From the New York Times:

A growing backlog of disability claims is leaving veterans waiting months or longer for their government benefits. Damian J. Todd (left), 33, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic distress disorder after serving two tours in Iraq, waited nearly 18 months to receive approval after filing a claim.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) acknowledges that it has a major problem, with a backlog of unprocessed disability claims that is now over 400,000, up from 253,000 six years ago. Veterans advocates say the actual backlog is closer to one million.

“There are some positive signs in terms of what we’re doing,” said Michael Walcoff, deputy under secretary for benefits in the Veterans Benefits Administration. “But we know that veterans deserve better.”

Earlier posts here.

(New York Times photo by Sara Krulwich)

George Skelton, longtime Sacramento correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, says people with disabilities are an “easy target” as California officials propose painful budget cuts.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expects to save $402 million during the next fiscal year by cutting state supplemental income payments; $124 million by reducing caregivers’ wages; and $385 million by disqualifying the majority of current IHSS [In-Home Supportive Services] recipients.

Marta Russell, an Encino-based freelance journalist with cerebral palsy and fibromyalgia, tells Skelton the expected cuts will devastate people like her who are not poor enough to receive SSI benefits but not able enough to manage on their own. She needs the benefits, she says, in order to stay out of an institution.

[Russell said,] “I expect suicides, premature deaths, a horrible disruption of the social fabric … We’re headed toward market-based social Darwinism where only the fittest will survive.”

Skelton says “the aged, blind and disabled will take the Schwarzenegger hit,” and they have good reason to be frightened.

See also:

State’s in-home, day caregivers fear budget ax – San Francisco Chronicle

Day programs for seniors and Alzheimer’s patients may be eliminated – Contra Costa Times

From the Los Angeles Times ‘LA Now’ blog:

Three thousand state workers and advocates gathered in downtown Los Angeles yesterday to protest California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to the state home-care program.

The state plans to cut wages for state workers from $12.35 to $8 per hour and reduce the number of hours. Parents of children with disabilities said the pay cut would force caregivers out of the profession.

Silvia Alvarado stood outside the state building with her son, Omar, 17, who uses a wheelchair. She said the proposed cuts would force her to quit her job to care for her son, who has spina bifida.  “He’s my job,” she said. “Who’s going to watch him now?”

Earlier posts here, here, and here.

From the Sacramento Bee:

A budget shortfall in California has prompted cuts to disability payments starting in July – triggering criticism that seniors and people with disabilities are paying disproportionately for the state’s fiscal mismanagement.

An estimated 1.2 million people receiving state disability payments will see their benefits cut by 2.3 percent this year. Lawmakers had approved a budget deal with $268.7 million in conditional cuts for seniors and people with disabilities, hoping that the federal stimulus would make up the difference. They anticipated receiving $10 billion in federal budgetary aid, but the state received just $8.17 billion.

(more…)

From the New York Times:

The nation’s top Social Security official has sent letters expressing “grave concern” to governors who are furloughing the state workers who oversee disability benefits programs.

Michael J. Astrue, commissioner of Social Security, said such actions are delaying benefits for tens of thousands of eligible people, damaging state budgets, and increasing the backlog of claims. He called the layoffs “completely illogical.”

Claims are evaluated by state employees, but the federal government reimburses states for the salaries of those employees and pays the full cost of benefits for people found to be disabled.

“We pay the full freight,”  Astrue said. “States do not save any money when they furlough or lay off these employees. They only delay payments to disabled citizens who rely on the monthly benefits.”

Disability workers have already been furloughed in at least five states accounting for 15 percent of all disability cases — California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and Oregon. Federal officials say another ten are considering similar actions.

Earlier post here.

From the Chicago Daily Herald:

Chip Davis lives in his parents’ basement, and has been on a state waiting list for housing of his own for nearly 15 of his 32 years. Davis is among some 16,000 people with intellectual disabilities in Illinois who wait on such lists.

Tight budgets mean state services are limited to those in emergency situations — who have abusive or neglectful caregivers, for example. People like Davis, whose parents are healthy and supportive, might never receive services until their parents get ill or die.

Even if Davis got emergency status, he’d have to fall in line behind 2,671 other people with similar designations. And then there’s the problem of finding the housing itself: there’s a serious shortage of housing for people with disabilities in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Says Joyce Helander, executive director of a local disability service coordinator:

“The number of people waiting for care is just ridiculous. We spend a whole lot of entitlements on education for the developmentally disabled up to age 21. Then what? All that just pours out of their ears because there isn’t state funding to help these people continue on with meaningful programs.”

Earlier post here.

Lab techniques now being used to create designer children – Wall Street Journal

Mom re-enlists to get treatment for disabled son - National Public Radio

Anticipated cuts to SSI will harm the elderly, blind and disabled - San Jose Mercury News

Autism coverage bill fails in Virginia Senate - Washington Post