From David Weaver, a retired Social Security employee, writing for The Hill:
Projections indicate that, in less than two years, there will be a staggering 2.5 million people in Social Security’s disability backlog. That figure is higher than the population of 20 U.S. states and territories. Thus, as we look to the midterm elections next year, President Trump will be dealing with a very large group of Americans who aren’t receiving timely decisions on their benefit applications.
About 70 percent of the projected backlog at the end of fiscal 2026 will be at the initial level of determination. ...
The backlog could easily turn out to be well above 2.5 million cases if current levels of government staffing decline, assumed productivity gains among government workers fail to materialize, or the country experiences a recession and displaced workers with health problems turn to Social Security for help. ...
The large backlog will be a national driver of homelessness, a situation that occurs with some frequency among disability applicants. ...
Trump’s first instinct may be to look for a technological fix. His executive order creating DOGE stated its purpose as “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” In practice, however, DOGE has become focused on personnel policy and cost cutting, rather than bleeding-edge technology.
Social Security recently summarized its DOGE-related activities. If members of the public thought the young engineers of DOGE were going to revolutionize technology in the government, they will be disappointed. The Social Security list is basically composed of budget cuts, including two big items: a reduction in the agency’s technology budget and a hiring freeze applied to federal employees and state workers who help process disability claims. ...
I am pessimistic about the situation. The present course can lead only to disaster but this will not be apparent to the Trump Administration until the disaster is well upon us. They will then try desperately to turn the spigot back on only to find out that there's only so much that can be done until new personnel are hired and trained and that takes quite some time. And, of course, Weaver is only writing here about impending backlogs of disability determinations and that's only one part of the problem. Addressing field office, teleservice center and payment center backlogs, which will also mushroom, will be even more difficult, especially with a gutted management structure.
9 comments:
I’m hearing that all AAJ and Appeals Council employees will be let go. This will certainly contribute to the backlog!
Have faith in Frank. He’s the right guy to turn this around.
It seems like all the progress the agency has made to reduce backlogs over the last 15 years is being thrown away. This is very troubling The public won’t feel the pain of these cuts until they are directly affected, and like you said, it will be too late.
Hopefully there will be a concentrated effort to increase the use of AI in the DDS process, increase CDRs, and reduce the amount of fraudulent disability claims. Hopefully this effort will require the full staff of the disability departments at SSA.
Unless logic is thrown out the window and everything is privatized.
I suspect all of U.S government will have backlogs or less service.
Trump is the individual many red states thought was superior to Kamala Harris despite her professional pedigree. It's laughable. Republican politicians seem poised to destroy the fluid workings of government and the economy. And many business owners,who voted for trump,are dumbfoundedly worrying.
This is why voting should be based on logical connection to facts and not hateful bigotry. Now the nation and world will suffer more.
This rumor is getting tired. Also, even if the agency changed the regulations to get rid of the AC, it wouldn't have any effect on the backlogs.
For those of you that have not been around long, back at the turn of the century we had 999 day claims. Those were claims that had gone 999 days from initial filing and were not scheduled for hearing. The backlog then was at the hearing level. The counter stopped at 999 because it was only three digits. Many claims were 3+ years. It was horrible. Claimants filed bankruptcy, died, self terminated and just disappeared. Everything old is new again for those that do not learn from history. 25 months and 13 days till I retire, but I am looking at going out early and maybe doing something part time. I lived this nightmare once, no need to repeat it, I know how it ends.
This administration understands that they have a two year window before the midterm elections. They are doing everything possible to implement Project 2025 through EO’s. Sadly, the public bought this convicted felons lies and now it will be a steep uphill battle to recover.
Yeah. The business genius who managed to keep Fiserv’s stock price flat for years while everyone else’s rocketed upwards will definitely bring bigly great gains to SSA.
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