Social Security Commissioner Releases Statement Commending the President’s Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, recently released the following statement:

“By requesting $11.6 billion for Social Security’s administrative expenses, a ten percent increase over the previous year, the President has demonstrated his commitment to help us reduce longstanding backlogs as well as handle the recession-related work that is flooding the agency. With this support, we can continue to drive down the hearings backlog, process increasing numbers of retirement and disability claims, modernize our information technology, and improve service in our field offices and teleservice centers.

It is critically important that Congress enact President Obama’s budget proposal in a timely manner so that we can make the changes that will provide the American public with better and more timely service.”

A link was provided to another document that provides more information about the thoughts of Social Security regarding its priorities and the proposed budget. Here are a few statements that are of interest:

“Eliminating the hearings backlog remains a top priority. Despite the setbacks caused by the economic downturn, SSA is on track to eliminate the backlog by 2013. SSA will also continue to make critical changes to the disability process to improve timeliness, quality, and efficiency. These changes will align SSA’s disability policy with modern medical technology and knowledge….

Hearings and Appeals: In FY 2010, we will maintain the staffing levels that we reached at the end of FY 2009 and add roughly 700 new employees. These hires will help us to process nearly 80,000 additional hearings in FY 2010 and will ensure that the hard earned progress we have made towards eliminating the hearings backlog is not lost because of the economic downturn.

We are devoting more resources to the Hearings Backlog Reduction Plan in both FY 2009 and FY 2010 to ensure that we continue to make progress. This includes:
→ Hiring 157 ALJs in FY 2009 and 208 ALJs in FY 2010 to reach a target total ALJ corps between
1,400 and 1,450 by the end of FY 2010. We also plan to add support staff in FY 2010 to maintain
our ALJ to support staff rat o;
→ Continuing to increase productivity in the hearing process;
→ Opening 13 new hearing offices;
→ Opening more National Hearing Centers;
→ Implementing standardized business processes that will ensure consistency and improve
processing times;
→ Expand Quick Disability Determinations by increasing the percentage and types of claims
processed;
→ Piloting the new Compassionate Allowance initiative, allowing us to quickly identify individuals
who we believe are clearly disabled under SSA’s rules; and
→ Continuing to explore potential electronic initiatives that can reduce case preparation time.”

More will be posted from this document tomorrow.