DDS manager here. This is alarming and accurate, though not at all surprising. Our turnover is at about 50-60% for examiners at 2 years. The workload continues to increase and the complexity of claims and speed at which medical records arrive have tripled in the time since I began 16 years ago. Expectations have not changed and if anything, increased.
We continue to struggle to hire and retain staff that is able to become successful examiners who complete our training. 2-4 years is the accepted range to reach proficiency as a DE and most do not reach that point. At exit interviews, burnout, workload, unrealistic production goals and low pay are all cited as reasons for departure. My staff is stressed and overworked on a daily basis trying to get as many claims adjudicated as possible while taking incredible heat from those we are trying to serve because of the lengthy process brought on by lengthy waits at the FO and an inability to reach anyone there as they are understaffed, and over worked as well…
Staffing cuts are not going to help us serve the public effectively or efficiently. A lot has been said about the cuts on federal SSA staff but at DDS we have heard nothing and upper management has no answers. It is not conducive to productivity. We are all in fear of being eliminated. Hoping that SAA can weather this storm and logic wins out… not holding my breath.
What worries me as an SSDI recipient who went through the "reconsideration" process, is that the Project 2025 guidelines -- which the Trump Administration seems to be following -- dictate there should be NO reconsideration process. If I didn't have this I would of been dead 20 years ago in the streets due to gangrene. (I have major circulatory issues.) So Project 2025 thinks I should be DEAD -- I really despise them and the Trump administration! Thank you to all the SSA employees who have assisted me and those like me in the past; I hope you can keep your jobs and continue to help many other unfortunate individuals.
Replying as another DDS manager and concurring with this previous statement. We are being subjected to even more higher expectations while still being told to place DEs on work plans, threatening demotion if these unrealistic goals aren’t met. It’s no secret that once the SSA FO gets gutted, their workload will most likely fall down to the DDS state workers. Which will only mean even higher workloads, and larger unrealistic goals. But yes, no one at the state level—executives, directors and upper managers know what will happen to DDS state workers. They continue to say our work is still at status quo, nothings changed, even there is a very obvious unknown hanging over everyone’s head.
Thank you for sharing this. I have long thought DDS, FO, and PC employees are underpaid and *exceptionally* overworked. I’m devastated with the turn of events. Thank you for what you do.
Numbers are from the Biden years, and conflated by Covid. Difficult to gain anything from this without 2025 data next year. More advantageous would be the administration’s approach to disability and if the changes needed will lead to more work for systems people.
I can attest to pre-Covid workloads exceeding reasonable expectation pre-covid. I can further attest that many years ago at the DDS level they had been manageable and with a certain degree of flow. Some disadvantages at the federal level had been many times working claims in as many as three different case processing systems to handle claims from multiple states at the same time. Further complicating factors is adjusting to the agreed upon business process or cooperating agreement the sites had with a given state. During Covid one state may have had astronomical wait times for a consultative examination. Further, based on their “fair share” nonsense you might not be taken off receipts until you are over two weeks and a day out of the office. For many that can be anywhere from 24-36 claims sitting for an adjudicator that they could not work because they were out of office. Then intake continues upon their return and next thing you know there is a growing back up of work that snowballs. And that’s if things move perfectly. Imagen has depending on reviewer slowed down or sped things up, same with transition to NCPS. Add to that the demonization of them and their work. Mocking by people and leaders who know they are working and to stir hate spew vile lies about them. Calls coming in, thousands of pages of records to review and a public that is told they are sipping lattes in the bath with their electronic devices… while plugged in I am sure. It’s an exhaustive job while being trashed by lawyers, claimants, supervisors, and now an ignorant and politicized hate to rally a crowd and stir votes. So they can blame lazy workers instead of the truth- that they have underfunded the program, borrowed from it in the past, and don’t proportionately tax the wealthy. So… the least they could do is put the workload to a doable level so people can receive the attention they deserve as they are vulnerable populations and respect those trying to help.
Well said and accurately summarized...come Thursday when the abandoned workloads of those leaving get redistributed to everyone left and the weekly allotment for everyone goes up due to those leaving as well...buckle up...going to be a crazy ride indeed.
DDS Managers - please ask that headquarters employees be allowed to reassign to DDS casework. So far, it’s just reassignments to FOs, teleservice centers or payment centers. Many of us in HQ would gladly assist your offices.
DDS employees are employees of the state in which we work. We are not federal employees, therefore federal workers cannot be transferred to DDS. Despite this, we are under the same federal hiring freeze as SSA and cannot replace our departed workers.
if there were no reconsideration process, claims would go from initial denial to ALJ hearing. This is not a perfect system--many of us who have been around a while remember when 1 million + cases were waiting for hearings, and people were waiting 1-2 years for hearings--but the current system where people wait an average of 8 months for recon and 7 out of 8 get denied and still need to request an ALJ hearing is not great either. SSA tested elimination of reconsideration in 10 states and stopped it when they needed to get the ALJ hearing backlog under control. Essentially they added another obstacle to claimants--like in track and field, the more hurdles there are, the slower things go and the more people drop out along the way.
13 comments:
The disability clearances will mirror the current Tesla chart…down!
