The Memphis Commercial Appeal (a newspaper) has a good opinion column on Social Security's staff shortages. Here are some excerpts:
...a problem of immediate interest to thousands of Mid-Southerners has received no attention -- namely, the horrendous delays for those seeking disability benefits. Because of the years it is currently taking to obtain their benefits, it is the Social Security Administration (SSA) that is itself forcing the Americans who depend upon it into insolvency. ...This means that, in Memphis, from the day that the average claimant files until the day he or she receives a favorable decision from a judge, he or she will have waited for more than two years. Shockingly, this processing time represents one of the most expedient times in the country, with other cities such as Atlanta experiencing an average delay of some four years.
These appalling conditions are the direct result of insufficient funds being allocated to the Social Security Administration. During the past seven years, the president has never requested the full budget recommended by the Social Security commissioner, and Congress has never fully funded the budget requested by the president. The SSA has been forced to work under a hiring freeze that has decimated the support staff that is the backbone of this system. Nationally, the number of support staff in the hearings offices has decreased by 25 percent, representing a loss of approximately 4,000 staff positions.
While the column calls attention to a very real and growing problem, it would give the uniformed reader that every applicant waits years for a decision on their claim. In reality, a significant number receive a favorable decision on their claims within months or even weeks. Only those who appeal an unfavorable decision to the third level wait years for a decision.
ReplyDeleteWhile that is essentially true, it is somewhat akin to saying that air travel could be considered safe if it were to have a rate of crashes of
ReplyDelete"only" 25 percent of total flights--the negative aspect is so unacceptable that it overshadows the positive.