Us versus Them

“This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality: you’re on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable. Ladies and Gentlemen you’re entering…” the bureaucratic morass of the Social Security Administration.*

The news media has yet to report that an unknown side effect of the prolonged recession is a dramatic increase in the number of applications for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In an average year, the Social Security Administration considers 2.5 million applications for disability benefits. But cases were up by 20 percent over the past year and are likely to increase to well over 3 million in the coming year, according to SSA chief actuary Stephen Goss.

The on-going delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people mired in bureaucratic indifference, waiting as long as three years for a decision on their claims.

Two-thirds of those who trudge through SSA’s appeals process eventually win their cases.

But in the meantime, more and more people have lost their homes, declared bankruptcy or even died while waiting for a decision on their claim.  And, the disabled individuals that eventually win their claims — who think their troubles are over — discover that they may have to wait six months or more to get the money that is owed to them.

FUBAR: SSA’s dysfunctional disability claims process is the first in a series of articles regarding the Social Security Administration’s adversarial approach to dealing with disabled claimants and beneficiaries.  It also marks our return to a proactive approach to dealing with “them.”

* props to Rod Serling