WHY IS MY DISABILITY CLAIM TAKING SO L-O-N-G?

We hearing comments like the following every day:

"I've heard nothing from Social Security in months.  I desperately need my money.  What's taking them so long?"

It's nothing short of a national crisis.  It can easily take 24 months to get disability approved.  Some claimants die waiting.  It seems Social Security has no mercy.

The biggest problem is one of mathematics.  Nationally, there are about 1,100,000 disability claims waiting for a hearing.  There are only about 1,200 administrative law judges available to hear these cases.  If you do the math, you see that a judge must average holding 917 hearings before he/she gets to your case.  And on average, a judge will dispose of less than 3 cases per day.

So, a claimant needing a hearing will wait about 18 months to be scheduled.  That's on top of the 4 months it took to get an application processed and denied.  

It's a real mess and it's getting worse by the day.

I've always felt that the root of the problem lies in the application process.  About 71 percent of applications get denied initially.  Many of those claimants turn out to be legitimately disabled and entitled to benefits.  Yet, the appeal (hearing) system is clogged up with claimants who should have been paid years ago and should not be waiting in line for a hearing.   

The state agencies (called "Disability Determination Agencies" or DDS*) should do a better job of deciding who is qualified for benefits and who is not.  I favor adding a face-to-face encounter, or interview, in the application phase of the process.  There are other changes that could reduce the number of individuals who must wait on a judge to decide their case.  Of course, some cases need to go before a judge, but not 70 percent of them.

As I've stated, this is nothing short of a national crisis.  And contrary to what you've heard, it has little to do with fraud or abuse.  It has to do with a system that cannot deliver on what it contracted with the American people to do back in 1956 when the Government mandated a national disability insurance plan and required every worker to participate.
______________________________
*DDS, according to the old lawyers' joke, stands for "Disability Denial Service."  They deny over 7 out of 10 applications.