From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

More than 750,000 Americans are stuck in a growing backlog of unresolved disability cases, growing destitute as they wait for a decision on whether they qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Some injured and ill people have become homeless or bankrupt while waiting for rulings. Federal officials say the situation is improving, but slowly.

The aging of Baby Boomers and layoffs of people who had been struggling to work while hurt and sick have sparked a jump in disability cases, federal officials and patient advocates say. As a result, the backlog of claims and the wait for case hearings have doubled since 2000, despite efforts by Social Security to address the problem.

The agency acknowledges the backlog and attributes it to years of budget cuts that reduced staff while claims jumped. The government is whittling the backlog by hiring 189 more administrative judges, switching to electronic records, holding hearings by videoconference and testing programs that quickly approve clear-cut cases.

See earlier post here.

UPDATE:

See also: Backlog for Social Security cases — Minneapolis Star Tribune

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 12th, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under personal stories, social security, waiting list. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post