This is a post from attorney Charles Hall's blog. It leads off with the statement "In an effort to make it more difficult for claimants to object to video hearings..."
Video hearings are conducted because SSA is trying to deal with the issue of hearing backlogs and how long it takes to get a hearing in each state (and it can vary considerably between states as well as between hearings offices within states) without adding more judges to the payroll. Of course, the budget of SSA is left to the discretion of Congress, not the agency and not the executive administration (the White House) which can only submit budget proposals. Purse string powers belong to Congress.
Claimants need to understand that it is their right to have an in-person hearing if they so choose and that means they can reject a video hearing.
In an earlier post this from Mr. Hall's blog, he stated "over 220,000 claimants opted out of video hearings when they were given the chance in October and November of 2014. That's more than one in five pending requests for hearing. I'm surprised that the number opting out isn't even higher. Some claimants and attorneys are more willing than others to tolerate video hearings but nobody likes them."
What's interesting is what a couple commenters on that particular blog post had to say.
Commenter 1: "the VTC (video hearing) is the lesser of two evils when compared to the harm of even more months for the claimant waiting for a hearing".
Commenter 2: "...it is my opinion that VTC hearings are wholly detrimental to my claimant simply because of the impersonal and removed nature of the things".
Looks Like This Plan Didn't Work
