Thread: Sick of Waiting Social Security Hell

Sick of Waiting
The number of claims for Social Security disability payments has doubled since 2001.

It can take years for a case to be reviewed.
Meanwhile, applicants struggle to survive.

By Barbara Basler

November 2007

Maria Leal of Portland, Ore., tells her story slowly because her tongue is sutured, making it difficult for her to speak clearly. She has grand mal seizures, and during the last one she bit down on her tongue so violently it needed stitches.

For 25 years, Leal, 53, was a dental assistant, but recently, even though she takes medication, her seizures began to interfere with her job. Too sick to work, she applied for Social Security disability insurance, which working Americans automatically pay for through payroll taxes and are entitled to collect if they become too ill or disabled to work.

But three years after she applied for disability benefits, Leal is living in a residence for the homeless, sharing a bathroom with 54 other women and eating baloney sandwiches. She's still waiting for her claim to be processed.

"I haven't worked since 2004, and I have no money," she says. "I've lost my apartment and my car. Just to finally get a hearing would be a precious gift."

Today the Social Security Administration (SSA) faces a record backlog of disability cases like Leal's, with 750,000 vulnerable people waiting—some for years—for a hearing and growing more desperate each day.

"People have died waiting for a hearing," Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue concedes. "This is America, and it is simply not acceptable for Americans to wait years for a final decision on a claim."

Disability claims, officials say, have doubled since 2001 as millions of boomers in their 50s—the years when working men and women are most prone to illness and disabilities—have applied to collect the insurance. Despite a growing aging population and caseload, the agency hasn't been able to afford to add workers. Congress has consistently cut the SSA's budget requests since 2001, leaving the agency's overall staffing at its lowest level in 34 years.

Budget limitations, staff reductions and a growing list of new duties—from processing Medicare applications to a raft of homeland security rules governing issuance or replacement of Social Security cards—are taking a toll on Social Security offices across the country. In some offices calls go unanswered and people wait in long lines for service.

But the SSA's 51-year-old disability benefits program has the most pernicious delays, with people now waiting an average of 520 days for a hearing on a claim.

The wait in Atlanta, with one of the worst backlogs, averages about 900 days, almost three years. In Portland, where Leal lives, the wait is nearly two years, says Richard Sly, an attorney there who has handled disability cases for 30 years.

"By the time you request a hearing," says Sly, "you've already spent at least three to six months in the process, often a year. Then it's running another two years. I get angry just talking about this."

An estimated 8.7 million people are currently receiving disability benefits, with monthly payments for disabled workers averaging $979. This year 2.5 million people have applied for benefits, a figure expected to grow by 90,000 each year for the next five years.

Because disability cases can be complex and the medical and work records extensive, two out of three people who apply for benefits each year are initially rejected. On appeal, cases are heard by an administrative law judge trained to review these files, and more than 60 percent of those claims are approved.

At the hearing stage, about 50 percent of those making claims hire a lawyer to help them navigate the process. Legal fees are capped at $5,300 by federal law, and due only if and when the client collects disability payments.

Linda Fullerton of Rochester, N.Y., a former computer purchasing agent, fought for her benefits for more than two years after she developed a brain abscess that required surgery and led to a constellation of problems, from joint disease to chronic muscle pain. "I was finally approved," says the 51-year-old, "but by then I had lost all my pension money and run through my savings."

"You think once you get the disability money, you'll be OK," she adds. "But you never recover financially. I have no financial security."

Disability, Fullerton says, "is not a handout. This is insurance that we have paid for, and we just want to collect on the policy."

Fullerton was so incensed by her experience that she formed the Social Security Disability Coalition, a grassroots online group in which people who have been through the process try to help those struggling with it.

"This whole situation is tragic," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has called for a $430 million increase in SSA's appropriation for 2008. But it's likely that Congress will approve an increase of only $120 million to $125 million.

With the smaller increase—which would be spread across the entire agency, including field offices—SSA would have "limited resources to use to drive down the hearings backlog," says Astrue, the SSA commissioner. SSA would be able to add no more than 150 of the 185 judges it needs, he says. Currently, 1,065 judges carry an average annual workload of 680 cases.

It takes more than a year, however, to train a hearings judge, Astrue says, "and we won't begin to see a real benefit until 2009."

Advocates say too many compelling disability cases are rejected out of hand, and SSA needs to design a better initial screening process as well as add more judges.

Sly, the Portland disability attorney, says, "No one knows for certain why so many cases are denied, then later approved. I think they tend to reject claims if there are any questions or problems. They're trying to move these cases through the system, and if there's any problem, any question, they deny the claim and move on to the next one."

