Whatever happened to the efforts to decrease the processing time for Social Security Disability hearings?
According to a recent article in NOSSCR Social Security Forum, in July 2015, the average hearing office processing time had increased to 511 days. The record high was in August 2008 — 532 days. In 2014 it was 422 days. One of [the offices in my area are at 533 days
In July 2015 there were 1,056,071 claims waiting at the hearing level.
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In my opinion the backlog is caused by several things: The Judges now have a cap on the number of cases they can adjudicate a year — 720. Social Security needs to beef up its efforts to hire more judges. The hearing offices need to allow more decision by senor attorney adjudicators.
Their fiscal year ends September 30 — we shall see what next year holds.