On September 30, 2009, Michel Astrue, commissioner the of Social Security Administration, announced a decline in the number of pending Social Security hearings. This announcement marked the first decline of hearings since 1999. Unfortunately, Social Security still has 722,822 pending hearings. In 2009, to further reduce the amount of pending Social Security Hearings the SSA hired 147 Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and plans to hire 226 more ALJs in 2010. The Social Security Administration also plans on opening 14 new hearing offices by the end of 2010.
This news is encouraging and will hopefully allow persons with disabilities to have quicker access to benefits in the future.
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