Saturday, April 21, 2007

Social Security

I know many of you are aware of the trouble I have had getting my social security disability. I don't understand why some get it right away and others have to wait so long. I've been denied many times and "my case" is suppose to go before a judge in Atlanta to determine whether or not I will get it. My disability insurance company told me I had to apply when I started receiving my disability checks. After gettting rejected several times they hired an attorney to help us through the process.

When the attorney initially contacted me, he sent me letters telling me that a judge should hear my case within 90 days of application but because the Atlanta Social Security hearing offices were so backlogged it could be as long as a year before they heard my case. It is now 21 months later and still nothing!

I received a letter from the attorney yesterday telling me that it will be "several more months" before they even begin working on it. My file remains unworked and unassigned at this time.

My attorney also sent this notice to me:

"There are 141 Social Security Hearing Offices in the US. As of January 2007, Downtown Atlanta is at the very bottom of the list -- Number 141! The other local hearing office, Atlanta North, is Number 131 in terms of the longest delays.

The Atlanta North hearing office now has a docket of over 11,000 cases. To deal with this staggering case load, they have seven fewer employees than several years ago when they were dealing with a 2,500 case backlog. To make matters worse, two of the nine judges are retiring soon, and there are no current plans to replace them. "

I'm o.k. for now, but what about all those people that rely solely on Social Security Disability?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I also don't understand why the Alzheimer's Association isn't pushing this important issue. There are many with Early On Set that get denied that need to have the benefits. The should also be pushing to eliminate the 24 month waiting period for Medicare.