Commissioner Astrue announced today that new data about disability beneficiaries and the hearing process in disability cases will be made available to the public:
Here are a few examples of the value of the Social Security datasets available today:
- Researchers can find out about the work-related experiences of our beneficiaries receiving Social Security disability benefits and give us policy guidance for our disability programs.
- The public can see information about hearings workloads and a breakdown of the types of decisions made by Administrative Law Judges.
- Researchers can study the effects of current and proposed legislative and program provisions.
- People who have requested a hearing on their disability claim can estimate the amount of time they may have to wait for the hearing to be held and for a decision.
- The public can see general information requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Commissioner goes on to say: “These new datasets are just the beginning of our efforts. In February we will launch our Open Government webpage that will include improved access to our data in a variety of formats. In April we will publish our Open Government plan. . . . Let me also reassure all Americans that while our goal is to become more open and transparent, we will continue to vigilantly protect the personal information the public entrusts to us. We will ensure that transparency does not put that information at risk.”
