It’s being used in a very targeted way in offices far behind the curve you reference. Just because the average is down nationally doesn’t mean it’s down in every region or office.
Note the ALJ Dispos Daily Per Avail AlJ - under 1.5. This stat, which is the key stat for productivity at the hearing level, used to be above 2.0 year after year after year prior to the pandemic. The 20% reduction in per ALJ productivity is apparently the new normal. No one notices or comments on that extraordinarily important change. If we had resumed producing at the pre-pandemic level OT would not be needed, nor would there be any ALJ hiring, and wait times would be optimized.
Your ignorance is showing really hard. It‘s not the result of a drop in productivity. It’s a result of decreased receipts, higher-volume files, and increased non-adjudicatory responsibilities per capita. And OT has NEVER been made available to ALJs.
Bad take bro. ALJ hearing request receipts are at historic lows and there is no more backlog. Reps try to postpone everything as hearings get scheduled right away and the files are never ready in time.
Not ignorant and not a bad take. Why were additional ALJs hired in the last couple years if there aren’t enough receipts to keep judges busy? More than enough work to fill dockets if well-managed, at least until wait times are optimized. Unless u think 290 days on average waiting for a hearing decision is all the public deserves? Most cases are now telephone hearings, so moving work around regions and offices should not pose a problem in a paperless environment. I agree with u that lower receipts mean that at some point productivity will of necessity go down. But that doesn’t apply currently. Files have been getting larger for a good decade, but productivity remained steady until the pandemic, after which it fell off a cliff. Individual ALJs may not be able to fill their dockets, but that is ultimately the responsibility of the component to manage efficiently.
The bottom line is that ALJs used to do 500+ per year but have been under 400 for the last few years. And I’m aware that ALJs don’t work OT (they make $200K). But OHO has been allocated OT that would be much better given to district offices in view of workload disparities between the components. Also, the additional workloads mentioned in the reply above were created in order to keep writers busy because of the reduced receipts and overstaffing.
What I am saying is not directed at individual judges or other employees - it’s at the component as a whole. I agree with you that reduced receipts have been important - they are the sole reason our pending is at record lows. OHO has been lauded and O’Malley touted the record low pending as a major accomplishment, but that is only because we had much less work coming in. We did less work and were congratulated - nice deal if you can get it.
Jeepers. I can’t even bring myself to try responding to this except to say that I think your “talents” and “intellect” are better suited to DOGE than SSA , bro.
I hope anyone looking for the real story will ignore this ignoramus and see above for the actual truth.
The files are probably bigger by the time they get to OHO because they've been pending so long at initial and recon. OHO needs to figure out a way to exhibit all exhibits and add queries before they schedule hearings.
@jeeoers. Just limit yourself to explaining why OHO judges have been issuing less than 400 Dispositions per judge per year for the last few years whereas for the entire history of OHO prior to that they issued 500 or more on average. And the whole point is for OHO to get their act together before DOGE comes in and uses obvious stats like this to justify whatever they want to do.
One change I would like to see is for appointed representatives to be able to run New Wage/Hire queries. That would get rid of a lot of cases before they are scheduled for hearing.
@7:11: Several people have already done this. Apparently you just aren’t satisfied because the answer doesn’t comport with your silly conspiracy theory.
Part of the reason OT is needed is the hiring freeze. In my office over the past few years we have had many clerks retire or move and barely a fifth of the slots have been filled. With fewer people to do the same amount of work it takes longer and OT is needed to keep up.
Something to keep in mind is that the detail required in disability decisions has only gone up over the last 10 years. Anyone that was trained during that period literally cannot believe what used to qualify as a policy compliant decision before that.
Courtesy of Gruber (now deceased) and Nagle (on extended administrative leave), regional offices and the 160-plus Hearing Office chief judges barely hear cases now, in order to "supervise" line judges who actually hear cases. The hundred or so "management" judges at the National Hearing Centers also are doing next to nothing. But there's no fraud, waste or abuse at Social Security.
