Trump’s Hiring Freeze May Worsen 526-Day Disability Case Backlog
- GOP former Social Security commissioner urges exemption
- Union says appeals backlog will lengthen without new hires
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President Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze may exacerbate a backlog of appeals for Social Security Disability Insurance that has grown so big that an average case takes more than a year to be heard.
“These are people who are desperate,” Judge Marilyn Zahm, president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges union, said. “There may be a hiring freeze on federal employment, but there’s no freeze on people getting older, people getting sicker, people having injuries and accidents, and people needing disability insurance.”