A million Americans await a decision on their applications for Social Security Disability payments. The wait time to get a decision is about 7 months, and 2-in-3 first applications get rejected. Examiners, swamped by the volume and mental toll of the work, quit in large numbers, and new job postings trigger few applicants. What can be done about this federal program, administered by the states, to get truly disabled people the help they need, while weeding out spurious applications.
Here’s a link to Lisa Rein’s Washington Post Story on this topic: Social Security Offices Critical to Disability Benefits Hit Breaking Point
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14 replies on “7 Month Wait Just to Get Rejected: A Million Backlogged Social Security Disability Applications”
I was forced to retire in July of 2015 from my job driving a truck and delivering office supplies/furniture for one of the nationwide office supply companies. I had worsening osteoarthritis in my knees and was developing neuropathy in both feet. I wasn’t able to do my job anymore after over 35 years of doing this kind of work.
We had to sell our home and move in with my older sister’s family first, then eventually we moved in with our son and his family. My doctors couldn’t find the source of the neuropathy, so I thought I wouldn’t be eligible for any kind of disability because I didn’t have a specific diagnosis.
After living on my wife’s income only for over a year, I applied for disability. I had letters from 3 doctors and my medical records, and after applying online we waited. My doctor said that most first time applicants get denied and have to apply many times.
We were shocked when I was approved and we had gotten a check in our account for 9 months worth of disability. This was in October of 2016, so we were given the money retroactively from January of ’16. You have to wait to receive payments for the first 5 months after you quit working, something I had never heard before.
I’m still receiving permanent disability, it amounts to about 60% of what I made when I was still working. I’ve had over a dozen surgeries since my retirement. It’s a big cut in our income, and we’ll never own a home again.
I’m only 63, but I feel like I’m 83. We have the handicapped placards for both cars, and will sometimes get looks from people like I don’t deserve it.
I know I was lucky to be approved my first time, and hate hearing stories about people ripping off the system while legitimate cases get denied for whatever reason. The federal government is too big, and wastes huge amounts of our tax dollars. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with it.
THIS is what you get from a government that is too big, too greedy, too wasteful, buying too many votes. The only reason the WNBA gal was released rather than the white male who’s been held for much longer is because her releases will draw more gender votes and more “proper” skin tone votes.
My how things have changed in 8 years, probably due to all the things Scott listed – covid – new computer system – poor interstate integration – and new regulations – and a new sense of disability is a ticket to riding the gravy train to some percentage of applicants.
Old timers here at BW might recall my daughter suffered a grand mal seizure in 2014 and Stanford University Hospital had to remove an AVM (arterial venous malformation, imagine a teeny bloody octopus of arteries inside the brain) from her left lobe of her brain. She was 27 at the time. Thankfully, she came out of it alive, but recovery was rough and her stroke-like problems persisted for over a year, and unable to concentrate or hold a job for over 2 years. We helped her apply for disability, drove her down to the office to be interviewed, and it took about 30 minutes and a handful of questions, and the examiner agreed with the doctor’s diagnosis and prognosis. Probably didn’t hurt she was unable to fully understand or answer the questions without difficulty in speaking, proved to the examiner that this was a legitimate case. 3 or 4 weeks later she received her first check. 4 weeks.
Of course, documents from Stanford University hospital showing the type of brain surgery may have sped this case along over some Jack Frost who slipped off the loading dock and hurt his back. Nothing against Mr. Frost. Just saying it may be easier to fake hurting your back and claim you can’t work, versus a 8 hour brain surgery.
The thing is, there was no 70K case backlog in California at that time in 2015. I wonder what it’s like today?
One more comment to Scott’s point about the moral disgust that people USED to have about taking support from the government. My grandfather insisted he would never take anything from them (he could have) because he didn’t want them in his business. The old saying- there’s no free lunch.
I watched a special a few years back – I think on 60 minutes (ugh). It was talking about how they discovered this whole group of people in the mountainous areas of Virginia, I think, who refused to take their government handouts. So the government mobilized a team to the area to change their attitudes. The report stated that after about 10 years, they had successfully achieved a high percentage of reverting this once proud people to essentially wards of the state- who now depended (the report was in favor of the result) on the state for basically everything. On the dole completely. And now those who took it laughed at their neighbors who still kept their pride. And it used to be the opposite.
