Some of Social Security’s Administrative Law Judges really don’t like that Washington Post piece on all the federal court remands of their decisions. Take a look at what they have to say.
Of course they are not happy. I would say the vast majority of ALJs and SSA workers in general are legitimately trying their hardest to keep up with workloads. Are there slackers? Sure, I bet there are. Like there are in any work place. SSA employees try their hardest but get absolutely slammed on by articles such as the one mentioned. Those articles aren’t talking much about employee staffing issues, extreme micromanagement, delusional expectations, etc. For some reason, it’s always just the employees fault. It’s tiring and gets old after a while. Why would employees who are under appreciated by claimants, Congress, and agency management want to stick around? I’m a top performer in my office and I am currently looking for my exit. It’s an absolute thankless job all around.
The article at issue does precisely what you claim these articles “never” do, as do Ms. Rein’s other articles. And to your point, the ALJs on that board aren’t pointing the finger at management. They’re patting each other on the back and making snide comments about the poor man they f***ed over for roughly 15% to 25% of his life. That lot deserves every ounce of shade Charles is willing to throw their way.
ALJ logic: Sure, we do a piss-poor job 70% of the time. But only a fraction of our work ever gets reviewed, so no one should feel miffed. Oh, and we have staff who handle the hard parts for us, so it’s unfair to point a finger at us.
The Administration has done a horrible job at hiring ALJ's for at least a decade. Nearly all of the ALJ's I have practiced before are biased and lack independence from the pressure to deny. They almost never follow their own rules and rely on providing result oriented hypotheticals to the VE's that aren't reflective of the medical evidence or based in reality as to the mental and physical restrictions a claimant is going to face.
The Administration, almost unanimously, passes over more qualified and better ALJ candidates in favor of individuals who lack independent decision making and often lack the basic qualifications on how to analyze medical and vocational evidence adequately for these cases. The people the Administration routinely favors (and ends of hiring) for ALJ's typically are people who will be good employees and follow what they are told in exchange for a nice salary. ("good soldier" types)
The ALJ's reaction to this article is laughable. Pointing the finger at everyone but themselves is despicable. The lack of employee staffing is nonsense for them. They don't write their own decisions.
The ALJ's are well aware that the Appeals Council is designed to rubber stamp their decisions without any thought. If you dig deep through the board you can find comments where ALJ's are upset when they actually get remands from the AC. The decisions that actually do get remanded by the AC have to be absolutely embarrassingly horrid with how the AC is managed to rubber stamp the ALJ's decisions.
SSA ALJ's view low AC remands as somehow proof that they are doing a good job. When legitimate Federal Judges review and remand vast amounts of their decision's they are thoroughly exposed. The Federal Judge's who are doing the remands come from across the political spectrum. This is not a political issue. This is an issue of the ALJ's not doing their job, being unqualified, subordinated and biased.
ALJs are over-paid. This contribute to their flippant decisions. The social security administration should lower pay and benefits. A yearly salary of $50,000 would perhaps focus their attention on the facts. Beyond my opinion,i expect more fiscal tightening with a conservative house.
Yeah, hurt feelings and bruised egos are a lot more important than a destitute, wrongfully denied claimant fighting a bureaucracy for 5+ years. Nice to see media attention to this. In the past, it has only been to the "outlier judges" on the high end, who are now mostly gone from the agency.
What I would like to see is for Federal Judges to start holding SSA, including ALJ's who routinely violate their remand orders, in contempt.
Don't worry about it, ladies and gentlemen of the ALJ Corps. You know the Agency will just track what the most common types of Remands they get are and change the rules to rig them in the Agency's favor. This has already been done with the Treating Physician Rule, listing 12.05, and the Musculoskeletal listings.
LOL. I still think back in wonder sometimes at how many “judges” getting paid over $150,000 a year literally couldn’t look at a set of IQ scores and ascertain whether the numbers they were seeing were bigger or smaller than 70.
12:25 The Administrative Law Judges deserve every cent that they make ,they are worth several times 50K. The job takes enormous expertise and institutional knowledge, as well as medical knowledge.
They even put their lives at risk. The ALJ have to put their names on denied claims, and these days it's quite easy to find where someone is living.
Let’s get real here. There hasn’t been a big turnover in ALJ’s from when district court remands were less common. What has changed is switching to highly detailed instructions. The Appeals Council now demands over written decisions that check off boxes because it’s all about being hyper technical. Decisions are longer than ever because they have become incantations instead of summaries of facts and rules. Decisions are now written in cubicle farms by people who don’t know the ALJ and may not write another decision for that ALJ in the next year. The temptation to spot a concern and shrug your shoulders and toss it in the done pile has to be great.
While bagging on ALJ’s let’s remember every single district court remand is a decision the AC looked at and declared it to be good.
The data suggests you’re totally wrong. Decisions are longer because file sizes have increased exponentially, and the number of decisions being written in centralized “cubicle farms” has been declining for 5+ years now.
Sorry you miss having attorneys who were forced to work in close proximity to you and treat you with obligatory respect. But quit spreading lies and try joining a club or something instead.
