The House has approved a $240 million increase for the Social Security Administration over the President’s proposed $10.327 billion budget to help reduce a large, and expanding backlog of continuing disability review and supplemental security income cases.
"This language would raise the SSA’s budget by 8.1 percent over last year and allow the agency to make critical progress in reducing its backlog in pending cases," said National Treasury Employees Union president, Colleen Kelley in praise of the increase.
Former National Council of Social Security Management Associations president, Richard Warinskey, told a House appropriations subcommittee recently that an increase of $440 million would be needed to both reduce the backlog and improve service, although he said increases reflected in the White House request are a welcome change to declines in recent years that have left the agency in a lurch.
About 750,000 cases are awaiting hearings on appealed claims. The agency plans a net increase of 150 administrative law judges this year that collectively should be able to process an additional 75,000 cases per year.