Agreed. From the article cited at the top of the thread:

The Social Security commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, says the delays are unacceptable, particularly for people who have paid payroll taxes for years to support the system and now are unable to work because of debilitating medical problems. Astrue has had some success in reducing a case backlog that has plagued the system for years. But a spike in new applications, linked to the economic recession, threatens to swamp the system again.

* * *

"The most important thing we can do to improve the disability process is to make the right decision as soon as possible," Astrue said at a recent congressional hearing. "Certainly, I'm not happy with the accuracy of the system, even though it is getting better."

His goal is to clear the backlog of appeals hearings by 2013. "It takes longer to fix something than it does to break it," he said.

Then too, check out the following press release from the Social Security Administration, dated March 2, 2010, Social Security Hearings Backlog Falls to Lowest Level Since 2005:

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the number of disability hearings pending stands at 697,437 cases -- the lowest level since June 2005 and down more than 71,000 cases since December 2008, when the trend of month-by-month reductions began. In addition, the average processing time for hearing decisions has decreased to 442 days, down from a high of 514 days at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2008.

“We have decreased the number of hearings pending by almost 10 percent over the last 14 months and cut the time it takes to make a decision by nearly two and a half months. This remarkable progress shows our backlog reduction plan is working,” Commissioner Astrue said. “With ongoing support from the President and Congress as well as the efforts of our hardworking employees, I am confident the hearings backlog will continue to diminish.”

Social Security has actively addressed the hearings backlog and increased the capacity to hold more hearings. The agency hired 147 Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and over 1,000 support staff in FY 2009, and has plans to hire an additional 226 ALJs this year. The agency now has four National Hearing Centers to help process hearings by video conference for the most hard-hit areas of the country. The agency also has aggressive plans to open 14 new hearing offices and three satellite offices by the end of the year. The first of these offices was opened in Anchorage, Alaska on February 19, 2010.*

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/presso...og-0310-pr.htm


Finally, here in California, while the Feds pay 100% of the cost of the state determination system, those employees - along with all other state workers - have been forced by Arnold to take unpaid furloughs every other week. The net effect being that in the interest of preserving a sense of equality among state workers who have been given what works out to a 10% pay cut, even SSD evaluators who's salary is paid by the federal government are being furloughed! And although a couple of superior judges have ruled the process illegal, those judgments have been stayed pending appeal, a process that could take years. See, generally, Order Granting Writ of Mandate http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2009/...ffiliate.4.pdf and Appellate court issues second furlough decision http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs...ents_Container and Supreme Court leaves seven furlough cases in lower courts http://www.examiner.com/x-36269-San-...n-lower-courts.

I would think that if the current administration was in favor of a policy that delayed disability determinations for years, it would be backing the Terminator on this one, but it isn't. See, Social Security Administration Praises Court Ruling on "Illegal" Furloughs in California - Asks Governor Schwarzenegger to Accept Ruling and Congress to Increase Oversight, January 4, 2010 http://www.socialsecurity.gov/presso...urlough-pr.htm and Furloughs in Federally-Funded Benefit Programs: Backlogs Build and California Compensates with Overtime and Hiring, A Report for the Senate Rules Committee December 22, 2009 at page 6:

Federal Disability Benefits

Disability Determination Service Division of the state Department of Social Services Federal Official Calls California Furloughs “Ridiculous”

U.S. Social Security Administration officials have harsh words for the furlough of state workers who administer two of their programs to aid disabled people.
Regional Commissioner Peter Spencer, based in Richmond, called it “a no-brainer,” “ridiculous” and “an anti-stimulus action.”

“Congress and the President gave us additional funding to process disability cases to stimulate the economy,” he said, “and the state’s actions counteract the intent of the legislation and hurt the state’s economy.”

“It’s money that they are losing,” Spencer said of the governor’s office. “It does not save them a cent.”

The governor’s furlough order covers the doctors, analysts and clerical staff of the Disability Determination Service Division of the Department of Social Services. These workers evaluate applicants for two programs:

• The Supplemental Security Income program, which in California pays an average of $612 a month to people who are aged, blind or disabled and have little or no income; and

• the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which in California pays an average of $947 a month. Both programs help people who are so disabled they cannot work for a year or longer.*

http://www3.senate.ca.gov/deployedfi...20programs.pdf

Bottom line: this is just yet another clean up operation following years of (at best) indifferent neglect under the prior administration. Sort of like how the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service gave a free pass the blowout preventer now used in all deep water oil wells, including the Deepwater Horizon. Oil spill investigators find critical problems in blowout preventer, May 11, 2010, Washington Post:

While Congress probes the accident, a board of federal officials is also investigating. In a hearing in a hotel ballroom near New Orleans, Michael Saucier, a regional supervisor for the Minerals Management Service, said the beleaguered federal agency that oversees offshore drilling learned in a 2004 study that fail-safe systems designed to shear through steel pipes could fail in some circumstances. But he said MMS did not check whether rigs were avoiding those circumstances.

The hearing provided the spectacle of one federal agency drawing embarrassing admissions out of another. Some of the toughest questions came from Coast Guard Capt. Hung Nguyen, co-chair of the investigating board. He raised the 2004 study that found that blowout preventers did not have the power to cut ultra-strong pipe joints.

Nguyem also asked Saucier how the MMS ensures that blowout preventers function. Saucier said for that, the government relies heavily on industry designs and oil company tests.

"Manufactured by industry, installed by industry, with no government witnessing oversight of the installation or the construction, is that correct?" Nguyen asked.

"That would be correct," Saucier said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2010051102889


Mike

* Public document; no copywrite asserted.