Transcript Of CBS News Piece

Below is a transcript of last night's CBS Evening News piece on the Social Security backlogs. By the way, did anyone else notice the large picture of Vice President Dick Cheney on the wall at Social Security headquarters?

COURIC: There is much more CBS News ahead. Coming up next, you pay thousands of dollars into Social Security, but just try to get disability benefits when you need them. A CBS News investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COURIC: Every week, millions of American workers pay into Social Security, and every year 2.5 million apply to get some of that money back in the form of disability benefits. But most are initially denied. A two- month long investigation by CBS News found that a safety net you pay for may not be there when you need it. Here`s our chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT WATSON, DISABILITY CLAIMANT: I always figured that I would die in a fiery car wreck or something, never that I would be, you know, disabled.

ARMEN KETEYIAN, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Two years ago, a failed surgery left 33-year-old Scott Watson with a fracture in his spinal chord. It turned his life upside down, leaving him unable to work in his job as a broadcast engineer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are obviously showing the hump in this area.

WATSON: Everybody says that you have got to have a positive attitude, you know. And I say, well, I am positive. I`m positive this is the end. You know? I mean, it`s not going to get any better.

KETEYIAN: Declared disabled by the state of Maryland, Watson was told he was a shoe-in when he applied for federal disability last year, only to be turned down three months later on the grounds, according to federal guidelines, he wasn`t disabled enough.

Watson appealed, and was denied again -- one of 27,000 Maryland residents, 68 percent of all those who applied, to suffer such a fate.

Overall, two out of every three people who apply for federal disability benefits are rejected by a government agency critics charge that is out of date, underfunded, and incapable of serving the exploding number of disabled Americans. Waiting times for a hearing in some cities are now more than three years.

LINDA FULLERTON, SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY FOUNDATION: Well, I have people all the time writing to me saying that they are suicidal.

KETEYIAN: Linda Fullerton is an advocate for the disabled.

FULLERTON: I have no insurance, and doctors say I need two brain surgeries.

KETEYIAN: Her online support site is home to one horror story after another.

FULLERTON: I had to file bankruptcy to keep home. Losing home with four children.

KETEYIAN: A two-month CBS News investigation has found that over the last two years, at least 16,000 people fighting for disability benefits died while awaiting a decision. Overall, the backlog of cases now stands at 750,000, three quarters of a million people, up 150 percent since 2000. People wait an average of 520 days for a hearing on their claims.

People like Jerry Rice, who calls this abandoned toolshed home.

Where do you sleep?

JERRY RICE, DISABILITY CLAIMANT: Right here.

KETEYIAN: When we found Rice, who suffers from mental illness, he had been waiting for three years for his day in court.

RICE: This is how it is. I hope it ain`t how it ends up, but it`s how it is for right now.

KETEYIAN: But you deserve in your mind the disability.

RICE: I`m not asking them to give me welfare. I`m asking them to give me what they promised. Yes, I deserve it.

JOHN HOGAN, DISABILITY ATTORNEY: It is a mess from the time you apply to the time you try to get paid.

KETEYIAN: Attorney John Hogan has represented thousands of folks here in Atlanta, the backlog capital of the nation.

HOGAN: We`re the furthest behind of any area in the country. It could take 2.5 years to get your hearing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 2.5 years.

MICHAEL ASTRUE, COMMISSIONER, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMIN.: We have a lot of room for improvement.

KETEYIAN: Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue took over the federal disability program last year, stepping up efforts to fix a system many call broken.

ASTRUE: I think it`s been broken the way a leg is broken. And it can heal, and it is healing.

KETEYIAN: But what do you say to the people that have stood in that line, that three-year line?

ASTRUE: I don`t have a defense. I don`t think it is a good thing. I don`t think it should have been allowed to happen. So we`re probably not going to be able to drive the backlog down at the rate that it went up, but we`re sure as hell going to try.

KETEYIAN: Little consolation to the likes of Scott Watson, who had to rely on his parents to simply survive.

WATSON: You pay something into a system that you think is going to help you in your time of need. And it doesn`t even acknowledge that you even have a problem.

KETEYIAN: Armen Keteyian, CBS News, Bel Air, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COURIC: For a list of resources for disability benefits, you can go to cbsnews.com and click on CBS EVENING NEWS.

And what`s behind the high denial rate for Social Security disability benefits? You will see in the conclusion of our investigation tomorrow night.