecessary Management positions in the Hearing Offices, Regional Offices, and Central Office. From the many years I worked in ODAR, I have no doubt the results will confirm far too many ALJ's occupy unnecessary Management positions. Further analysis into just what it is these Management ALJ's do will show duplicative and routine work easily performed by non-ALJ Manager's, or 1-2 ALJ Manager's. The heavy tilt ODAR maintains by the sheer number of ALJ's and other employees in Management positions is wasteful and counter-productive. It is counter-productive in that it results in excessive and unnecessary micromanagement of the entire workforce. Trust me, the extensive time numerous Managers devote to excessive and unnecessary micromanagement of the workforce should be utilized to attack the backlog by returning many of these individuals back to performing actual work. In addition, the excessive micromanagement they currently engage has the negative effect of impeding the production of their employees, i.e., it is counter-productive and reduces morale. Any efficient restructuring of ODAR must address the disproportionately heavy tilt of the numbers in Management and return said employees to the workforce.
hey SAA 27
you didn't see what I wrote earlier. It isn't just leave, it's production curves and other curves that take away from the "available" number. I think big office HOCALJs have a 50% break and smaller office HOCALJs had 25, I want to say I heard that recently top brass took away all breaks for smaller offices. But whatever. We also have a large number of new judges who receive really big breaks through their first, what, like year on the job?
150's worth of ALJ duty time lost to leave, HOCALJ breaks, new ALJ breaks, and other various downtime (all the mandatory training ALJs have, cadre members, and yes, pure or mostly management ALJs higher up the chain) isn't really that bad.
I bet if you compared the duty vs. available hours for all other job descriptions in an ODAR field office the ALJs would have the highest ratio ;)
@4:40:
2:07 here. My remarks were not meant as an attack on ALJ's per se, but to emphasize ODAR's greatest problem is there are far too many employees, ALJ's and others, in Management positions. Many of these positions are unnecessary, redundant, and wasteful. I only used 10:57's comment noting 150-175 ALJ's listed as on-duty but apparently not available as a statistic which largely corroborates this. I am fully aware there are a number of newer, less experienced ALJ's, but there are not many who have been on the job long enough now to be considered in experienced. I would only count those hired from 2016-present as not being experienced. The heavy Management tilt ODAR maintains is an issue the vast majority of ALJ's agree is a huge, wasteful problem. The Agency's failure to appropriately address this and put many of these individuals back to work is nothing more than Management protecting Management. They enjoy not having to meet production quotas, but establishing them instead; their excessive salaries and bonuses; the power over others these positions provide; and the extensive and counter productive micromanagement of the workforce. These are cushy, low stress, high paying jobs, and far too many individuals occupy these positions than what is even close to being necessary.
"These are cushy, low stress, high paying jobs..."
I can't think of a single management job, particularly from the judge side, that fits this category unless it's folks out in FC. The HOCALJ spot most definitely doesn't fit the description. HOCALJ might be tied for second in the worst job in the agency category (tied with HOD, both far behind GS).
@7:37:
You missed my point: I am saying the HOCALJ and ROCALJ Management positions are unnecessary. These ALJ's should simply be holding hearings like any other ALJ. Let the HOD and Supervisory Attorney fully manage the Hearing Offices, eliminate the Regional Offices entirely, and maintain only the requisite number of individuals necessary to Manage and Operate ODAR in Falls Church. The HOD and Supervisory Attorney in the Hearing Offices would directly report to Falls Church. The entire huge Management bureaucracy of ODAR is the primary problem and obstacle which prevents improvements in efficiency and getting the work that must be done accomplished. This is where the largest percentage of restructuring must occur.
Too many claimants, and many reps, think SSI is an early retirement program. So, if you hit age 50 and have some aches and pains at work, you get to retire on disability. I cant even begin to count how many claimants are shocked at their hearing when they hear the VE tell the judge they can still perform other jobs. They dont reaize that to be found disabled, you must be unable to perform ANY work, not just the job u did til u decided it got to hard.
10:54 is right. They can trim a ton of fat out of the management beaurocracy. 1 manager for 8-12 attorneys is a joke and really demeaning for attorneys. I went for months without even speaking to my GS. The chief judge said that they were putting "all hands and deck" and managers would have to write decisions, but since then it came out that they are only required to write 1 decision a month!!
The same is true for office staff. Because of how much leave some office staff and TW schedules take, they need to have multiple redundencies. They can easily trim some of those jobs by having GS's perform many of those functions.
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