There's an op ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer from an attorney with Community Legal Services, which has a distinguished history of Social Security advocacy, and two members of the House Ways and Means Committee, denouncing the long appeal backlogs at Social Security and the reimposition of the reconsideration step in Pennsylvania.
I agree with this article wholeheartedly. I live in a recon state and I can confirm that recon slows the process down with no benefit. Let's have one initial step and given them enough time to actually develop the record beyond having a CE. I'm miffed as to why the agency is doing this.
ReplyDelete7:49 They are doing this for the simple reason that by requiring recon the Agency has calculated that more people will give up and not file for hearing. The fact that a relative handful of people will get approved on Recon, 12% by official figures but how many of those are later onset and not fully favorable, is unknown. Moreover, for those approved on recon, how many could be approved quickly at the hearing level if there was a serious review of cases when they hit the hearing office. Senior Attorney program, where are you?
ReplyDeleteIt's a callous move by bean counters in SS who only think in terms of moving cases through the system and paying as few cases as possible. Typical of any insurance agency, but one would hope for better for a Government Agency that cares about the people it deals with. Moving cases is important, but not at the expense of giving a person a fair opportunity to be heard.
Other recent moves such as wanting to mandate video hearings and remote hearing scheduling without contacting counsel are just two other examples of where this Agency is right now.
I have no reason to believe the new COSS will be better or reverse the process, but the existing crew is so bad, it is hard to imagine it getting any worse.
I had a couple of reconsideration allowances in the past week. Sure they are glad they didn't wait 1-2 years to get that decision.
ReplyDeleteSome disabled people may give up after the reconsideration..or they may realize they aren't that disabled and go back to work.
8:11 may be right, or they don't return to work, and just come here and complain about how unfair the system is.
ReplyDeleteWe have had the reconsideration step, and I don't have a major problem with it though they do tend to mess with the onset date if they approve. If they did more 'reconsidering' I would feel better about it. And when they do approve, it has to go to Quality Control for further consideration.
ReplyDelete