Bad News for Hearing Level Processing Times
At the close of fiscal year (FY) 2013, which ended on September 30th, 2013, hearing level processing times have increased, on average, nearly one month from what they were at the end of fiscal year FY 2012.
According to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) “Caseload Analysis Report” and “National Ranking Report by Average Processing Time,” more of the 165 hearing offices reported on showed processing times longer than the average in 2013 than did in 2012. Average processing times longer than 365 days were reported at 102 of the offices in FY 2013, way up from 69 offices in FY 2012.
The nearly $1 billion shortage in the (SSA) administrative budget over the last three years combined government shutdown at the beginning of FY 2014 did nothing to alleviate the slowdown in processing times.