Disability Law

Milwaukee Hearing Delays Dismal

The claimant’s file is among a stack of more than 762,000 disability cases pending nationally in the Social Security Administration. The agency has been plagued with a growing backlog in the past decade as it struggles to handle more retirement and disability cases. The problem has been compounded by shrinking staffs, archaic record-keeping and ineffective management, according to a report issued in December by the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog agency that tracks government spending.

On average, people wait 512 days for their disability case to be processed. In Milwaukee the wait is about three-and-a-half months longer, according to the agency.

“It is just bureaucratic red tape,” said Hintz’s attorney.

Since Hintz first applied for disability three-and-a-half years ago, Social Security has lost his file, transferred it around the state or just let it sit idle, according to Hintz and his attorney.

When the Public Investigator asked the federal agency why the South Milwaukee man’s file would need to be transferred back to Milwaukee - thus likely putting him at the back of the line to receive a hearing - Social Security acknowledged the problem. See full story here:

Full post as published by Social Security Disability Law Blog on August 25, 2008 (boomark / email).