No, there have been a few specious explanations easily refuted with actual statistics and facts. The stat that has declined is “dispositions per day per available ALJ,” which means ALJs doing non-adjudicatory work (managers) aren’t counted as full (or in some cases even partial) judges. So there goes one explanation. Paperless cases with telephone hearings can be transferred easily, so there goes the “unequal workloads among offices and regions” explanation. “Bigger case files” are way more likely to affect decision writer productivity, but that has remained relatively steady except for the time devoted to claimant outreach calls. Actually, since the pandemic, there were long stretches where senior attorneys were preparing case summaries, which one would expect to improve ALJ productivity. Also, larger files could be dealt with to some degree through software, but OHO/SSA has not gotten its act together to help judges and writers get through the file more quickly with software yet. That’s on them. Other excuses are likewise easily disposed of. And again, they actually hired ALJ‘s during this period, so the idea that there is not enough work for people to do on its face doesn’t make sense.
There is no “conspiracy “ alleged - just pointing out that OHO has been producing 25 to 30% fewer dispositions since the pandemic, which is now almost 5 years ago. That’s compared to our entire history of productivity prior to 2020. I don’t see any conspiracy alleged there. It’s just a fact. It’s way better to address reality than to name call and try to ignore it by calling it silly. We should figure out how to resume producing at our former levels. That’s called public service. But whatever, making no headway on this obvious point so I’ll stop.
The ALJ MOU says they can’t do virtual and in person hearings on same day; can’t do child and adult cases on same day; can’t do two cases with over 800 pages combined of medical evidence (despite massive increases in average size). This absurd MOU is one key reason why productivity is so down.
@4:35: Lol do you have any idea how massive a security problem it would be to allow unvetted non-SSA personnel to access to database from which the earnings queries are pulled?
Sorry your clients lie to you so often. I never had that problem, so I suspect you just aren’t establishing a good rapport or foundation of trust with them. Also , if you would bother looking at their files, you would see that new hires are uploaded several days before the hearing in 99.9999999% of cases. So the problem is on you either way
So many reasons. Just a few: 1. Ballooning average file sizes. 2. Plummeting decision draft quality since DWPI came in. 3. ALJs wasting time doing clerical work due to understaffing (and writer work due to #2). 4. Significant and frequent changes in what constitutes a "sufficient" decision.
23 comments:
Aren't the days to decision at the hearing level declining? That environment would not seem like a place where OT is needed
It’s being used in a very targeted way in offices far behind the curve you reference. Just because the average is down nationally doesn’t mean it’s down in every region or office.
Note the ALJ Dispos Daily Per Avail AlJ - under 1.5. This stat, which is the key stat for productivity at the hearing level, used to be above 2.0 year after year after year prior to the pandemic. The 20% reduction in per ALJ productivity is apparently the new normal. No one notices or comments on that extraordinarily important change. If we had resumed producing at the pre-pandemic level OT would not be needed, nor would there be any ALJ hiring, and wait times would be optimized.
Your ignorance is showing really hard. It‘s not the result of a drop in productivity. It’s a result of decreased receipts, higher-volume files, and increased non-adjudicatory responsibilities per capita. And OT has NEVER been made available to ALJs.
Bad take bro. ALJ hearing request receipts are at historic lows and there is no more backlog. Reps try to postpone everything as hearings get scheduled right away and the files are never ready in time.
Not ignorant and not a bad take. Why were additional ALJs hired in the last couple years if there aren’t enough receipts to keep judges busy? More than enough work to fill dockets if well-managed, at least until wait times are optimized. Unless u think 290 days on average waiting for a hearing decision is all the public deserves? Most cases are now telephone hearings, so moving work around regions and offices should not pose a problem in a paperless environment. I agree with u that lower receipts mean that at some point productivity will of necessity go down. But that doesn’t apply currently. Files have been getting larger for a good decade, but productivity remained steady until the pandemic, after which it fell off a cliff. Individual ALJs may not be able to fill their dockets, but that is ultimately the responsibility of the component to manage efficiently.
The bottom line is that ALJs used to do 500+ per year but have been under 400 for the last few years. And I’m aware that ALJs don’t work OT (they make $200K). But OHO has been allocated OT that would be much better given to district offices in view of workload disparities between the components. Also, the additional workloads mentioned in the reply above were created in order to keep writers busy because of the reduced receipts and overstaffing.
What I am saying is not directed at individual judges or other employees - it’s at the component as a whole. I agree with you that reduced receipts have been important - they are the sole reason our pending is at record lows. OHO has been lauded and O’Malley touted the record low pending as a major accomplishment, but that is only because we had much less work coming in. We did less work and were congratulated - nice deal if you can get it.
Jeepers. I can’t even bring myself to try responding to this except to say that I think your “talents” and “intellect” are better suited to DOGE than SSA , bro.