DDS manager here. This is alarming and accurate, though not at all surprising. Our turnover is at about 50-60% for examiners at 2 years. The workload continues to increase and the complexity of claims and speed at which medical records arrive have tripled in the time since I began 16 years ago. Expectations have not changed and if anything, increased.
We continue to struggle to hire and retain staff that is able to become successful examiners who complete our training. 2-4 years is the accepted range to reach proficiency as a DE and most do not reach that point. At exit interviews, burnout, workload, unrealistic production goals and low pay are all cited as reasons for departure. My staff is stressed and overworked on a daily basis trying to get as many claims adjudicated as possible while taking incredible heat from those we are trying to serve because of the lengthy process brought on by lengthy waits at the FO and an inability to reach anyone there as they are understaffed, and over worked as well…
Staffing cuts are not going to help us serve the public effectively or efficiently. A lot has been said about the cuts on federal SSA staff but at DDS we have heard nothing and upper management has no answers. It is not conducive to productivity. We are all in fear of being eliminated. Hoping that SAA can weather this storm and logic wins out… not holding my breath.
What worries me as an SSDI recipient who went through the "reconsideration" process, is that the Project 2025 guidelines -- which the Trump Administration seems to be following -- dictate there should be NO reconsideration process. If I didn't have this I would of been dead 20 years ago in the streets due to gangrene. (I have major circulatory issues.) So Project 2025 thinks I should be DEAD -- I really despise them and the Trump administration! Thank you to all the SSA employees who have assisted me and those like me in the past; I hope you can keep your jobs and continue to help many other unfortunate individuals.
I am a disability processing specialist at SSA and was told we was essential. We will be ok once this storm is over
Replying as another DDS manager and concurring with this previous statement. We are being subjected to even more higher expectations while still being told to place DEs on work plans, threatening demotion if these unrealistic goals aren’t met. It’s no secret that once the SSA FO gets gutted, their workload will most likely fall down to the DDS state workers. Which will only mean even higher workloads, and larger unrealistic goals. But yes, no one at the state level—executives, directors and upper managers know what will happen to DDS state workers. They continue to say our work is still at status quo, nothings changed, even there is a very obvious unknown hanging over everyone’s head.
Thank you for sharing this. I have long thought DDS, FO, and PC employees are underpaid and *exceptionally* overworked. I’m devastated with the turn of events. Thank you for what you do.
Cue pitch by Dudek and “DOGE kids” to solve all this with AI and privatization. What could go wrong?
Numbers are from the Biden years, and conflated by Covid. Difficult to gain anything from this without 2025 data next year. More advantageous would be the administration’s approach to disability and if the changes needed will lead to more work for systems people.
I can attest to pre-Covid workloads exceeding reasonable expectation pre-covid. I can further attest that many years ago at the DDS level they had been manageable and with a certain degree of flow. Some disadvantages at the federal level had been many times working claims in as many as three different case processing systems to handle claims from multiple states at the same time. Further complicating factors is adjusting to the agreed upon business process or cooperating agreement the sites had with a given state. During Covid one state may have had astronomical wait times for a consultative examination. Further, based on their “fair share” nonsense you might not be taken off receipts until you are over two weeks and a day out of the office. For many that can be anywhere from 24-36 claims sitting for an adjudicator that they could not work because they were out of office. Then intake continues upon their return and next thing you know there is a growing back up of work that snowballs. And that’s if things move perfectly. Imagen has depending on reviewer slowed down or sped things up, same with transition to NCPS. Add to that the demonization of them and their work. Mocking by people and leaders who know they are working and to stir hate spew vile lies about them. Calls coming in, thousands of pages of records to review and a public that is told they are sipping lattes in the bath with their electronic devices… while plugged in I am sure. It’s an exhaustive job while being trashed by lawyers, claimants, supervisors, and now an ignorant and politicized hate to rally a crowd and stir votes. So they can blame lazy workers instead of the truth- that they have underfunded the program, borrowed from it in the past, and don’t proportionately tax the wealthy. So… the least they could do is put the workload to a doable level so people can receive the attention they deserve as they are vulnerable populations and respect those trying to help.
Well said and accurately summarized...come Thursday when the abandoned workloads of those leaving get redistributed to everyone left and the weekly allotment for everyone goes up due to those leaving as well...buckle up...going to be a crazy ride indeed.
DDS Managers - please ask that headquarters employees be allowed to reassign to DDS casework. So far, it’s just reassignments to FOs, teleservice centers or payment centers. Many of us in HQ would gladly assist your offices.
DDS employees are employees of the state in which we work. We are not federal employees, therefore federal workers cannot be transferred to DDS. Despite this, we are under the same federal hiring freeze as SSA and cannot replace our departed workers.
if there were no reconsideration process, claims would go from initial denial to ALJ hearing. This is not a perfect system--many of us who have been around a while remember when 1 million + cases were waiting for hearings, and people were waiting 1-2 years for hearings--but the current system where people wait an average of 8 months for recon and 7 out of 8 get denied and still need to request an ALJ hearing is not great either. SSA tested elimination of reconsideration in 10 states and stopped it when they needed to get the ALJ hearing backlog under control. Essentially they added another obstacle to claimants--like in track and field, the more hurdles there are, the slower things go and the more people drop out along the way.
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