Waiting In Ohio

From the Columbus Dispatch:

A 57-year-old man has waited three years and counting for a Social Security disability determination because of his failing heart, vascular disease, cirrhosis of the liver and hepatitis ...

Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue doesn't gloss over the problem with his federal agency. He has told Congress that the jumbo-sized backlog stems from an increasing baby boomer caseload, years of underfunding and an increase in Social Security's responsibilities coupled with a 5 percent staff reduction from 2003 to 2007.

Astrue, who took the top job in February 2007, said that while "everything is focused on moving in the right direction … there is no one magic bullet" to cut through the backlog, stemming from years of the "system being out of whack."

"It's hard if you are on the waiting end," Astrue said. "We are making progress … (But) it is a lot of detail, and it is hundreds of things we have to focus on."

Astrue is sending 13 new disability judges to Ohio this year, two of them to Columbus.

He wants to cut the 761,000-case national backlog by about 60,000 a year.

Jim Allsup, a former administration employee whose company handles rejected disability claims, says, "The whole thing is completely broken" and that the disability benefits process is "so woefully out of date that it has to be totally overhauled and streamlined."