By DAVE LIEBER
watchdog@star-telegram.com
Editor's note: Ray Shuga received $32,000 in his first retroactive Social Security Disability Insurance payment and paid a fee of $5,300 to Allsup, a company that helped him with the application process. The original version of this report contained incorrect amounts.
Ray Shuga, a retired truck driver in Fort Worth, twiddled his thumbs for about two years between the time he applied for Social Security Disability Insurance and the arrival of his first check.
"In Texas, there are so many people applying for disability, they are just way, way backed up," he says.
So he and his wife waited while the federal government tried to catch up with demand. Or at least catch up with them.
"We were counting pennies left and right," Shuga says. "We couldn’t buy anything, couldn’t do anything. My pickup had problems. My wife’s car had problems. But we got by."
In Texas, about 50,000 people are waiting to hear back about their initial application to get SSDI benefits, paid to people who are under retirement age but can no longer work because of a disability.
That number of applicants almost doubled in one year, the Social Security Administration says.
If statistics hold true, about two-thirds of them will be denied and go on to appeal that initial decision.
And 30,000 others who were denied are waiting for hearings — about 3,700 of them applying to the Fort Worth regional SSA office, government statistics show.
While they wait, many of those folks are probably counting pennies like Ray Shuga.
The numbers are growing because, in addition to aging baby boomers, more Texans are applying for disability in a poor economy. A monthly payment can be $1,000 or more.
The good news, SSA says, is that the wait for Texans to get a hearing is 288 days. If that sounds like a lot, well, the national average is around 446 days.
"The Fort Worth area is faring much better than the nation as a whole," said Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration.
Still, any wait of a year or more can send some applicants into near-poverty. While they wait, they can’t work and receive little or no income. Some lose their house and their health insurance. Many deplete their savings.
"Even when it’s getting better, it’s still too long for people to wait for an appeal," says Ethel Zelenske, director of government affairs for the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives.
"They planned for baby boomers getting old, but who could plan for the economy going into such a tailspin? That’s really thrown people off. And Congress is aware and giving the agency more money to deal with it. But that’s a really difficult situation."
Zelenske said many workers don’t apply for benefits if they become impaired as long as they can keep working. That’s why the recession has brought a surge in applications.
"If they lose their job, it’s not likely they will find a job somewhere else," she said. "There really are no options for them. What’s available to them is filing for benefits."
Looking for comments?
Share
@Nyx.CommentBody@