Social Security Disability Hearings Backlog Down for First Time in Decade

October 1, 2009

Social Security Hearings Backlog Down for First Time in Decade

Productivity and Processing Times Also Improve

J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that for the

first time since 1999, the agency has ended the year with fewer disability

hearings pending than in the prior year. Social Security ended fiscal year (FY)

2009 with 722,822 hearings pending compared to 760,813 hearings pending at the

start of the year, a reduction of more than 37,000 cases. Over the same period,

the average processing time for these cases improved from 514 days in FY 2008 to

491 in FY 2009.

" Our backlog reduction plan is working, and progress is accelerating, "

Commissioner Astrue said. " Even in the face of a significant increase in our

workloads as a result of the worst recession since the Great Depression, we have

reduced the hearings backlog for nine consecutive months. Thanks to the efforts

of thousands of hardworking Social Security employees and the additional funding

we received from President Obama and the Congress, we have exceeded our backlog

reduction goal for this year. "

To achieve its backlog reduction goals, the agency has embarked on the largest

expansion in decades of its capacity to hear disability appeals. This year, the

agency hired 147 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and 850 support staff and

plans to hire 226 additional ALJs plus support staff in FY 2010. To provide

flexibility to assist the most backlogged hearing offices, the agency opened

three new National Hearing Centers (NHCs) in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Baltimore,

land; and Chicago, Illinois. The agency also has aggressive plans to open

14 new hearing offices and 4 satellite offices by the end of next year with the

first of those new offices opening in Anchorage, Alaska in the next few months.

In addition to reducing the number of cases awaiting a hearing decision, the

agency again targeted the oldest and most difficult cases for processing.

Beginning in FY 2007 with 65,000 cases that were 1,000 days old or older, the

agency has continually attacked its " aged " cases. This year, the agency

targeted 166,838 cases that were 850 days or older and virtually eliminated this

entire universe of cases. The goal in FY 2010 has been reset again to eliminate

cases over 825 days old.

Social Security's ALJs also continue to increase their productivity. The agency

averaged 570 dispositions (2.28 per day) per available ALJ in FY 2009, an upward

trend that has continued for the last three years.

For more information about Social Security's hearings process and backlog

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