According to data just released by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for fiscal year (FY) 2014, which ended Sept. 30, 2014, hearings before administrative law judges (ALJ) continue to take longer to process and their backlog continues to grow. This reverses gains the SSA had achieved in speeding up the process for obtaining a hearing decision from 2008 to 2012.
They now report hearings decided through September took an average of 422 days, a 40-day jump from FY 2013 (382 days) and a 69-day increase from FY 2012 (353 days).
In addition, the total number of hearings pending also increased to 977,736 in FY 2014, up 15.3 percent from FY 2013 (847,984).
