Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) did a recent study of delays in processing requests for reconsideration for disability claimants who are being threatened with benefit termination due to medical improvement. Generally, the claimants receive continuing benefits as their appeals continue through the hearing level so delays cost the agency money.
The thing about this is that almost all the causes of delay discussed in this report also apply to those applying for benefits and have the same underlying cause, lack of sufficient personnel to get the work done in a timely manner. The OIG report discusses these delays as if they have been caused by bungling, when for the most part, the fault lies Congress and the White House, which have failed to give the Social Security Administration adequate administrative funding.
I hope that OIG isn't implying that Social Security should prioritize cutting people off benefits over processing new claims for disability benefits but that does seem to be the attitude of Congressional Republicans.
I think the agency has a public policy of prioritizing CDRs over new claims and I believe that Congress has repeatedly provided ear marked funding that can only be used for CDRs.
ReplyDeleteIn the field office I work in, CDRs are a priority because Congress has tied funding to doing them but no one delay sending cases to DDS to they can be done. I can't answer for DDS making decisions.
ReplyDeleteThe OP was about reconsideration requests (presumably after a CDR has found medical improvement / no continuing disability.) These reconsiderations involve a hearing with a DDS hearing officer
ReplyDeleteIn our large western state, due to the OP mentioned lack of funding, we are down to one DDS hearing officer for the entire state. The last CDR reconsideration for which we provided claimant representation took 22 (yes, 22) months to move from filing of reconsideration request to hearing officer hearing date.
Their proposed solution...expanding DCPS won't do anything. The CDRS have never been a priority over initials... Once the quota is met for the year that is it until next year. Pre hearings however are usually a priority if the person did not choose benefit continuation
ReplyDeleteOne thing to keep in mind is that if a claimant loses his CDR appeal that claimant is liable for repayment of the benefits received during the termination of the appeal. But that may just be another can of worms that causes further delays and backlogs as there are ways to appeal the repayment. Its like the entire system is built to be dragged out indefinitely and the people that seem to be paying the price are new disabled applicants that are waiting a very long time to get a decision.
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