By: Tim Macy, District Representative

The amount of disability cases waiting for a hearing decision from the Social Security Administration has more than doubled over the past decade.  This means that people who require a hearing on the status of their disability may be waiting a lot longer than they feel is reasonable.  One issue directly impacting that ever-growing backlog of cases has been the Social Security Administration’s insufficient amount of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) who preside over cases such as disability hearings.  In a recent attempt to cut down on these cases, the Social Security Administration has begun to hire a new crop of ALJs. 

These new ALJs will not be reducing the numbers of backlogged cases overnight but they will have a positive impact within the year.  The first step is training.  The Social Security Administration has already made offers to 144 possible ALJs and they plan on hiring a total of 175 ALJs before the end of the fiscal year.  The first wave of judges will begin their training in April and they will be handling a slightly smaller caseload at first but are expected to be fully trained and fully operational by the end of this year. 

The Kansas City Office of Disability Adjudication and Review is also on board with this effort to reduce the amount of backlogged cases on a more local level.  A remote hearing site, which will service claimants who live in the Lawrence and Topeka area, was open for business as of February, 2008.  The actual location of the remote hearing site is at the Clubhouse Inn and Suites, 924 SW Henderson Road, Topeka, Kansas.  This is good news for people living in or around Topeka and Lawrence and good news for anyone who is on the waiting list to have their disability case heard. 

The hiring of new ALJs is not the only thing the Social Security Administration is doing to reduce their caseload and to better facilitate the many people who need to have their case heard (at the end of 2007 there were around 750,000 people on the list).  They have also opened the National Hearing Center which incorporates new technology into the often slow process.  ALJs at The National Hearing Center are able to preside over cases in other cities using new tools such as video teleconferencing which expedite an otherwise slow process.  Additionally, the Social Security Administration is enacting a Quick Disability Determination process and they are implementing compassionate allowances as well as eliminating aged cases. 

This new plan was presented to congress in May of 2007 and it has been supported by the President as well as members of both parties.  The problem of congestion within the Social Security Administration and their inability to reduce their backlog of disability cases has been a problem affecting too many citizens on both a local and national level for too long.  The addition of these ALJs, the incorporation of technology in hearings and the creation of a new remote site at the Clubhouse Inn in Topeka should alleviate some of the undue stress put upon too many Americans awaiting decisions regarding their disabilities.