Social Security will begin an “Augmentation Strategy” where it will allow the Appeals Council to start conducting hearings on disability cases after decisions have been issued by Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). Using this as a strategy to reduce the number of hearing requests before ALJS, Social Security will utilize Administrative Appeals Judges (AAJs) to conduct these hearings.
Teresa Gruber, Social Security’s deputy commissioner for Disability Adjudication and Review, announced these plans at a recent Senate hearing. These AAJs will adjudicate non-disability related issues and disability cases that are remanded from Federal court and require a supplemental hearing. These duties previously have been handled by ALJs, but not longer. Gruber explained that since the beginning of Social Security’s hearing process in 1940 that the Appeals Council has been authorized to conduct hearings, but it has never previously happened.
To understand this change Social Security is making it is important to understand the current function of the Appeals Council. Currently, the Appeals Council’s main function is to review ALJ decisions to determine if there were any errors made by the ALJ in issuing either a favorable or unfavorable decision. If the Appeals Council found errors typically they would send the case back to the ALJ for a new hearing, vacating the old ruling. The Appeals Council does have the power to overturn decisions made by the ALJ, but this rarely occurred. One thing the Appeals Council has not previously done is to hold its own hearing on a disability case if it is decided that an ALJ error occurred in the previous hearing or if a federal judge sends the case back to the Appeals Council.
Social Security representatives have not indicated whether or not if the agency would be hiring additional personnel to address new duties such as conducting hearings. Although the shift in responsibility may reduce the workload of ALJs somewhat it could drastically increase the workload of the Appeals Council, which already can take up to 18 months to issue review decisions. For more information about this new initiative click here.
