Blog
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It looks like the new Social Security Commissioner, Martin O’Malley, is really taking charge. A number of changes have been implemented in the several weeks Commissioner O’Malley has been on the job. Among the most meaningful is decreasing the default overpayment withholding rate to 10% (or $10, whichever is greater) from 100%. This will significantly…
a week+ ago -
Social Security uses what is called the “fee agreement process” to pay representatives who help Claimants. For those signing an appropriate fee agreement Social Security will approve the agreement and pay the representative up to 25% of a retroactive fee. Since November 2022 that retroactive fee could not exceed $7,200. Sometime this fall the cap…
2+ weeks ago
News
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Summer 2021 Newsletter STILL STANDING…AND PRACTICING I published the first issue of Social Security & You in Spring of 1993. Some years I’ve published more issues than others. The most recent issue was dated Spring 2019: over 2 years ago. The world was a much different place then. Especially for me. Read the full newsletter…
2+ years ago -
Spring 2019 Newsletter An Opioid Story I’ve changed his name. Let’s call him Gerald. He was a laborer. And by that I don’t mean that he just did physical work. He was a card-carrying member the Labor’s Union local. And that meant a lot to him. I represented him for Social Security disability and Michigan…
4+ years ago
SSA WILL NO LONGER IDENTIFY ALJs
At least partially in response to a series of articles earlier this year in the Wall Street Journal, the Social Security administration announced a review of its disability program and a major policy shift that will result in keeping the identity of the Administrative Law Judge assigned to hear a particular appeal secret until the day of the hearing.
The review of the wide variance between the decisions of its 1,500 ALJs will be undertaken by the Administrative Conference of the United States, a Washington-based government policy group. The study is aimed at making recommendations to overhaul the disability appeal process.
A review of recent statistics shows that while the average ALJ awards benefits to 60% of those who request a hearing, some judges award benefits to as few as 15% while more than 100 judges award benefits to better than 85%.
It is unclear how withholding the identity of the ALJ will impact on decision rates as the opportunities to “judge shop” are limited. To dodge an unfavorable judge for an in person hearing the Request for Hearing would have to be withdrawn. Given the one-year back rule, doing so would cost a winning Claimant thousands of dollars of benefits and add many months to the waiting time.
It is true that representatives can refuse a video hearing and hope for a better judge, but the change doesn’t affect the ability to insist on an in person hearing.
What the change will do is limit the ability to tailor a brief or presentation of the case to the known preferences of a particular judge.
Only time will tell how this will play out.
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