As the number of Social Security disability applicants awaiting a hearing on their claim for benefits before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) has recently swelled to over one million and as the wait time for that hearing has reached over 500 days, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has issued their plan to attack the problem. They are calling the plan “A Plan for Compassionate And Responsive Service”, or, CARES.

Their plan is to reduce the wait time for a hearing to 270 days by 2020. To achieve this, the agency is stating they will need adequate sustained funding to hire more Administrative Law Judge, which will also require scheduling more ALJ examinations.

The plan also sets forth other tactical and strategic initiatives, such as increasing the use of SSA Senior Attorneys in reviewing cases, expanding the use of pre-hearing conferences to prepare unrepresented claimants, use predicitive modeling technology to identify strong cases for decisions without the need for a hearing, and provide additional assistance to the offices with the highest backlogs.

It is a bit unclear if SSA received the budget appropriations they need to hire the ALJs and support staff needed to keep this plan on pace out of the gate. SSA was allocated $12.182 billion in administrative funds via the 2016 Appropriations Act (for salaries, equipment, facilities, etc.). SSA and the president had requested $12.513 billion. This is $356 million more than FY 2015, but SSA has stated their fix costs increased by approximately $350 million from 2015 to 2015 (payroll, DDS expenses, rent, postage, etc.). $150 million has been allocated specifically to update a building at SSA’s headquarters, and therefore they may not have enough to cover the increase in their fixed costs. SSA has said they may have to consider hiring freezes, staff furlough days, decreased overtime, and reduced filed office hours.

Nothing in this post is intended as advice or a suggestion to elect or not elect to claim benefits of any kind, including Social Security benefits, nor is it intended as financial advice in any way.  The decision to claim benefits is a personal one that is contingent upon each individual’s unique circumstances.