Of course they are not happy. I would say the vast majority of ALJs and SSA workers in general are legitimately trying their hardest to keep up with workloads. Are there slackers? Sure, I bet there are. Like there are in any work place. SSA employees try their hardest but get absolutely slammed on by articles such as the one mentioned. Those articles aren’t talking much about employee staffing issues, extreme micromanagement, delusional expectations, etc. For some reason, it’s always just the employees fault. It’s tiring and gets old after a while. Why would employees who are under appreciated by claimants, Congress, and agency management want to stick around? I’m a top performer in my office and I am currently looking for my exit. It’s an absolute thankless job all around.
ReplyDeleteThe article at issue does precisely what you claim these articles “never” do, as do Ms. Rein’s other articles. And to your point, the ALJs on that board aren’t pointing the finger at management. They’re patting each other on the back and making snide comments about the poor man they f***ed over for roughly 15% to 25% of his life. That lot deserves every ounce of shade Charles is willing to throw their way.
DeleteALJ logic: Sure, we do a piss-poor job 70% of the time. But only a fraction of our work ever gets reviewed, so no one should feel miffed. Oh, and we have staff who handle the hard parts for us, so it’s unfair to point a finger at us.
ReplyDeleteThe one who said, "well, he did get his benefits" seems to ignore the fact that it took FIVE ALJ hearings and 14 years to get there.
ReplyDeleteThe Administration has done a horrible job at hiring ALJ's for at least a decade. Nearly all of the ALJ's I have practiced before are biased and lack independence from the pressure to deny. They almost never follow their own rules and rely on providing result oriented hypotheticals to the VE's that aren't reflective of the medical evidence or based in reality as to the mental and physical restrictions a claimant is going to face.
ReplyDeleteThe Administration, almost unanimously, passes over more qualified and better ALJ candidates in favor of individuals who lack independent decision making and often lack the basic qualifications on how to analyze medical and vocational evidence adequately for these cases. The people the Administration routinely favors (and ends of hiring) for ALJ's typically are people who will be good employees and follow what they are told in exchange for a nice salary. ("good soldier" types)
The ALJ's reaction to this article is laughable. Pointing the finger at everyone but themselves is despicable. The lack of employee staffing is nonsense for them. They don't write their own decisions.
The ALJ's are well aware that the Appeals Council is designed to rubber stamp their decisions without any thought. If you dig deep through the board you can find comments where ALJ's are upset when they actually get remands from the AC. The decisions that actually do get remanded by the AC have to be absolutely embarrassingly horrid with how the AC is managed to rubber stamp the ALJ's decisions.
SSA ALJ's view low AC remands as somehow proof that they are doing a good job. When legitimate Federal Judges review and remand vast amounts of their decision's they are thoroughly exposed. The Federal Judge's who are doing the remands come from across the political spectrum. This is not a political issue. This is an issue of the ALJ's not doing their job, being unqualified, subordinated and biased.
The Administration needs to clean house.
ALJs are over-paid. This contribute to their flippant decisions. The social security administration should lower pay and benefits. A yearly salary of $50,000 would perhaps focus their attention on the facts. Beyond my opinion,i expect more fiscal tightening with a conservative house.
ReplyDeleteYeah, hurt feelings and bruised egos are a lot more important than a destitute, wrongfully denied claimant fighting a bureaucracy for 5+ years. Nice to see media attention to this. In the past, it has only been to the "outlier judges" on the high end, who are now mostly gone from the agency.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would like to see is for Federal Judges to start holding SSA, including ALJ's who routinely violate their remand orders, in contempt.
Don't worry about it, ladies and gentlemen of the ALJ Corps. You know the Agency will just track what the most common types of Remands they get are and change the rules to rig them in the Agency's favor. This has already been done with the Treating Physician Rule, listing 12.05, and the Musculoskeletal listings.
ReplyDeleteLOL. I still think back in wonder sometimes at how many “judges” getting paid over $150,000 a year literally couldn’t look at a set of IQ scores and ascertain whether the numbers they were seeing were bigger or smaller than 70.
Delete
ReplyDelete12:25 The Administrative Law Judges deserve every cent that they make ,they are worth several times 50K.
The job takes enormous expertise and institutional knowledge, as well as medical knowledge.
They even put their lives at risk. The ALJ have to put their names on denied claims, and these days it's quite easy to find where someone is living.
Let’s get real here.
ReplyDeleteThere hasn’t been a big turnover in ALJ’s from when district court remands were less common.
What has changed is switching to highly detailed instructions. The Appeals Council now demands over written decisions that check off boxes because it’s all about being hyper technical. Decisions are longer than ever because they have become incantations instead of summaries of facts and rules. Decisions are now written in cubicle farms by people who don’t know the ALJ and may not write another decision for that ALJ in the next year. The temptation to spot a concern and shrug your shoulders and toss it in the done pile has to be great.
While bagging on ALJ’s let’s remember every single district court remand is a decision the AC looked at and declared it to be good.
The data suggests you’re totally wrong. Decisions are longer because file sizes have increased exponentially, and the number of decisions being written in centralized “cubicle farms” has been declining for 5+ years now.
DeleteSorry you miss having attorneys who were forced to work in close proximity to you and treat you with obligatory respect. But quit spreading lies and try joining a club or something instead.