Disability Claims Piling Up
Bottlenecking is a real problem in the application of disability benefits currently as claims take up to nine months to reach the stage of just getting denied. After being denied, claimants are allowed to appeal the process through a hearing with an administrative law judge. Since the recession there has been a shortage of these judges and it has been difficult for the Social Security Administration to hire an adequate number of new ones through the bureaucratic process required to do so. This leads to wait times of up to 2 years, through which those filing cannot work or their claim will be tossed out. This causes a real and pressing problem for those whose claims are legitimate as they are unable to work for an income and are cut off from disability for years before seeing their first benefit check. For more information on this subject, visit this article by Henry J. Aaron with The Brookings Institute.
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