SEARCH:
washingtonpost.com
Web
| Search Archives
Federal Page   |   E-Mail Newsletter  Fed Insider E-Mail   |    RSS   |   Barr's Web Q&A
Page 2 of 2   <      

Disability Cases Pending, Pending . . .

What gets Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue exercised: The average wait for a disability ruling is up to 499 days.
What gets Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue exercised: The average wait for a disability ruling is up to 499 days. (Danny Johnston - Associated Press)
  Enlarge Photo    

TOOLBOX

Resize Text

Save/Share +
Print This
E-mail This

COMMENT

Discussion Policy
CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

Who's Blogging

» Links to this article

Astrue also said that one ALJ has not completed a disability benefit case in seven years, and another completed only 40 cases last year -- far below the 400 to 500 cases that the agency expects judges to finish each year.

Patrick P. O'Carroll Jr., inspector general at Social Security, said it is that kind of performance that is having "a negative effect" on bringing down the disability backlog. In fiscal 2006, he said, the cases handled by ALJs ranged from a low of 40 to a high of 1,805. About 30 percent of the judges processed fewer than 400 cases per year, he said.

But Ronald G. Bernoski, president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, said the hearing process does not begin and end with ALJs -- it also involves the 6,500 employees in the agency's office of disability adjudication and review. He said no judge, no matter how talented, can write 40 to 50 decisions per month without proper staff support, and he questioned whether Social Security will hire more aides for the judges.

After the hearing, Bernoski called Astrue's remarks about ALJ misconduct "premature," noting that they involved allegations. He also said the inspector general's data could be viewed like a bell curve, with the large majority of ALJs in the middle ranges and highly productive.

Astrue is hiring more ALJs, largely because Congress increased the Social Security budget last year by $148 million more than the White House recommended. Asked by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) if he has enough ALJs, Astrue said, "We don't." His goal is to staff up to 1,175 ALJs, but Astrue said the minimum needed is 1,250, which he hopes to reach in fiscal 2009.

Talk Shows

Greg Heineman, president of the National Council of Social Security Management Associations, and Rachel Emmons, the group's Washington representative, will be the guests on "FedTalk" at 11 a.m. today on http://federalnewsradio.com and WFED radio (1050 AM).

Robert M. Kolodner, national coordinator for health information technology at the Health and Human Services Department, will be the guest on the IBM "Business of Government Hour" at 9 a.m. tomorrow on WJFK radio (106.7 FM).

Stephen Barr's e-mail address is barrs@washpost.com.


<       2

© 2008 The Washington Post Company