Social Security has posted the Caseload Analysis Report for its hearing function for this month. Same old same old. The number of ALJs continue to decline as backlogs continue to grow. More cases are pending for extreme lengths of time. And this is despite lots of overtime.
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It’s almost like overtime leads to burnout, which leads to employees quitting, which the remaining employees to shoulder the extra workload, which can be only attempted to be worked with more overtime. Maybe the answer is that overtime isn’t a longterm solution to this problem, no matter how much SSA management feels like it is. Understaffing is the key issue at heart here.
They're striving to break it so that they get Congressional justification to get funding and make everything AI workflows.
"We've tried everything else!"
This news is music to DJT’s ears. The worse the caseloads data gets the closer the agency is to privatization. I thought that OT was the solution to keep the agency afloat?
I assume this caseload analysis of the abysmal stats will be posted on their website to show all doubters that this administration is doing a great job.
Check out the increase in ALJ productivity. 1.56 dispositions a day to 2.13 dispositions a day. The beat downs are working. ALJs are afraid of removal if they don't get out 500 cases a year.
It’s not really getting worse. They did add roughly 30 ALJs in August. But those judges aren't counted as "available" yet and presumably are undergoing training. OHO has always lost around 10 judges to attrition each month, with more at the end of the calendar and fiscal years. The absolute number of receipts from the DDS is still trending downward, and the OHO backlog (pending) actually went down by a couple thousand (362K to 360K). Meanwhile, the processing time stayed roughly the same. Importantly, they issued 2.13 dispositions per ALJ, which is probably the highest level they’ve reached since pre-pandemic days. So, for OHO, it’s really a question of what the level of incoming cases will be in the future and if ALJ attrition will be sufficiently offset by the ongoing hiring to stem the tide until the rumored AI cavalry arrives. Certainly the OHO situation looks way more under control than Operations, mostly because OHO has a much easier overall task/workload. This isn’t a pro-Frank post, so save the vitriol – just objectively commenting on the numbers. (And I know it’s no longer officially “OHO,” it’s just that they haven’t really renamed the hearings component itself, as far as I know. “DA” comprises more than just the former OHO.)
This issue is beyond numbers since these numbers are about humans desperately waiting to get a decision on whether they will have the means to survive with monetary and medical benefits. Many will become homeless or pass away during the months of waiting for a decision.
No longer applicable…
Stronger Together is Social Security's vision for a vibrant, engaged, and impactful employee workforce. Employees are becoming more actively involved in advancing our agency's mission while removing barriers to excellent customer service at every turn.
SSA has delivered best performance in history signed Frank Bisignano 06/29/2026
Not sure if this is possible, but possibly a class action suit against SSA would be appropriate. Knowing the US, it's probably not possible to sue a federal agency. I think claimants should have a right to start a class action suit against the government. The suffering that comes with being sick and not being able to work is bad enough, let alone having to wait a year or more with no money. The most ridiculous part is they're now cracking down on being homeless, when a lot of the time, delays in SSA benefits is causing that problem to become worse. Is that the plan? Or is that just the result?
Less than 5% of claims pending for over a year is honestly pretty amazing to me as someone who did this work when the average wait time for a hearing approached two years. But I attribute the change to fewer claims being filed and increased backlogs at the initial and reconsideration levels than to any improvements at the hearing level. It is interesting to see the senior attorney decisions (which are all fully favorables) going from 0 per day to around 5 a day to around 50 a day. I wonder if they figured out how to pull a subset of cases likely to be favorable (claimants who appear on the Death Master File, claimants aged 60+, files where the word "dialysis" or "coma" appears) and handed them to the attorneys. It's great if they do that, though it will affect the ALJs' award rates.
I disagree with your opinion that OHO has a much easier workload than operations. But you’re right about the rest. Dispositions are roughly keeping pace with receipts, and things will look even better on the upcoming CARs. Say what you will, but the threats are working. Hopefully Jay doesn’t do anything rash to f**k this all up.
OHO has full-time telework. Does that answer your question?
11:19: And that’s why it’s been able to sustain such high productivity. But no that does not explain why you think the work is much easier.
Senior attorney decisions per day means little unless you know how many senior attorneys are responsible for those 50 per day. Have they increased the number of senior attorneys in the field with signatory authority in certain situations, so in fact there may be dozens more senior attorneys available to issue such decisions? The real question is why for 10 to 15 years 20 to 25 senior attorneys In the cadre have issued so few fully favorable OTR dispositions for a component that pays 40 to 50% of their cases. Essentially that triage mechanism has been broken and just limping along out of inertia.
Swagger. Can't you just feel the swagger.
Send in more pretzel fuel!
The claimants who come to our office don’t mind the wait. Offer them a free pretzel, they’re delighted.
🥨 will never get old
Props to you
Our FO is drowning we cant even use our vacation days because we have so many people have 15+ years (8 leave category) and now we have issues with taking a day off due to staffing issues. Now we have nasc requirements n800n our own GI line and reception. Its really bad. People are getting any leave for 1 week denied because we have a part time employee throws off the calendar. Honestly the stuff we are fed is such poop. What the point of having a benefit if you cant use it. Now its “unlimited” restricted OT. These ADO’s across area are not consistent. I think this agency hates its employees.
You finally realized it? Where have you been?
I think this agency hates its employees.
Pendings over a year, or more is fairly misleading since pretty much all these cases are Remands from the District Court. The cases are listed based on the original RH date. It would be interesting to see the numbers if the stats did not include Remands along with a separate listing of AC Remands and DC Remands.
Applicable to SSA…
The Trump administration says it wants to close the Education Department to cut bureaucracy and increase efficiency, but NPR found that changes over the last 18 months have cost an unknown amount of taxpayer dollars and made the agency's work more complex and potentially inefficient.
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