Federal FOIA Template — SSA State-Level DDS Workload + Staffing

Submit to: SSA FOIA Office, Office of the General Counsel, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235 Email: !FOIAFOIA@ssa.gov Online: https://www.ssa.gov/foia/

Estimated to fill: state-level "Total State DDS Employees" rows for FY 2024+, FY24+ Workload tables, all-state VDE counts.

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Subject: FOIA Request — State Agency Operations Report (SAOR) Data, FY 2019–2024

Body:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, I hereby request the following records from the Social Security Administration:

Section 1: Workload Data by State

For fiscal years 2019 through 2024, for each state Disability Determination Services (DDS) agency:

1. State Agency Operations Report (SAOR) data including, at minimum:
   • Initial claim receipts
   • Reconsideration claim receipts
   • Continuing Disability Review (CDR) receipts
   • Hearings receipts
   • All disposition figures by claim type
   • Allowance rate (initial and reconsideration)
   • Federal accuracy review results
   • Average processing time

Section 2: State-Level Staffing Data

For fiscal years 2019 through 2024, for each state DDS agency:

2. Authorized FTE count of Vocational Disability Examiners (or equivalent state classification)
3. Total authorized DDS workforce (all classifications)
4. Vacancy rates and attrition data, where tracked

Section 3: Massachusetts-Specific Detail

For the Massachusetts DDS (administered by MassAbility, formerly MRC):

5. Federal SSA reimbursement payments to Massachusetts DDS, FY 2019–2024
6. Any audit findings or quality assurance reviews specific to MA DDS, FY 2019–2024
7. Any FY24 Workload Data publications already prepared for proactive disclosure

Section 4: Audit Reports

8. The OIG audit report "Staffing, Productivity, and Processing Times at State Disability Determination Services" (072309) and any successor reports
9. Any subsequent audit reports analyzing DDS staffing trends FY 2019–2024

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Format

Please provide records in native electronic format (CSV preferred for tabular data, PDF for reports). If state-level data is available in machine-readable form (the format used internally for SSA-SA-FYWL.csv and DDS-Net-Accuracy.csv proactive disclosures), please prefer that form.

Fee Waiver Request

I request a fee waiver under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(iii) on the grounds that disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest because it (1) is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the federal-state DDS partnership; and (2) is not primarily in my commercial interest. The repository at github.com/Woop91/509dds-data exists to make this information accessible for labor research, member education, and public-interest analysis.

If a fee waiver is denied, please notify me of any anticipated charges before proceeding.

Statutory Deadline

Please respond within 20 working days as required by 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A)(i).

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Background and Public Interest

The SSA partnership with state DDS agencies adjudicates approximately 1.9 million disability determinations annually. Workforce trends in DDS agencies — particularly the documented examiner attrition crisis described in OIG audit 072309 — directly affect claimant wait times, which have grown from 121 days (FY 2019) to 219 days (FY 2023) per SSA's own published data.

State-level workload and staffing detail enables independent analysis of which states are most affected, which has direct policy relevance for Congressional oversight, claimant advocacy, and labor-management negotiation at state DDS offices.