Recently, the Social Security Administration initiated an independent review of the Social Security Disability program. The independent review of the Social Security Disability program will look at how the program awards benefits to applicants. For people in Massachusetts who are not able to work, the review may lead to a fairer system.

When a Social Security Disability application has been denied twice and an applicant seeks an appeal, an administrative law judge reviews the appeal. Administrative law judges work for the Social Security Administration, and during an appeal they are generally given wide discretion to decide a case. Earlier this year, an investigation by The Wall Street Journal revealed a significant discrepancy regarding the approval rates for appeals cases among some administrative law judges.

The average approval rate for Social Security Disability cases that are appealed is 60 percent. Some administrative law judges approve Social Security Disability cases greatly above or below the average. One judge in Houston, Texas only approved 13 percent of his cases over the last year, and one judge in Tennessee awarded benefits in practically all of the cases that came before him. In cases that should have been approved, the applicant who lost the appeal directly suffers. In cases that were approved but should not have been, the decisions move awards away from those who need assistance. The independent review seeks to resolve those issues.

The independent review will be conducted by the Administrative Conference of the United States and will look at the decision-making process employed by administrative law judges. One of the areas to be reviewed is how much time judges spend in hearings. Hearings for Social Security Disability appeals cases generally take an hour; however, some judges come to a decision in only a couple minutes.

Recently, the Social Security Administration has tried to tackle a large backlog of disability cases and some believe the need to cut the number of backlogged cases has contributed to the number of judges with outlier approval rates.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, "Disability-benefits system faces review," Damian Paletta, Dec. 15, 2011