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.
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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.
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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every three people who apply for federal disability benefits are rejected by a government agency critics charge that is out of date, underfunded, and incapable of serving the exploding number of disabled Americans.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.
Jan 15, 2008
Transcript Of CBS News Piece
Supreme Court Case On EAJA
The Supreme Court has agreed to clarify whether companies that successfully sue the United States in administrative proceedings are entitled to recover the full market cost of paralegals who aided them.
In the case, Richlin Security Service Co. v. Chertoff, No. 06-1717, Richlin provided guards who watched over detainees at Los Angeles International Airport. Several years into Richlin's contract with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the federal government concluded that it had misclassified -- and consequently underpaid -- the guards.
Richlin sued the government to recover its lost income and prevailed. Under the Equal Access to Justice Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 504, Richlin was entitled to recover "fees and other expenses" incurred in the proceedings.
When Richlin sought those fees, the agency refused to reimburse the company the full amount of money it had been billed for paralegal services, ranging from $50 to $135 an hour. Instead, the Board determined that the company's law firm had a $35 per hour cost for the paralegals and paid the company that amount.
The circuit court of appeals affirmed the decision. The court reasoned that paralegal work should be categorized as an "expense" compensable at cost rather than a fee, akin to an attorney fee, compensable at market rates. The court explained that because the statute capped attorneys' fees at $125 per hour but did not refer to paralegal fee rates, a market-based reimbursement for paralegals could induce firms to shift work to those paraprofessionals to escape the cap.
In asking the Court to review the decision, Richlin argued that the Eleventh Circuit, in Jean v. Nelson, 863 F.2d 759 (11th Cir. 1988) reached the opposite conclusion, creating a clean split between the cirucits.
Richlin also noted that in Missouri v. Jenkins, 491 U.S. 274 (1989), the Supreme Court held that under the analogous Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act, paralegal services are an element of attorney's fees and therefore should be compensated at a firm's billable rate, rather than at the cost to the firm.
The Court had concluded that permitting market reimbursement for paralegals would encourage attorneys to delegate appropriate work to paraprofessionals in order to provide more cost-efficient legal services.In resisting the petition for certiorari, the government argued that while the statute was designed to encourage the filing of legitimate lawsuits against the United States, it was simultaneously designed to conserve public funds by reimbursing some services at cost rather than at a market markup.
Witness List For Social Security Subcommittee Hearing
David A. Rust, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Programs, Social Security AdministrationBy the way, notice that David Rust is still just acting Deputy Commissioner for Income Security Programs. Commissioner Astrue has not yet been able to come up with someone permanent for that job.
Laura R. Haltzel, Specialist in Social Legislation, Congressional Research Service
Frances Rosenfield, Retired Postmaster of Albany, New York, on behalf of the National Association of Postmasters
Margaret Cagle, Teacher, Los Angeles Unified School District; Member, National Education Association, Chatsworth, California
John O’Sullivan, Secretary-Treasurer, Texas AFT, Austin, Texas
Terry Moakley, Vice President for Public Affairs, United Spinal Association, Jackson Heights, New York, on behalf of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities’ Task Forces on Social Security and Employment and Training
Joan Entmacher, Vice President and Director of Family Economic Security, National Women’s Law Center
Joseph Rugola, International Vice President, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Columbus, Ohio
Sue Melton, State President, Association of Texas Professional Educators, Austin, Texas
DPC Meets With Astrue On Proposed Regulatory Changes
DPC staff and other advocates met with Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue [last week] regarding concerns about the impact of proposed rule changes on the Social Security system appeals process. While the public comment period has officially closed, advocates wanted to discuss what are considered the most problematic proposals, including new limits on submission of evidence within 5 days before the administrative law judge hearing or after the hearing. In addition to signing on to the comments of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, the DPC had submitted testimony on behalf of The Arc [Association for Retarded Citizens] and United Cerebral Palsy.
No New Cases For FedROs
We are modifying our disability administrative adjudication processes to suspend new claims to the Federal reviewing official (FedRO) level, now operating in the Boston region. Claims already transferred to the Office of the Federal Reviewing Official (OFedRO) for FedRO review will continue to be processed by the OFedRO and a related component of the disability determination process, the Medical and Vocational Expert System (MVES), commonly known as the Office of Medical and Vocational Expertise (OMVE). We are making these changes to ensure that we continually improve our disability adjudication process.
Bush Budget Message Coming In Early February
Lack Of Planning
Federal auditors say the Social Security Administration lacks a sufficient plan to address its backlog of hundreds of thousands of disability claims. ...
The report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says 1.5 million claims remained unresolved at the end of 2006 and 576,000 of those were backlogged meaning they had exceeded the amount of time generally needed for resolution of claims. ...
Social Security Administration officials have said that in order to hire enough staff to adequately process the backlog, the agency needs $100 million beyond the $275 million increase that Congress approved in December. Both amounts are more than President Bush has proposed in his 2008 budget, which calls for funding at the existing level.
The GAO, however, said that regardless of whether funding is increased, the agency needs to improve the poor communication that exists among the agency’s state offices, where initial claims are handled. ...
Social Security Administration officials also must improve the monitoring of claims as they enter the appeals process, the GAO says, and must adequately plan and execute programs to address the backlog something the agency has failed to do.
It is sad to think that Americans who are unable to work because of injury or illness are helplessly watching bills pile up and mortgages go into arrears while waiting years for the federal government to decide whether assistance will be granted. Congress must see to it that the GAO’s recommendations are carried out.
While Congress was considering Social Security's operating budget for the current fiscal year, Astrue was willing only to hint that his agency needed more operating funds than provided for in the President's budget, even though he knew well that Bush's budget might not even be enough to keep the backlogs from growing. This is poor leadership indeed.