I was disgusted…
Hey SCOTT, we veterans are used to this and 8 months in a short time compared to what veteran’s experience.
Took me nearly 7 years to get 30% rating on back and neck injuries I was discharged based on, another 12 years of appeals too get it up to 100%
One only has to look at the people who park in handicap spots to see what would happen if you turned these sorts of decisions over to doctors. Everybody gets a placard- especially if they are overweight.
ADA was meant to help people who are physically handicapped, and cannot access facilities, etc. Most missed it but during the Obama administration, but they made an alteration to ADA that a disability no longer had to be visually evident. So, that added MILLIONS to the dole that were never there before. And impacted an already severely overloaded system. The idea being that the mentally handicapped deserved this help too. Yah- so now it was in the hands of doctors, and I already illustrated that issue.
My wife is handicapped, and we went through all of this. All government assistance requests are rejected the first time. That’s to discourage the casual attempt folks. So, you have to keep at it. Most things require what is called a Letter of Medical Necessity- a doctor willing to state you are in need. Not hard to find if you shop around unfortunately.
In my company, we have paperwork that has to be filled out to get things done. You find people who know how to make paperwork fly through the system. They know the channels, and the cells on the spreadsheet that grease the gears. The same is true for disability stuff. Those who don’t need it find somebody who knows how to turn the gears properly. And they get on the dole quickly, and remunerate those who assist them in doing so. And those who do need it (first time neophytes) fail to find those gears. And they fumble around until they find that person who can grease the gears properly.
17 years of experience in living with a quadriplegic will make you disgusted with the system. And by the way- we have no choice- once you are disabled, you are automatically pushed into the system. Nobody else will take your requests because you are now essentially a ward of the state.
Just as culpable as the bureaucracy are the people abusing the system. Our benefits programs in America are hamstrung as much by people lying and wheeling/dealing to get monies they don’t deserve, occupying claims examiner’s time and talents that could be sued elsewhere.
That said, I wonder if the reason everyone needs a lawyer to eventually obtain benefits is the same reason nearly every lawyer in America votes Democrat. As long as it’s a sh#t show, lawyers get rich. Dems keep it a sh#t show.
My husband’s SSDI case took forever, that was (started) 8 years ago. Several months for the initial rejection, about 3.5 years total to get a fully favorable ruling from the administrative law judge, and another 4 months to actually get a check. His medicare, which has about a 2 year waiting period, was actually backdated by a couple of years! I guess we’re lucky because I had a job albeit a lower-paying one, and he had at least something from the VA plus free health care from VA also. If only there was a way to distinguish the deserving from the scammers.
My Daughter worked for several years and became disabled. It took a year to get processed and then rejected. We were told that the only way most people get disability is to get a lawyer. We got a Lawyer, she got approved. Then a year later they wanted it all back. She was rejected after she was approved. Back to the lawyer. The paperwork was INSANE. Took three years to get it all settled. She gets less than $1000 a month. That doesn’t even cover what isn’t covered by Medicare and supplemental insurance. Don’t even get me started on the crap show that medical insurance is. My wife and I are retired and are able to support her, what do people that don’t have family do?
As an orthopedic surgeon, when I was in practice, I told every applicant that their first claim would be denied and to expect that. It took over a year for MOST patients to finally get adjudication. Not the best federal program around. Miserable failure in my experience. Required the services of atty in every case I know that was successful.
When I lived in California I knew of people who got total disability both from Federal Social Security and from the California State version of that called, if I remember right, Cal Care — Whose disability was drug addiction. Guess what they used their benefit checks to buy?
The system is so riddled with fraud and mismanagement that billions of dollars a year are going to the undeserving. This means that there are ever increasing piles of paperwork that the deserving have to climb just to prove their genuine need.
We’re a very wealthy country, the wealthiest in human history. We can afford to help people who genuinely find themselves in need of help through no fault of their own. People who are gaming and cheating the system steal from those who are in genuine need.
My wife is in this situation. Cannot work due to herniated disk. Was let go. Applied, and was told , after 3 months, that she was still working. Still trying to get that worked out.
Charity was administrated locally, through churches, masonic lodges, unions etc, help went to what was called “the deserving.”