TMCnet News
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, Watchdog column: More Texans apply for Social Security Disability Insurance -- and wait [Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas](Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 23--Editor's note: Ray Shuga received $32,000 in his first retroactive Social Security Disability Insurance payment and paid a fee of $5,300 to Allsup, a company that helped him with the application process. The original version of this report contained incorrect amounts. Ray Shuga, a retired truck driver in Fort Worth, twiddled his thumbs for about two years between the time he applied for Social Security Disability Insurance and the arrival of his first check. "In Texas, there are so many people applying for disability, they are just way, way backed up," he says. So he and his wife waited while the federal government tried to catch up with demand. Or at least catch up with them. "We were counting pennies left and right," Shuga says. "We couldn't buy anything, couldn't do anything. My pickup had problems. My wife's car had problems. But we got by." In Texas, about 50,000 people are waiting to hear back about their initial application to get SSDI benefits, paid to people who are under retirement age but can no longer work because of a disability. That number of applicants almost doubled in one year, the Social Security Administration says. If statistics hold true, about two-thirds of them will be denied and go on to appeal that initial decision. And 30,000 others who were denied are waiting for hearings -- about 3,700 of them applying to the Fort Worth regional SSA office, government statistics show. While they wait, many of those folks are probably counting pennies like Ray Shuga. The numbers are growing because, in addition to aging baby boomers, more Texans are applying for disability in a poor economy. A monthly payment can be $1,000 or more. The good news, SSA says, is that the wait for Texans to get a hearing is 288 days. If that sounds like a lot, well, the national average is around 446 days. "The Fort Worth area is faring much better than the nation as a whole," said Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration. Still, any wait of a year or more can send some applicants into near-poverty. While they wait, they can't work and receive little or no income. Some lose their house and their health insurance. Many deplete their savings. "Even when it's getting better, it's still too long for people to wait for an appeal," says Ethel Zelenske, director of government affairs for the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives. "They planned for baby boomers getting old, but who could plan for the economy going into such a tailspin? That's really thrown people off. And Congress is aware and giving the agency more money to deal with it. But that's a really difficult situation." Zelenske said many workers don't apply for benefits if they become impaired as long as they can keep working. That's why the recession has brought a surge in applications. "If they lose their job, it's not likely they will find a job somewhere else," she said. "There really are no options for them. What's available to them is filing for benefits." With unemployment hovering at a high level, the expected influx of applicants -- from 2.6 million in 2008 to 3.3 million next year -- will cause a greater backlog for hearings, she predicts. Last month, Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael J. Astrue told Congress that the process is improving because people can now apply electronically. The agency received $500 million in stimulus funds this year to help process the backlog. Some 8,600 employees were quickly hired. "We also maximized the use of overtime across the agency," Astrue said. For some, he said, the wait has been 1,000 days. Two years ago, there were 65,000 cases pending for that length of time. But the number is dropping. "No one should have to wait years for a decision on their benefit claim," he said. Social Security Administration Inspector General Patrick O'Carroll told Congress last month that requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge can still mean "a wait of over 800 days." The Watchdog was alerted to the SSDI backlog by a representative of Allsup Inc., a third-party company that helps Americans file claims and in return takes a percentage of the initial retroactive payment if an applicant is successful. Spokesman Dan Allsup says the Belleville, Ill., company has a 99 percent success rate when applicants stick with Allsup through the entire process. (For its efforts, the company gets paid 25 percent of any retroactive benefits with a cap of $6,000.) Allsup says many applicants need help because questions on the application must be answered properly. He explains: "A typical question is 'Can you go shopping?' The typical applicant will say, 'Well, yeah, I can go shopping.' But we go into it much deeper. We find out he has to have a neighbor take him to the store. Once in the store, he uses a motorized scooter. And he has to ask an employee to get items off a high shelf for him. "These questions need to be answered in full," Allsup says. Ray Shuga says when he finally won his case, Allsup was paid $5,300 out of the initial $32,000 check. But he says it was worth it. "We were so far behind in bills and everything, but we got caught up," he says. The Social Security Administration's position on third-party companies helping applicants fight the backlog? A Social Security spokesman tells me that's "entirely up to the person applying for benefits." The Watchdog column appears Fridays and Sundays. Dave Lieber, 817-685-3830 Twitter @DaveLieber To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |