This is the video segment about Social Security disability delays, hosted by investigative reporter Randy Travis of Atlanta’s Fox 5 TV. Travis highlights what most Social Security disability lawyers already know – that the judge assigned to your case could mean more than the medical records in terms of whether or not you receive benefits.
In the Atlanta downtown hearing office, there are judges who approve less than 20% of cases, and judges who approve more than 70%. So two identical claimants – each with the exact same medical issues – would likely get different results based solely on the luck of the draw.
And you are going to wait – often two years or longer – before you even get the chance to appear before that judge.
While there are other problems with the SSD process, Mr. Travis’ report highlights two of the biggest issues – the wildly divergent approval rates by judges within the same hearing office and the outrageous delays.
This is why I believe the system needs to incorporate a “panel” of disability judges instead of giving a single ALJ all the power in the world. I would have cherished the opportunity to have my claim decided in only 500 days. My claim lasted approximately 1642 days before I finally received a fully favorable decision. I applied in 2009 and it took 3 lawyers, 2 consultation exams, 2 Appeals Council remands, 3 ALJ hearings, 2 ALJ’s, and a whole lot of perseverance on my part to come to the conclusion that I have been disabled since 2003. That’s right. After all of the BS I went through, I received an award in mid 2014 based upon an established onset date in late 2003 (and again this took 4.5 years). There is just nothing proper about this process, and I wish there was something I could do about it. Now that my claim is over, I can’t imagine how I survived through it all.
The situation is no different here in Michigan with a wide variance in ALJ decisions on similar facts. The only difference is that hearings in our local office come much quicker.
Michael, our hearing wait times have been among the highest in the nation for several years. At one point, a few years ago, SSA set up a video hearing office and that got the wait times down to about a year, but that video hearing office closed about 2 years ago.
I just settled a worker’s comp case for bilateral cubital tunnel. I’m on medication that keeps me feeling like a zombie. Plus, I’m hearing impaired. I was denied for disability for my hearing impairment back in 2007. Now, I”m trying again because it’s obviously getting worse. I called to get a status on Oct 23 but they wouldn’t tell me over the phone unless they didn’t feel comfortable telling me using relay. It’s now Oct 27th and I’m still waiting for the letter. I’m thinking, if I’m denied, I am going to move out to Washington state and file a reconsideration. I can’t take this anymore here in Ga. I’m reading stories about disability is awarding ppl that suffer from obesity and can’t speak english in Puerto Rico with disability. This makes no sense.