Yahoo Finance Social Security: Disability Benefit Wait Times Have Doubled Since 2016 — What Can You Do To Expedite?
The Social Security Administration got the wrong kind of headlines last year when it was dubbed an agency in “crisis” by the nation’s biggest federal employee union, which also warned of even worse customer service problems to come. A new analysis by the AARP backed that warning up, citing data showing that backlogs and benefit processing delays can last for more than half a year.
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The problem is particularly acute for Social Security recipients who qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), the AARP noted in a report published this week. As of December 2023, it took the SSA an average of 228 days to process an initial application for disability benefits, which works out to more than seven months. That’s about double the average of 110 to 120 days as recently as the late 2010s — and back then 120 days seemed like an interminable wait time.
The AARP also cited federal data showing that about 10,000 Americans die each year while their applications for SSDI benefits are making their way through the system.
“I’ve been doing this since 1976 and it’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” John Heard, a San Antonio attorney and former president of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, told the AARP.
The SSA is aware of the problem and puts much of the blame on years of underfunding and staffing shortages. That’s also the opinion of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a labor union that represents 750,000 federal and D.C. government workers.
During a gathering on Capitol Hill last summer, the AFGE noted that over the last decade, the number of Social Security beneficiaries has increased by 25% while the SSA’s operating budgets have decreased. Hiring has fallen by half in recent years, contributing to a shortage of workers that put SSA staffing levels at a 25-year low at the end of fiscal year 2022.
Earlier this month, the AFGE proposed that Congress provide $20 billion in additional funding to the SSA to help it fix customer service issues. For now, however, Social Security disability customers continue to face severe delays getting their claims and inquiries processed.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the time it’s taking at the lower levels over the last two or three years,” Chris Doherty, a Massachusetts attorney who specializes in disability law, told AARP. “The extraordinary levels of delay are affecting everybody, because everybody who applies is experiencing them.”
If you face long delays, your best option is to seek legal help. Enlisting the services of an attorney or professional disability advocate can help you get Social Security disability benefits much faster, the AARP reported. It cited a 2022 study from the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) showing that obtaining legal representation early in the process increases the probability of getting a positive decision on an initial benefit claim by 23%.
“[Legal help] leads to earlier disability awards to individuals who would otherwise be awarded benefits only on appeal,” the NBER report stated. “By securing earlier awards and discouraging unsupported appeals, representation reduces total case processing time by nearly one year.”
One of the main advantages of getting legal assistance is that it helps claimants “put those applications together in a way that can be approved,” according to the NBER’s Nicole Maestas, who co-authored the study.
Another plus is that you won’t have to pay up-front fees for legal help with a disability claim. Lawyers get paid only if you win, the AARP noted, and the fee comes out past-due benefits you would have received had Social Security approved your application at an earlier stage.
The fee is capped by Social Security at 25% of the past-due amount or $7,200, whichever is less. If there is no back pay then there’s no fee — even if you receive benefits going forward.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Social Security: Disability Benefit Wait Times Have Doubled Since 2016 — What Can You Do To Expedite?
