Reported today by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Associated Press:

People who are clearly disabled could be approved for disability benefits in as little as 20 days under a new determination process to be rolled out by the Social Security Administration.
The new procedures, to be finalized Tuesday, could cut at least nine months off the roughly three years it takes people seeking disability benefits to work through the entire process for appealing decisions when benefits are denied

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Jeffrey A. Rabin is a Chicago area disability attorney who posted this article to his website:

A frequent question from former clients who have been awarded either a period of disability and disability insurance benefits, or SSI benefits, is what work they can perform after the award and still maintain their eligibility for assistance. This article will review the basic social security rules concerning earnings after a finding of disability. We will examine the following areas:

1. Returning to work on SSDI:

a). Trial Work Period;
b). Extended Period of Eligibility;
c). Extended Medicare Coverage.

2. SSI and Work Efforts;
3. Impairment Related Work Expenses; and
4. Ticket to Work Program.

Link To the website here:

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Social Security… “also has been buckling under a backlog of applications for benefits pending before administrative law judges. Since Barnhart took over the agency at the end of 2001, the backlog of cases has almost doubled: from 400,000 to 750,000 projected by the end of September. It often takes applicants more than two years — and sometimes twice that long — to receive benefits. The people affected most by the delays are those with disabilities seeking benefits.”
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From Saturday’s Slate Magazine, an article by William Saletan:

“Don’t get me wrong. I hope you have a long and happy life. I just hope your kids don’t end up paying one-fifth to one-third of their incomes to subsidize your retirement and mine. Because that’s what awaits them: more and more boomers living to age 65 and beyond, perfectly healthy but collecting checks for decades. To head this off, we need a radical change in Social Security. I’m not talking about privatization. I’m talking about rethinking, and possibly abolishing, the whole idea of payments based on age.” Full article here:

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From an article in today’s Washington Post, which suggests that we should abolish retirment benefits based on age, and only pay them to the disabled aged:
…”It’s an argument for ending the link between age and benefits. Social Security actually consists of three programs. One pays benefits based on age; another pays if you lose your spouse; a third pays if you become disabled. As of 2002, 70 percent of the money paid out was based on age; only 15 percent was based on disability. That’s insane. Inequality of aging means that age is a bad proxy for disability, which is a good proxy for need. If you turn 65 on the same day as your neighbor, but she’s disabled and you aren’t, we should pay her, not you.” Full article here:

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I thought you’d be interested in these these excerpts from some March Congressional testimony, coming from the organization that represents staff in Social Security offices at all levels.
In 1999 SSA had 311,000 hearings pending. There are now an estimated 750,000 hearings pending, an increase of 140%. The average Administrative Law Judge has approximately 750 cases pending per available judge. As a result the average time to receive a hearing decision is often more than two years.

• SSA’s Program Service Centers (PSCs) have seen their pending cases more than double in the past two years, increasing by more than 350,000 cases. Backlogs in the PSCs have contributed to an increase in requests from Congress for status of cases by over 40% and requests for special high priority payment of cases by over 110%.

• Waiting times in Field Offices rose dramatically for the first six weeks of the year. Walk-in traffic increased by approximately 40% from the same time last year. Much of the traffic is due to requirements of the 2005 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA.) This law significantly strengthened the rules for issuing new and replacement Social Security numbers and cards.
• SSA’s 1-800 number received nearly 4.8 million more calls for the first two months of this year compared to the first two months of last year.

• In FY 2005, SSA processed 64% more new claims for Title II and Title XVI disability claims than it did in FY 2000.

• SSA will send out an estimated 2 million letters for those that qualified for Extra Help for Part D Medicare in August to determine whether the amount of Extra Help will change. Many of these cases will need to be reworked by SSA Field Offices. SSA will also mail out an estimated 2 million letters for those potentially affected by the Income-Related increased Medicare Part B Premiums this fall. Many of those affected will contact SSA Field Offices with questions and for assistance in helping them determine the correct premium to pay.

This staffing shortage is one of the key reasons for massive backlogs in the Hearings Offices and Program Service and creates major strains on Field Office employees to handle the increased walk-in traffic. The key problem is that SSA is being given more and more responsibilities without sufficient funding to handle these responsibilities. A much more intensive interview is done for those applying for Social Security Account numbers. This more intensive interview process and review of documents has led to an increased number of visitors that must go home and return with additional documents, sometimes multiple times.

The full transcription of the testimony can be found at this link:

http://finance.senate.gov/hearings/testimony/2005test/031406testrw.pdf

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From the blog of Charles Hall:

The Social Security Administration has released its annual statistical report on the disability insurance program. Perhaps of most interest is the the percentage of all disability claims approved after all levels of review:

1999 61.4%
2000 62.6%
2001 63.0%
2002 59.8%
2003 53.3%

One major reason for the decrease in the percentage of claims allowed is a huge increase in technical denials, which went up from 104,330 in 1999 to 374,430 in 2003. This may be due to Social Security’s staffing problems. More claimants with low intelligence levels or serious mental illness, who needed but did not get sympathetic help from Social Security, may have been denied for failure to cooperate.

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