I hope anyone looking for the real story will ignore this ignoramus and see above for the actual truth.
The deluge from huge caseload presently backlogged in the DDSes is eventually going to come crashing in on OHO. It is only a matter of time.
The files are probably bigger by the time they get to OHO because they've been pending so long at initial and recon. OHO needs to figure out a way to exhibit all exhibits and add queries before they schedule hearings.
@jeeoers. Just limit yourself to explaining why OHO judges have been issuing less than 400 Dispositions per judge per year for the last few years whereas for the entire history of OHO prior to that they issued 500 or more on average. And the whole point is for OHO to get their act together before DOGE comes in and uses obvious stats like this to justify whatever they want to do.
I believe a large chunk of the OT is being used for workup, without which the disposition numbers would be even lower.
One change I would like to see is for appointed representatives to be able to run New Wage/Hire queries. That would get rid of a lot of cases before they are scheduled for hearing.
@9:12: It’s called pocking up the phone and asking your client if they’re working and how much they’re pulling in.
@7:11: Several people have already done this. Apparently you just aren’t satisfied because the answer doesn’t comport with your silly conspiracy theory.
Part of the reason OT is needed is the hiring freeze. In my office over the past few years we have had many clerks retire or move and barely a fifth of the slots have been filled. With fewer people to do the same amount of work it takes longer and OT is needed to keep up.
Something to keep in mind is that the detail required in disability decisions has only gone up over the last 10 years. Anyone that was trained during that period literally cannot believe what used to qualify as a policy compliant decision before that.
Courtesy of Gruber (now deceased) and Nagle (on extended administrative leave), regional offices and the 160-plus Hearing Office chief judges barely hear cases now, in order to "supervise" line judges who actually hear cases. The hundred or so "management" judges at the National Hearing Centers also are doing next to nothing. But there's no fraud, waste or abuse at Social Security.
No, there have been a few specious explanations easily refuted with actual statistics and facts. The stat that has declined is “dispositions per day per available ALJ,” which means ALJs doing non-adjudicatory work (managers) aren’t counted as full (or in some cases even partial) judges. So there goes one explanation. Paperless cases with telephone hearings can be transferred easily, so there goes the “unequal workloads among offices and regions” explanation. “Bigger case files” are way more likely to affect decision writer productivity, but that has remained relatively steady except for the time devoted to claimant outreach calls. Actually, since the pandemic, there were long stretches where senior attorneys were preparing case summaries, which one would expect to improve ALJ productivity. Also, larger files could be dealt with to some degree through software, but OHO/SSA has not gotten its act together to help judges and writers get through the file more quickly with software yet. That’s on them. Other excuses are likewise easily disposed of. And again, they actually hired ALJ‘s during this period, so the idea that there is not enough work for people to do on its face doesn’t make sense.
There is no “conspiracy “ alleged - just pointing out that OHO has been producing 25 to 30% fewer dispositions since the pandemic, which is now almost 5 years ago. That’s compared to our entire history of productivity prior to 2020. I don’t see any conspiracy alleged there. It’s just a fact. It’s way better to address reality than to name call and try to ignore it by calling it silly. We should figure out how to resume producing at our former levels. That’s called public service. But whatever, making no headway on this obvious point so I’ll stop.
The ALJ MOU says they can’t do virtual and in person hearings on same day; can’t do child and adult cases on same day; can’t do two cases with over 800 pages combined of medical evidence (despite massive increases in average size). This absurd MOU is one key reason why productivity is so down.
The judges don’t work overtime. Are you sure that’s not over-tour hours?
@ 10:07 pm....
LOL. Do you know how often the response to that question and the new hire query do not coincide?
@4:35: Lol do you have any idea how massive a security problem it would be to allow unvetted non-SSA personnel to access to database from which the earnings queries are pulled?
Sorry your clients lie to you so often. I never had that problem, so I suspect you just aren’t establishing a good rapport or foundation of trust with them. Also , if you would bother looking at their files, you would see that new hires are uploaded several days before the hearing in 99.9999999% of cases. So the problem is on you either way
So many reasons. Just a few: 1. Ballooning average file sizes. 2. Plummeting decision draft quality since DWPI came in. 3. ALJs wasting time doing clerical work due to understaffing (and writer work due to #2). 4. Significant and frequent changes in what constitutes a "sufficient" decision.
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