Social Security announced it was extending a pilot program that allows the agency to set the date and time for a disability hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) if Social Security deems it necessary. Prior to the pilot program the ALJ assigned the case had the only authority to determine when a hearing would be scheduled.
This program began in 2010 in an attempt to help reduce the huge backlog of cases that were waiting for hearings, but since 2010 the backlog of hearings have not been reduced and today more people than ever are waiting for hearings. Social Security estimates that nationwide more than 1 million people are waiting for a hearing.
The pilot program, which has been extended to Aug. 11, 2017, is not the culprit in increasing the backlog of hearings, but there is very little indication it is doing much of anything to relieve the problem. The idea is that Social Security can step in and schedule hearings in cases where the agency feels that the ALJ should have already scheduled a hearing, but the practice appears to be rarely used.
It makes little sense to institute a new pilot program in an attempt to speed-up the hearing wait times and then fail use the program. Social Security indicates that the pilot program is a success. In the Federal Register’s explanation of extending the program it said “we are continuing to work with ALJs who do not promptly schedule their hearings, and we are using a variety of authorities available to correct these situations. To date, our efforts have been largely successful.”
I guess extending the pilot program for another 14 months is not going to increase the hearing backlog, but one has to wonder how large the hearing backlog would be without this pilot program.
