Nationwide, on average, it takes one to two years to be scheduled for a disability hearing.
Factor in the time it takes to receive a decision on an initial disability application, and the time it takes to receive a decision on a first appeal (request for reconsideration), and the reality is that most people who file for disability, either SSD or SSI, will not see any financial relief for about three years (if they are approved at all).
Most initial applications, about 70 percent, are denied.
And most reconsideration appeals, about 80 percent, are denied as well.
For those who file a second appeal (a request for a hearing), the odds of approval get much better, as federal disability judges overturn more than half of all denials issued by DDS.
However, due to an enormous increase in the number of disability claims being filed each year, the wait to be heard before a federal administrative law judge (ALJ) just keeps getting longer.
As the population ages and the national unemployment rate continues to rise, it is likely that backlogs within Social Security hearing offices will only worsen.
Part of the problem lies within the Social Security determination process itself.
Disability examiners within DDS work in a system that keeps approval rates low and out of sync with the rest of the system, so many cases that could and should be approved at lower levels of consideration aren't, which only adds to the burden on federal administrative law judges who, eventually, approve the claims anyway.
Also, some ALJs are more productive than others, and unlike disability examiners, who face regular performance reviews, they are under no pressure to operate quickly or even efficiently.
Judges do not have to decide any certain number of claims each month or year, and it can be argued that some take advantage of this lack of accountability.
But by and large the greatest contributing factor to the long wait for those trying to get Social Security disability hearings is the fact that, despite the increase in the number of claims being filed, Social Security has not hired substantially more individuals to help process these claims.
Disability examiners who retire are not replaced, so the workload on the examiners that are still employed with DDS just continues to pile up.
In addition, there has been no effort to hire more ALJs, and no effort to hire more support staff either within DDS or the office of disability adjudication and review (ODAR).
In short, everyone working for Social Security has more work to do, and less help to get it done.
Instead, under the stewardship of Joanne Barnhart, a prior commissioner of the Social Security Administration, programs like the disability service improvement initiative (DSI) and the hearing process improvement initiative (HPI) wasted what limited time and resources the SSA had at its disposal.
Silly sleight of hand tricks, like having hearing office clerks serve as floaters among a pool of disability judges rather than being assigned to one judge, only made people within ODAR less accountable for their work output-no one was held responsible for the progress of any particular claim, no one had to stay around to deal with their own mistakes, and, not surprisingly, not enough got done.
Both programs were unsuccessful, basically smokescreens that masked the real issue-like just about every government agency, Social Security is poorly run, and someone needs to step up to the plate and either lobby Congress for more funding or overhaul the system entirely so that it runs efficiently.
Not a popular stance in the current economy, but the only real solution.
Until politicians and bureaucrats are ready to stop schmoozing for votes and deal head on with the quagmire of the Social Security disability system, the wait to be heard before a disability judge will only continue to increase.
Factor in the time it takes to receive a decision on an initial disability application, and the time it takes to receive a decision on a first appeal (request for reconsideration), and the reality is that most people who file for disability, either SSD or SSI, will not see any financial relief for about three years (if they are approved at all).
Most initial applications, about 70 percent, are denied.
And most reconsideration appeals, about 80 percent, are denied as well.
For those who file a second appeal (a request for a hearing), the odds of approval get much better, as federal disability judges overturn more than half of all denials issued by DDS.
However, due to an enormous increase in the number of disability claims being filed each year, the wait to be heard before a federal administrative law judge (ALJ) just keeps getting longer.
As the population ages and the national unemployment rate continues to rise, it is likely that backlogs within Social Security hearing offices will only worsen.
Part of the problem lies within the Social Security determination process itself.
Disability examiners within DDS work in a system that keeps approval rates low and out of sync with the rest of the system, so many cases that could and should be approved at lower levels of consideration aren't, which only adds to the burden on federal administrative law judges who, eventually, approve the claims anyway.
Also, some ALJs are more productive than others, and unlike disability examiners, who face regular performance reviews, they are under no pressure to operate quickly or even efficiently.
Judges do not have to decide any certain number of claims each month or year, and it can be argued that some take advantage of this lack of accountability.
But by and large the greatest contributing factor to the long wait for those trying to get Social Security disability hearings is the fact that, despite the increase in the number of claims being filed, Social Security has not hired substantially more individuals to help process these claims.
Disability examiners who retire are not replaced, so the workload on the examiners that are still employed with DDS just continues to pile up.
In addition, there has been no effort to hire more ALJs, and no effort to hire more support staff either within DDS or the office of disability adjudication and review (ODAR).
In short, everyone working for Social Security has more work to do, and less help to get it done.
Instead, under the stewardship of Joanne Barnhart, a prior commissioner of the Social Security Administration, programs like the disability service improvement initiative (DSI) and the hearing process improvement initiative (HPI) wasted what limited time and resources the SSA had at its disposal.
Silly sleight of hand tricks, like having hearing office clerks serve as floaters among a pool of disability judges rather than being assigned to one judge, only made people within ODAR less accountable for their work output-no one was held responsible for the progress of any particular claim, no one had to stay around to deal with their own mistakes, and, not surprisingly, not enough got done.
Both programs were unsuccessful, basically smokescreens that masked the real issue-like just about every government agency, Social Security is poorly run, and someone needs to step up to the plate and either lobby Congress for more funding or overhaul the system entirely so that it runs efficiently.
Not a popular stance in the current economy, but the only real solution.
Until politicians and bureaucrats are ready to stop schmoozing for votes and deal head on with the quagmire of the Social Security disability system, the wait to be heard before a disability judge will only continue to increase.