SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It seems simple enough: you pay for Social Security disability insurance out of every paycheck. Then, if you get hurt and can’t work, you collect that money.

But more and more people are finding they can’t always get what they’ve paid for — at least not very easily.
David Elices worked 20 years at the same job; all the time paying Social Security disability insurance. See full story under this link:

From The Buffalo News: Karen Furman’s son, Kelvin, was 10 when she applied to get federal income assistance for parents with disabled children. Kelvin is now 14, living in a group home and still waiting for the government to decide if he’s disabled.

The Buffalo Social Security hearing office, where Furman filed her claim, is so overwhelmed with cases that people wait an average of 669 days before a judge even hears their case.

In other words, not much has changed a year after The Buffalo News reported that people had to wait 688 days for an appeal hearing in Buffalo when they apply for Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability benefits.

“They want us to give up or die,” said Linda Fullerton, founder of the Rochester-based Social Security Disability Coalition. “They’re not taking the problem seriously enough.” See article here:

In Today’s Kansas City Star:

For critics, it’s an Orwellian nightmare: the government signing off on every single hiring decision made in the United States.

For backers, it’s the only logical way to discourage illegal immigrants, one using the nation’s only existing, all-encompassing — and currently flawed — database to block unlawful employment entering the country.

Under it, 55 million new hires each year in the U.S. would be scrutinized for fraudulent Social Security numbers.

… Barbara Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said the new workload would overwhelm an understaffed administration. Already, she said, “disability cases are piling up and needy people are waiting years to receive their benefits.” See Details here:

…. The number of workers applying for SSDI disability payments increased
to 2.2 million in 2007, 2.6% more that in 2006, while the number of
disabled workers approved for payments declined to 37.6 percent, the lowest
approval rate in the history of the program. Despite the increase in
monthly SSDI payments, now averaging $1004 per worker, payments are less
reliable and have not kept pace with the growing financial needs of
disabled workers, putting the financial security of workers and their
dependents at greater risk. See full detail and statistics here:

A New York Times Editorial:

….forcing Social Security to take on the enormous burden of immigration enforcement would be a harmful diversion from its core mission and could strain the bureaucracy to the breaking point.

That would have frightening implications for millions of people who are supposed to be served by the Social Security Administration, particularly the elderly and those who are disabled. With Social Security struggling to provide existing services and the sunset of the baby boom approaching … now is no time to pile on more responsibilities. The backlog of pending disability cases at the initial level is more than 500,000, and more than 750,000 people who have appealed rejected claims are awaiting decisions. As of February, the average wait on an appeal was more than 500 days. See full editorial here:

From Kathleen Pender in today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

…How does the government assign these numbers? Is there anything you can tell about a person from his or her number? And in using the last two digits, is the IRS favoring one group over another?

It turns out that the first three digits – called the area number – are based on the ZIP code of the mailing address listed on the application for a Social Security number. It can usually tell you something about a person’s origins.

Within each area, the next two digits – called the group number – are assigned in consecutive order as applications come in. Instead of going from 01 to 99, however, the Social Security Administration follows an odd-even numbering pattern. Within each group, the last four digits are assigned in consecutive order from 1 through 9999.
See more here