So as anyone with half a brain can see from these charts and even a basic understanding of OHO's current staffing levels could easily deduce that the backlog problem is solved--it's been solved. It's just going to take staying the course a bit longer to see OHO get to the theoretical max in terms of low pending and quick processing time.
But you'd never guess OHO was sitting so pretty with its workload by how OHO mgmt and upper SSA management run and treat the component and its employees. Sigh.
There are lots of moving parts and mirrors to this backlog. Projections are encouraging, but we need to look closely. For example, the agency gets the advantage of slowing the number of claimants entering the hearing backlog, by adding back the Reconsideration level for 10 states. That slows progress to the hearing level by a large number of applicants by 3-4 months. SSA projects the number of pending claimants at Recon will increase 102% (by 80k)from 2019 to 2020. About 70k (twice SSA's stated goal) claimants still wait an average of 2-3 months to get a written decision after their hearing. National Hearing Hearing Centers where all hearings are done by video have a 74 to 215 days longer wait time than the national average. Perhaps most interesting is that the agency says those waiting less than 270 days are not part of the "backlog"; hard to believe anyone, especially struggling claimants, would consider a nine month wait for a hearing decision acceptable.
3 comments:
So as anyone with half a brain can see from these charts and even a basic understanding of OHO's current staffing levels could easily deduce that the backlog problem is solved--it's been solved. It's just going to take staying the course a bit longer to see OHO get to the theoretical max in terms of low pending and quick processing time.
But you'd never guess OHO was sitting so pretty with its workload by how OHO mgmt and upper SSA management run and treat the component and its employees. Sigh.
There are lots of moving parts and mirrors to this backlog. Projections are encouraging, but we need to look closely. For example, the agency gets the advantage of slowing the number of claimants entering the hearing backlog, by adding back the Reconsideration level for 10 states. That slows progress to the hearing level by a large number of applicants by 3-4 months. SSA projects the number of pending claimants at Recon will increase 102% (by 80k)from 2019 to 2020. About 70k (twice SSA's stated goal) claimants still wait an average of 2-3 months to get a written decision after their hearing. National Hearing Hearing Centers where all hearings are done by video have a 74 to 215 days longer wait time than the national average. Perhaps most interesting is that the agency says those waiting less than 270 days are not part of the "backlog"; hard to believe anyone, especially struggling claimants, would consider a nine month wait for a hearing decision acceptable.
@3:07 they what would you consider "acceptable?" You are willing to cast the stone, now tell us what your magic number is and how you arrived at it.
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