Tennesseans have long waits for disability claims

By: Adam Crisp
(Contact)

While Randy Treadwell lay in a bed, nauseated and weak with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, his Social Security disability claim inched through bureaucratic channels.

Mr. Treadwell, 59, waited 19 months before he finally got his benefits. His wife said it nearly bankrupted him.

The former business owner was among the 26,709 Tennesseans caught up in a backlog of disability cases at the end of 2006, according to rankings by Allsup Inc. and the American Association of People with Disabilities.

About 190,000 Tennesseans were receiving disability benefits in December 2006.

The Volunteer State ranks as the 12th slowest in processing claims in the country, said Dan Allsup, a spokesman for Allsup, an Illinois-based Social Security disability representation company.

On average, Chattanooga disability applicants wait 445 days to get a decision from a judge on their disability request and up to three years if the claim is processed in a larger city.

“There’s always been a backlog in Social Security,” said Chattanooga lawyer Eric Buchanan of Eric Buchanan and Associates.

Some argue the aging of the U.S. population is straining the cumbersome application process. The oldest members of the boomer generation, those born from 1946 to 1964, turn 62 this year.

“One of the big problems is that the population is getting older,” Mr. Allsup said.

“While the disabled population is growing exponentially, the staffing and funding of the Social Security Administration is going down,” he said.

In Chattanooga, the disability hearing office will replace two judges who retired within the past year. Nationally, the Social Security Administration plans to hire 150 judges over the next year.

Records show the time lag for decisions has worsened in the past five years. The number of people waiting on a hearing in Chattanooga has more than doubled since 2000.

Part of that delay is the nature of the hearing process. If denied, applicants can appeal once through a written application process. If denied again, the applicant must appear before a judge.

“Even though they’ve got nine judges, the system is so backed up, it takes an average of 14 to 16 months to get a hearing,” said Herbert Thornbury, another attorney who handles Social Security claims. “The hearing I did yesterday was 17 months from the time we applied.”

But Judge Richard Gordon, the senior judge at the Chattanooga Hearing Office, said his office ranks as the 17th fastest among 143 hearing offices nationwide.

“It’s not the judge’s fault,” Mr. Buchanan said. “It’’s the fault of the first two steps not being as good as they could be, and then the judges get dumped on.”

Economic factors

Judge Gordon said his staff is adequate but admits applicants often are rejected in the first two steps, which are handled on the state level. Those denials force applicants into his courtroom and delay their compensation.

He said the increased wait time also is impacted by a worsening of the economy and the closing of big employers.

“There is always an increase in applications when the economy turns down,” Judge Gordon said.

Even though Mr. Treadwell got his disability benefit in November, his financial situation was so poor that his wife, Chris, isn’t sure his finances will ever recover. She spoke for Mr. Treadwell because he was just released from a 10-day hospital stay and couldn’t come to the phone, she said.

“If you are making a house payment and you are the sole support of a family, there’s no way,” Mrs. Treadwell said. “You’d lose your house. You’d lose everything.”

Mrs. Treadwell said her husband’s cancer is now in remission, but he still suffers from other health problems and has spent roughly $50,000 on medical care.

Mr. Buchanan, his attorney, said many people haven’t had as successful a wait as Mr. Treadwell.

“We regularly have clients who die while the process is going on,” Mr. Buchanan said. “And we regularly have clients who file bankruptcy while the process moves on. The lucky ones are the people who have a spouse who is working, or they have a really good family support system.”

Mr. Allsup recommends disability applicants cut expenses before they apply to avoid such disasters. He also suggests hiring professional representation to move through the process. Though lawyers and companies such as Allsup take a percentage of disability pay-outs, Mr. Allsup claims the process will be faster with legal help.

The rigidity of the law, and the delays, often serve to weed out people who aren’t truly disabled, the attorneys said. But it has a cost.

“The people who are really disabled have to suffer through two and three years before they get that hearing in front of a judge,” Mr. Buchanan said. “The really unfortunate ones are the ones who are the sole breadwinners.”

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