SOCIAL SECURITY

Answers to Questions Raised at the

FY 2018 President’s Budget Briefing on June 27, 2017

1. Can you provide a split of the current Hearings backlog by program title?
Current Hearings Backlog
By Program Title- May 2017

Volume % of Total

RSI 1,517 0.14%

DI 393,956 35.96%

DI/SSI 373,819 34.12%

SSI 326,297 29.78%

Total 1,095,589

2. What is the Average Speed of Answer for Non-English or limited-English callers?

Management information (MI) for the National 800 Number “non-English” callers is
limited to Spanish callers. The Average Speed of Answer, fiscal year to date through
June 26, 2017, for Spanish National 800 Number calls is 64 seconds. We do not have
discrete MI for other languages.
3. Can you provide statistics on the processing time from a scheduled hearing to a
decision?
Our best approximation to answer this question is based on the date a case is assigned to
an Administrative Law Judge, which precedes scheduling. The number of days from
case assignment to disposition was 187 days in December 2016 and 188 days in May
2017.

4. Regarding the hearings backlog and getting down to an APT of 270 days by the end
of FY 2022- what does that assume in funding for future years, beyond FY 2018?
The agency is currently updating its multi-year plan to reduce the hearings backlog. This is
considered a budget document.
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5. Does average processing time (APT) for a hearing include dismissals, or is it just
dispositions?
APT is based on all dispositions, including dismissals.
6. Does SSA have the most recent number of individuals who have passed away while
waiting a hearing decision? Is this information available by State, if possible?
We do not have data for FY 2017 available. Since the start of FY 2016 (September 26,
2015 – September 30, 2016), 8,699 people died nationwide while waiting for a
disposition on their hearing request.
7. Can you provide information on how long people are waiting when they go to a field
office?

For FYTD 2017 (May), the average field office wait time with and without an
appointment was approximately 4 minutes and 27 minutes, respectively. In comparison
to the same time period in FY 2016, the average field office wait time with and without
an appointment was approximately 4.3 minutes and 28.3 minutes, respectively.
8. Will it be possible to have a demo of DeDoop (Duplicate Identifying Software) and
to have a chance to ask questions?

At this point it is in pilot mode and being tested by SSA.