Hoosiers seeking Social Security disability benefits often have a long wait ahead of them, and the Fort Wayne office is one of the nation’s 10 slowest on appeals of denials, according to the Social Security Administration.
But even a wait of longer than a year is a great improvement over the way the system operated a few years ago, the administration said.
A study released this week by Allsup, a for-profit company that helps Americans file for disability, found that Ohioans face the longest wait times – an average of more than 19 months before the claims go before an administrative law judge – when they appeal a denial and request a hearing.
Hoosiers have the fifth-longest wait, more than 17 months. The national average wait time is 14 months, the study said.
Social Security Disability Insurance pays benefits to a beneficiary and certain family members if the beneficiary is “insured,” meaning he or she worked long enough and paid Social Security taxes.
Routine denials can be appealed, and more than half nationwide are overturned by administrative law judges in hearings.
Even with the long waits, backlogs are being reduced. In 2008, the wait in Ohio for hearings was an average 758 days; now it’s 591, the study said.
Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue criticized the findings, saying they’re based on months-old data. He also notes his agency is adding two more offices in Ohio, from the current four.
Allsup said the Social Security Administration showed a reduction in wait times compared with 2008 in more than half the states with hearing offices, and the backlog has decreased by more than 71,000 cases since December 2008.
“The Social Security Administration staff should be commended for the vigor with which they have attacked the massive disability backlog issue,” Allsup President and CEO Jim Allsup said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, some people unfairly face longer waits and increased hardship, and a crush of new recession-driven applications threatens to undo all the progress that has been made.”
Changes helped
But it’s no secret the Midwest, and especially Indiana, historically has had some of the longest waits for people seeking Social Security disability benefits
Last year, the Social Security Administration hired five administrative law judges and 17 support staff in Indiana and installed additional video equipment in the Evansville, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis hearing offices, according to testimony before Congress made available on the Social Security Administration’s Web site.
At the beginning of 2009, the Social Security Administration identified all the Indiana cases that would be 850 days old or more by the end of the fiscal year. By September, all those cases had been cleared – more than 6,500, the Social Security Administration said.
Anthony Tanoos, an attorney with Terre Haute-based Fleschner, Stark, Tanoos and Newlin, said he tried about 300 Social Security disability cases last year.
Over the past couple years, there has been a marked improvement in how the Social Security Administration has dealt with the backlog, Tanoos said.
“They get a bad rap, but they’re doing their darnedest now,” he said. “They are doing everything they can to cut down that backlog.”
That includes opening a new office in Valparaiso this year and expansion of an office in Gary, the Social Security Administration said.
Part of the Social Security Administration’s strategy has been to move cases from backlogged offices to national hearing centers or hearing offices in other regions with lower pending levels, the Social Security Administration said.
Tanoos said the dedication goes beyond simply adding staff. During this winter’s blizzard in Washington, D.C., Tanoos expected the cancellation of three video-conference hearings his Indiana clients had scheduled with an administrative law judge in Falls Church, Va.
But the judge walked a short distance to work in the snow and fired up the video equipment himself so the hearings could be held, Tanoos said.
“They’ve really got their act together,” Tanoos said.
New delays feared
But Allsup warns that the increase in applications caused by the recession may threaten some strides that have been made.
Social Security Disability Insurance application levels remained stable from 2004 to 2007 – between 2.1 million and 2.2 million each year, Allsup said.
But last year, more than 2.8 million people applied, and the Social Security Administration projects that number will climb to 3.3 million this year, Allsup said.
Hearings take place when a Social Security Disability Insurance decision is appealed, which means many applicants have already waited a year or more after their initial application, denial and in some cases, reconsideration, the company said.
Those delays can add up to two to four years before a hearing is reached, time that can result in grave financial and personal setbacks, Allsup said.
The company says many of those problems originate when people with no experience with the system apply for benefits on their own and are denied, often for simple mistakes that have nothing to do with an applicant’s disability status.
A prequalification process would let those people know quickly that they are not likely to meet the requirements, the company says.
Thomas Knight, an attorney with Perry Law Office P.C. in Fort Wayne, said too often mistakes are made before applicants ask for a hearing. More accuracy on the front end could also help reduce the backlog, he said.
But he agrees that there has been immense improvement in the speed and accuracy of the hearing-request process in the past couple of years. And some time is necessary to build a case, Knight said.
“Fast is great,” he said. “But fast with a bad result isn’t too desirable.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
