P.I.S.S.D. — Personal Injury, Social Security Disability. Dallas Texas Lawyers

The Dallas Morning News today published an article decrying the absurd delay between the time a disabled person files for Social Security disability benefits and the time an Administrative Law Judge finally makes a decision on the claim. Here are excerpts from the article, headlined  "Disabled often wait years for Social Security payment":

Now that most of the nation’s 78
million boomers have entered their prime years for illnesses and
disabilities, they’re flooding Social Security with claims and creating
an unprecedented backlog. Pending requests for a hearing before an
administrative law judge have more than doubled to 750,000 in the last
decade.

Nationally, the average wait for a judge’s decision has
stretched to 502 days this year, compared with 258 in 2000. At some
hearing offices, the average wait approaches 800 days. In North Texas,
claimants wait an average of 461 days at the North Dallas office, 453
days at the downtown office and 411 days in Fort Worth.

Even
under the best circumstances, the boomers’ claims would strain Social
Security’s workforce. But years of congressionally mandated
belt-tightening have left the agency’s staff at its lowest level since
the 1970s. It now has fewer judges than a decade ago.

There are
also allegations that private disability insurance companies are
unnecessarily clogging the public system by requiring many of their
applicants to file separate, and often questionable, claims with Social
Security.

Social Security’s new administrator, Michael Astrue,
has made reducing the backlog of disability cases a priority,
acknowledging that people have died before receiving a decision. His
efforts have brought the first significant increase in funding in 15
years for his agency’s operations.

Today, 7.2 million Americans collect
Social Security disability benefits because of a medical condition that
prevents them from working for at least one year. The average monthly
check is $1,004.

Two of three disability claims are initially
denied. Most of those who are rejected give up, but the others appeal,
first to another claims examiner and then to an administrative law
judge.

People who request administrative hearings often hire
attorneys or other professionals, who customarily charge 25 percent of
the retroactive benefits, up to $5,300, and collect only if the clients
win.

Patience and tenacity can pay off. About 60 percent of those who request hearings go on to win their cases.

As frustrating as the delays have been, experts say, it’s
hard to blame all of them on the overworked, underfunded Social
Security Administration.

At times in recent years, the agency
has had only enough money to hire one employee for every three who
leave. Since 2001, Congress has appropriated an average of $150 million
less each year than the president requested.

"We’re
an agency under stress," said Greg Heineman, president of the National
Council of Social Security Management Associations, whose members are
the agency’s managers. "We have 5,000 fewer employees than in 2005, yet
more work to do."

Mr. Astrue wants to hire 50 to 75 more
administrative law judges next year, but he has also pushed a number of
initiatives to improve efficiency.

The reforms have included
converting the remaining paper files to computer files, paying
particular attention to the oldest pending cases, expediting decisions
on clear-cut cases like late-stage cancer and increasing judges’
productivity by relying more on video hearings, such as in remote areas.