Astrue points out that one reason more cases are approved on appeal is because people just get sicker as they go through the lengthy disability process: "If this process is delayed, their impairments sometimes become more severe, resulting in a favorable decision," he told members of a congressional committee.

To improve the process, Astrue plans to draw up a list of diseases and conditions that should be allowed on diagnosis alone, such as acute leukemia. He wants to hold more hearings for people in remote areas through videoconferencing and to send judges temporarily to areas where the backlogs are the worst. But the changes will take time.

Even with adequate funding and his "aggressive plans" for streamlining the process, Astrue says, the hearings backlog will not be eliminated until 2013.

Meanwhile, Maria Leal's life is centered on a secondhand black plastic briefcase, where she keeps the medical records for her case.

"Two doctors certified me 100 percent disabled, but I was rejected twice," says Leal, who not only has seizures but also has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and pancreatitis.

Still self-conscious about her sutured tongue, Leal says carefully, "Can you understand what I'm saying? Please tell me, can you understand?"


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Thanks Nouveauxpoor, I think this is important considering that Social Security/Social Security Administration [SSA] are really key instruments in dealing with illegal immigration successfully.

This story demonstrates that it is far more difficult to apply for, and receive benefits from the SSA - a mandatory user-contribution program geared for the welfare and income security of Americans - especially, retired and disabled Americans.

Observers here may also wish to revisit my comments over in this thread which was created just a couple days ago:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-518607-.html#518607

In fact, I'll let the 'cat out of the bag' here: I know an attorney that worked for the SSA (and still may, I haven't spoken to her for a few years now).
She said it was standard operating procedure to blanketly DENY all incoming applications for benefits - regardless of merit, or legitimacy or need, leaving the applicant to find a qualified attorney to follow-up with the application. Is there fraud in the current system? Well, yes - almost certainly. Should that warrant treating EVERY social security applicant as a fraudster until proven innocent? Is that 'good faith' social program administration? I don't think so.

To you people working for the SSA: Hang your heads in shame and apologize to the struggling retired, poor, disabled Americans that you have treated so horribly - at least they are trying to do the right thing, you are not!
...And I can say that because I AM a former US Federal employee having worked at the GS-11+ level among other things.

Lately, Americans are getting such SHODDY TREATMENT from all sides of government. It is SHAMEFUL.

Congress needs their Golden Entitlement Fleece pulled so maybe they would have a better understanding of how it feels to struggle !

Phred I know someone who worked for SS and they left because they thought people who applied for disability were being terribly mis-treated.

It really is horrible what happens to people who need that.

To deny people that have supported the system when they really need assistance is deplorable. Yet we give all kinds of assistance to illegal aliens and their anchor babies.

I agree that Congress, which was never supposed to be a full time occupation but has turned into one for many, gets too much from us and in this day and age, gives very little back to the very people who are the ones footing the bill for all their great bennies.

Wouldn't it be nice if all Americans got the same perks and guaranteed benefits?

Want to really be mad google how many mexicans get a US SSI check every month sent to them in mexico .

They have lobbys here who get them checks sometimes their disability being they can't speak english and it's a handicap . yet they go back to mexico and still get benefits .

Also the retirements of government officials is robbery . And they don't even pay into the system . So our ' servants ' get to live in luxuary while we die in poverty .

This is very depressing.

americangirl: Yes, it is. People that have submitted the mandatory contributions are being summarily denied access to benefits they have a legitimate right to pursue. As I said in the above, it is being done purposefully and with the knowledge of many mid and high-level people in the SSA.

And, yet, we are thinking of entering into agreements with Mexico to pay Mexican illegal workers our social security benefits? - When it is becoming increasingly and unnecessarily more difficult for legitimate US citizens to get benefits? ...And keep in mind, this is usually an abysmally small amount of money in the broader view of things.

I'll beat the dead horse here just a little more to help keep interest in these alive - just a bit more. Please do keep an eye on, and maintain interest in the two excellent amendments proposed by Sen Ensign (R-NV) to the Labor/HHS bill. They were brought up for a vote, and were approved. Later, the entire bill was approved as well. Now, the Senate version is to be reconciled with the House version to iron out the differences. Then, the Boosh needs to sign it for it to become law. They :

1). Essentially postpone indefinitely the Totalization Agreement w/Mexico
2). Make any worker ineligible for benefits, if they had worked in the US illegally.

Sounds like common sense to me, but, you can decide for yourself.

Even if you've written your social security off completely, and don't care at all, please do stay informed and involved for the sake of those Americans that really do need and deserve SS benefits. You have an obligation to fight for those that cannot fight for themselves. I know I will.
Who knows, how do you know you might not be in the same position some day?

Thanks [/end diatribe]