There are several causes for increasing lengths of time to resolve Social Security disability cases. Basically, the main reasons are insufficient number of individuals employed by Security Security in various divisions to handle the tremendous workload which increases every year. In addition, there are not enough administrative law judges(ALJ) to review cases on appeal.
Currently, there is a backlog over a million claims and the processing time for each claim is estimated to be over 400 days. Approximately, over a million individuals applied for disability last year and the number of administrative law judges is woefully inadequate to meet the increasing demand. Sadly, some applicants die before their cases can be heard.
The Trump administration shortly after taking office imposed a federal hiring freeze which excluded the military and other federal agencies. This freeze was subsequently lifted, but it is still apparent that Social Security disability will not be hiring sufficient personal.
Until the government provides sufficient funds and hires enough individuals to handle the exploding workload, the situation can only worsen.