Posted by Social Security's Commissioner, Martin O'Malley, on Twitter:
Some good news: I’m proud to report that #SSA hit a 30-year low in the number of pending hearings as of last week, thanks to our dedicated staff! This is a major milestone, and I know we can do even more with sufficient, sustained funding
23 comments:
Yes, pending is down. So why are you allowing Regional managers nation wide to beat down on decision writers? The motto of our agency is do good work and the beatings will continue.
OK, hearing levels are down. Show us the State Agency levels.
Now do Initial Claims and Reconsiderations...
Another decision writer here. I don't think the motto for DWs has been "do good work" for some time now. It seems more like "do it fast, and if it comes back on remand, at least the clock will reset on processing time!"
The part about the beatings continuing is accurate, though.
I agree with your assessment. By doing good work I meant getting the backlog down. The motto has been "QUANTITY IS JOB ONE" for a very long time.
No reason to be so negative. Yes, not all is perfect, but it is positive progress...
Good news finally shows up on this site and people still bitch.
DWs...yes, the backlog is down. However, each pending case is still someone waiting for a decision. It should be handled as quickly/efficiently as possible.
It is good if people need to wait less time for a hearing (up to a point). It is not inherently good that fewer people are waiting for a hearing.
A reduction in the number of pending hearings could be good, if it's because fewer people are applying for disability benefits in the first place (they are healthier, getting workplace accommodations, won the lottery, etc.). It would certainly be good if DDSs are accurately awarding benefits to those who qualify, leaving fewer people to request ALJ hearings.
But if fewer people are waiting for hearings because they are still waiting for initial and recon decisions, or because they died or gave up on their claims or never applied at all despite meeting eligibility standards, then it is not a good thing.
9:10 lotta ifs there...still good news overall.
If decisions are drafted quickly but without quality, there is no efficiency. Federal courts are remanding over 60 percent of our decisions. That speaks to major quality issues in OHO (and also raises questions about the AC rubber-stamping problematic decisions), and it is not good public service. Our claimants deserve to get the right decision the first time.
How quick are YOU going to process cases with non-sensical instructions and thousands of pages? And no they don't even out because there are very few cases that have less than 1,000 pages outside of the rural areas and few aljs who instruct their decisions properly. I regularly have cases over 5 000 pages. People who come up with the metrics either have never written or haven't written in years. Remember the 1,000 page demonstration project? None of the writers could complete a 1k page case in one day. We never have time to do it right the first time, but we always have time to do it over and over and over again.
PREACH
The cases are all stuck with DDS, who has 2-yr backlogs for initial claims. Once those get out of DDS, there will be a wave of cases to OHO, then 2 yrs later a wave to the AC, then fed court, then back the AC or ALJ, and we all fall down.
You forgot “then back to the decision writer.” That’s the one role in OHO that can’t just push the mess over to someone else to clean. At least not to the same extent as every other role in the division.
Truth… hearings are down but IC and Recons are stuck at the DDS… the clog will move through then the hearings will be backlogged again in a year or two…
11:38, I think TPTB would disagree that that the 60% Fed remand rate speaks to a major issue. This is because they look at it from the perspective of overall application processing. Only a small percentage of cases filed make it to ALJ level, even smaller to AC, and even smaller to Fed Court. So, even the 60% remanded back from Fed Court is a minuscule drop in the bucket of overall application processing. And, from their view likely a very small issue in servicing the public going through the application process.
Not saying this is the correct way to look at it, but it does explain the lack of concern about it coming from the top down.
The rates of AC & Fed Court remands have remained pretty constant. It’s only when the statistics change that they put some resources into change. And, while that 60% has had a moment in the press recently, it’s pretty well been at 60% for years.
@ 11:48, if you can't draft a decision for a file with 1,000 pages of medical evidence in one day, you are in the wrong profession. only a small fraction of that evidence is relevant and the majority of the decision is a template. These are administrative decisions that follow a formula, not district court decisions that require research, references and footnotes. Yes, i was a writer recently with 125+ DWPI and 95% AC agree rate.
648 that is the absolute truth. All the crap just gets shoveled along but we are supposed to fix all the problems and frankly some of them just aren't fixable. There should be a Congressional investigation about why our remand rate is so high and why there are so many voluntary remands. That is OHOs dirty little secret. Talk about waste of tax payer money not to mention claimants who die after waiting 5. 6 ,7 and MORE years for the correct fully favorable decision. We always have time to do it over but never the time to do it right the first time.
719 Don't be disingenuous or maybe a management lackey. There was a demonstration project several years ago that had to be stopped because most of the 1k cases could not be completed in a day. Look, 1k cases for me are a virtual walk in the park. Its those 3, 4, 5k cases that take more time especially when they have been up and down to the USDC several times. Lets not even talk about the 10+k cases that I regularly see.It also depends on who you are writing for and which District you are in. My uphold rate is even higher than yours so please lets not go there and address the real problem, which is as a group the DWI metrics are not a reflection of reality nation wide. I don't really care about DWPI as long as I stay above water, but at one time I was one of the highest producers in my region, boy I no longer drink the Kool-aid.
@7:19: Having a high AC affirmation rate is essentially meaningless. Everyone in each region has approximately the same AC rates because their decisions are primarily issued based on quotas. And things have changed a LOT in just the past 1-2 years with regards to file sizes and case complexity. Maybe turnover wouldn’t be so sky high if managers like yourself spent more time actually listening to hour staff instead of insulting them and dismissing what they say because it isn’t consistent with your own outdated experience.
If the Commissioner wants to know what the issues at OHO are, look no further than 719 for what most of our managers are like. Then look at 1156 for more insight. Not to mention that 719 just put it out there that management endorses not looking at the complete record.
That's because initial and recon are taking two years.
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