Waiting is part of the game of the Social Security disability process. Claimants and representatives have to wait for initial application decisions, sometimes up to six months, and they have to wait for Request for Reconsideration decisions, sometimes up to another six months. The longest wait period is once a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) is requested. This waiting period is typically a year or longer, but most of the time a claimant can count on receiving the written decision from the judge within 90 days, but that may now be in jeopardy.
An ALJ discussion forum, which can be found here, indicates that Social Security has stopped allowing overtime to employees who were in charge of writing the ALJ decisions. This decision indicates it is predicated on the reduction of the hearing backlog and new appointment of Andrew Saul as Social Security’s new commissioner.
This is likely to mean that fewer hours are available to write ALJ decisions, and with judges increasing the amount of hearings they conduct, there could be a huge backlog of decisions that need to be written and sent out. This is not a problem that will immediately present itself, but over time the length of time from a hearing date until a claimant receives the written decision could increase drastically.
Receiving a decision is many times the end of the process for a claimant, so increased wait times to receive a decision to determine if someone qualifies for benefits would be extremely frustrating. Although most ALJs issue decisions within about 90 days there are specific rules or regulations that indicate an ALJ must issue a decision within a certain amount of time. Some people may believe ALJs write their own decisions, but they do not, that responsibility is left to the decision writers who will now be stretched even more thinly.
