From WFTV in Orlando:
Sarah Grimes and her husband waited more than five years for Social Security disability payments and when they didn’t come, he took his own life. She blames the government. …
Social Security always wanted more documents and never approved his benefits while he was alive.
After his death, she appealed to federal court to get his benefits and last November a judge ruled she would get his Social Security benefits. …
When WFTV last spoke with Grimes, the government was trying to figure out what she is owed from December 2020 to February 2024, but now in 2025, Grimes told Eyewitness News that the SSA has told her she will have to wait longer for her money because they are backlogged, and her case is complicated.
It’s been so long that she said she will not be able to pay her rent next month. That could mean losing her apartment and ending up living in her car. …
17 comments:
Ms. Grimes should contact her local Congressional representative but they might be too busy with trying to shrink the federal government.
Her case is complicated.
Many experienced SSA employees will be running for the exit once teleworking is eliminated. Sadly, that’s the new reality.
There’s far more to this story than the article is leading on.
Never fear! President Musk is going to help wean her of the government teat by destroying the agency‘s ability to administer its programs altogether! Think of the pride she‘ll get to experience from working until she dies and getting to watch Elon get richer!
Tell her to call Elon, he's going to be the only government employee left.
If this case reached District Court, the processing of the approval falls to a specific unit in the payment center in Baltimore called the Case Court Processing Staff. that particular unit, tasked with processing cases that typically involve applications that are three, or four , or five years old is horrendously slow. Where these cases should have the highest priority based on their application dates, they are the most delayed of all after Favorable Decision. While that group complains about being understaffed, and they may well be, letting that group be understaffed is the responsibility of the higher ups in the SSA. Yes, Congress staff can help but they should not be needed. Someone in upper management needs to assign a special group of case processors to clear out this particular backlog. No such case should take more than 30 days, let alone the nearly a year average we see,.
Always is yet Charles continues to post them.
At this point, she should reach out to China or Russia. I’m sure they have access to our money by now.
@11:23 Yep, this has been my experience as attorney rep. Have a case pending with the Federal court payment unit since December 2023. Congressional complaint did not help. When I called the regular payment center, they provided a defunct phone number for the federal payment unit. No has has any clue what is going on there. I cannot even get an average case processing time.
This case SICKENS me. The agency must do better. I'm relieved Elon and the DOGE boys are there doing their best to reform it. This must never happen again.
The problem with the court remand cases is that they can't be processed through MCS , they require time consuming EF-101's, notices, and special procedures for attorney fees. Without much overtime the b
The court remand cases can take hours to work, after the favorable ALJ decision. The cases are so old they require manual processing by EF101, and special attorney procedures and paragraphs which apply only to court cases. Technicians must be specially trained, these court cases cannot be worked in the modules.
Fee agreements on these cases are often misapproved by the ALJ, so that requires a time consuming protest memo to the Regional Chief ALJ.
For all these reasons the Court Case staff backlogs are large, and it takes almost a year after the favorable ALJ decision to process a case to payment. It just isn't feasible to shift other technicians to this area, as that would cause other backlogs to grow.
Might be time to file for a Writ of Mandamus.
If the ALJs made better decisions, there'd be fewer of these to deal with. Seems better decision making throughout this whole process would save a lot of time, don't ya think?
I believe the court reversal is from November 2024 as the same TV station had virtually the same story written in August 2024 with a note that nothing had happened yet with the appeal to the court.
https://www.wftv.com/news/local/waiting-social-security-benefits-led-loved-one-take-their-own-life-widow-says/HNJTWK3PFNCTVM3S5DEEVOOP7E/?outputType=amp
Are you aware that we are already at a 50 year staffing low? What resources will Elon and Doge give us to do better? It seems like all they are giving us is simply making more people want to leave.
Not buying it. The only thing fundamentally different about Court Remand Approvals is that the numbers are much larger. But calculating those benefits and paying those benefits, with or without other issues of WC offset to SSI Offset, or Rep Payee needs are no different than any other case. If there are extra forms to be filled out, then it should take a short period of time to figure out how to do that for an already trained Benefit Authorizer. Having less than ten people to handle the cases nationwide is not enough and the numbers could be increased with a little serious effort by management. These cases should have highest priority, not the least as they do now.
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