ILLUSTRATION: SERGE BLOCH; CLOCK: CORBIS
each one. “If someone is
truly eligible for disability,
we want to find the person
eligible,” says SSA spokesman
Mark Hinkle. “We’re also protecting
taxpayers’ money and don’t want to pay
benefits if they’re not eligible.”
The agency says it has managed to
make significant cuts in processing times: An
average wait of more than 500 days three years
ago had dropped to 353 this June, it says.
But national averages don’t tell the whole story. How long an applicant waits varies widely
by location—and even by judge, according to
the Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse, a nonprofit think
tank at Syracuse University.
Average processing time ranges
from 161 days in Ponce, Puerto Rico,
and 168 days in Shreveport, La., to 509
days in Springfield, Mo., and 544 days
in Cleveland, Ohio, researchers at the
clearinghouse found.
SSA has set a waiting-time goal of 270 days in
2013. To speed the process, it has hired more
judges and fast-tracked consideration for 113
medical conditions under the Compassionate
Allowances program. These include certain
cancers, brain disorders and rare disorders
affecting children.
But because some people try to game the system, the agency also has 24 investigative units
fighting fraud and overpayments. Next year, it
plans to conduct 60 percent more eligibility
reviews of people already on disability.
All told, about 8. 5 million workers and about
2 million adult children, widows and widowers were receiving disability benefits as of August. The average age of a disabled worker in
the program now is 53. No one gets rich from
the program: The average monthly benefit is
$1,070.20. —Marsha Mercer
