Rochester Newspaper On "Dying For Help"

From the Rochester, NY City Newspaper:

More than two-million Americans apply to the federal government for SSDI benefits each year and more than 70 percent are denied. Applicants can appeal the denial, but as many as 85 percent of those first appeals are also denied. While thousands of people give up, there are those who continue appealing until they get a hearing with a Social Security Administration judge. There are currently 750,000 people waiting for their first hearing. Caught in a waiting game that is averaging two years to get a hearing that may not even lead to an approval for benefits, thousands of applicants spend their savings and pensions trying to stay afloat. Many file for bankruptcy and lose their homes in foreclosure. Cars are repossessed, while marriages dissolve and families fall apart. Many people have to manage their application process while their illnesses progress, until they become too sick to continue.

"It is simply outrageous that so many individuals who need Social Security Disability Insurance to survive are forced to wait years before they receive the benefits they deserve," says Congresswoman Louise Slaughter. ...

John Johnson is a disabled Army veteran. Even though a panel of medical examiners with the Veterans Administration reviewed his injuries and, he says, determined he was 100-percent disabled. Johnson's application was denied by the SSA.

"How can one federal agency tell you one thing, and another tell you something completely different?" says Johnson. "It doesn't make any sense. It's crazy. I was injured serving my country. I was doing what I was supposed to do. I don't know if they are doing what they're supposed to be doing, but that's the kind of bureaucracy that you're dealing with."