Oct 5, 2015

Outrage In Iowa

     From the Des Moines Register:
A judge’s long delays in deciding scores of backlogged Social Security disability cases have resulted in Iowa applicants losing their eligibility or homes, or even dying while waiting for benefits, a Des Moines Register investigation has found. ...
[T]he delays go back years, yet only in September were Gatewood’s back cases reassigned from the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in West Des Moines to another regional office in Topeka, Kan. ...
On average, disability applicants in Iowa wait about 13 months to get a judge to hear their cases. That's about a month less than others nationwide, according to Social Security data reviewed by the Register. Once the hearings are held, decisions typically follow within one to two months, lawyers here say.
But applicants among Gatewood's caseload often waited another year for a decision, and their lawyers say some people in desperate need are still waiting. ...
The Register's Watchdog probe was triggered by attorney David Leitner, who raised questions on behalf of client Shannon Hills.
Hills, 32, applied for disability benefits in 2013 after being denied twice before. Gatewood presided over her hearing in April.
But Leitner was notified last week that the case was among those transferred to Topeka. When he called to ask if a new hearing was scheduled, he was told 300 of Gatewood’s cases are in the pipeline there. ...
Tamara Wolff, 51, who suffered multiple heart attacks and a stroke that permanently damaged her eyesight, said she first applied for disability in 2009.
Gatewood finally heard her case on March 26, 2014, and Wolff was told she could expect a decision in about a month. Seven months later, after Wolff had been hospitalized several times, her lawyer sent a letter to the judge asking that she make the case a priority and expedite the ruling.
Still, no decision was rendered until April 18 — nearly 13 months after the hearing. ...
Lawyers say their clients have been afraid to speak out or complain because they don’t want to risk being denied benefits.
Jensen says 12 of her clients whose cases are being transferred had been waiting 12 to 18 months for a decision from Gatewood. ...
Administrative records from the Merit Systems Protection Board show the Social Security Administration's presiding administrative law judge tried to remove Gatewood from cases in Oklahoma more than a decade ago.
But Gatewood succeeded in an appeal in 2005, arguing that the agency had interfered with her judicial independence.
     I have a couple of thoughts on this. First, as terrible as this is, it affects only a limited number of people. The bigger outrage is that it's taking longer and longer to get a hearing in the first place. That affects everyone requesting a hearing on their claim for Social Security disability benefits. The backlog is rapidly rising to two years. There's every reason to believe it will just keep climbing beyond two years. This will, in effect, deprive claimants of any meaningful right to a hearing on their claim. Second, if you're an attorney with clients caught in a mess such as that described in this article, there is an avenue to relief -- mandamus. I've got an example of a mandamus complaint if anyone is interested. (And, for sticklers, yes I know that technically mandamus no longer exists but the exact same relief exists and everybody still calls it mandamus because we all remember Marbury v. Madison.)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Simple solution File a Civil case in your home town against the ALJ if you can prove 51 % or better that the ALJ error-ed. Then Post it on Face book and Twitter then promote it to make it roll wild across the social media platforms in the internet. We the people have power and it IS on social media!

Candice Apple & Associates said...

Good to know, i'd have to agree with anonymous above^

Anonymous said...

Chuck Id say a fairly decent outrage is the fact that judges can do this and SSA is powerless. SSA failed in removal. SSA can't make her issue anything. In short, her employer can't make her work and that's sad. She will continue collecting 165k pay check so long as she pleases then retire with a lovely pension.

Write your congressman tell them to amend the APA and abolish the MSPB.

Anonymous said...

$165,646.00 .... so pathetic

http://www.fedsdatacenter.com/federal-pay-rates/index.php?n=gatewood%2C+tela&l=&a=&o=&y=2014

Anonymous said...

I can see that the backlog in waiting for a hearing date is largely on Congress for not allocating sufficient funding after being told what it would take to address the problem. However, when an ALJ is taking that long to get a decision out after all the evidence is turned and the hearing is held, then that is on the individual ALJ.

The extra wait can, for some claimants, can cause financial ruin. For the impoverished and uninsured such delays can lead to poor health outcomes or even death. I have seen all of those outcomes, over and over. So please, if you are an ALJ running that far behind, ask for and get whatever help you need. If you are unable to do better even with help, please leave the job and make way for someone who can get out timely decisions. Otherwise you are just hurting people.

Anonymous said...

I filed an app in 7-94, the Reviewer post dated the app to 2-95. In the records is talks about backlog even then and I highly suspect the reason for post dating was for several reasons, One to create the illusion of speeding up backlog cases and the other to rig the ratings from ssdi to ssi.
The SSA advisory board created by congress making the SSA into a separate entity, letting them, the advisory board to make the decisions for and within the SSA employees who follow the actuaries who give them the reasons to rig it all to save the SSA from paying out as little as possible, however and whenever possible. Congress can then wash it's hands clean of any wrong doing with all of the ways to deny and delay.. Many of those I knew who filed SSA claims waited extremely long periods of time and many were very sick with cardio and diabetic conditions and older, so age can be considered a factor to deny as well. It appears that the problem with the SSA, is that it is systemically corrupt within its own walls, starting at the top and that money as usual is to be made and saved, no matter the price to be paid by the sick and disabled.

Anonymous said...

I am a retired ALJ from the east coast, but I know Judge Gatewood who is a dedicated judge. As SSA imposes more and more clerical duties on the judges it takes away time from hearing and deciding cases (which is why I retired - I didn't go to law school to be a data entry clerk). SSA is penny wise and pound foolish, using higer paid judges to do GS3 work. Bring back good staffing to the hearing offices, make the clericals do ALL the data entry except electronically signing the decision and entering the decision codes, and you'll soon see that the backlog will ease up!

Anonymous said...

shorter @9:20

Do almost all of our job duties for us and we'll be quicker!

Richard said...

The thing that strikes me is the difference between the way these cases are being handled and the way the Conn cases are being handled. In the Iowa situation the solution seems to be start all over and endure still more waiting. In the Conn cases everything must be done immediately. In both cases innocent claimants are being harmed. I realize that Conn may be a crook, but then again that's why we have courts; his clients are undeserving of harsh treatment at least until someone shows they did something wrong. The Iowa claimants have done absolutely nothing wrong but they are victims of inordinate delay. Here's an interesting solution for them: put them on benefits until the decision is finally made.