Atlanta's disabled often wait years for aid
City's Social Security hearing offices known as 'the backlog capital of the country'

By ANN HARDIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/03/08
Atlanta is arguably the worst place in the country to live if you are too sick or injured to work and have to rely on the government for help.

While Social Security hearing offices nationwide are clogged with claims from severely disabled individuals seeking benefits, the two Atlanta locations are known as "the backlog capital of the country."

Catherine Mulhall, 40, who has multiple sclerosis, is one among the thousands of people in Georgia who have been waiting years to get their Social Security disability benefits.

NO STRANGERS TO REJECTION
While most Americans associate Social Security with retirement, the agency currently provides income to about 12 million individuals who have proved they are too disabled to work for at least a year.

Social Security contracts with the Georgia Department of Labor to determine eligibility for claims initially filed. The Labor Department also handles the first round of appeals of claims from individuals who get rejected outright. Three of four Georgians who apply for benefits get turned down outright. Nine of 10 who appeal to the second level for "reconsideration" get rejected. A minority of applicants will appeal further and ask for a hearing before an administrative law judge. The vast majority who go before a judge will be approved.

The Downtown hearing office at Peachtree Center takes 769 days on average — more than two years — to resolve a claim. It has 9,145 claims pending. The Atlanta North office on Clairmont Road is even worse, with a backlog of 12,497 claims and an average wait of 793 days, according to Social Security figures. Month after month, the two offices consistently rank among the slowest in the country for resolving claims.

The physical and financial health of many of people waiting will deteriorate. Some will lose their homes and declare bankruptcy. Others will die.

They already have been turned down twice to get to this appeal level, adding years more to their quest for a modest income and access to health care.

Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue calls reducing the backlog in Atlanta and elsewhere nationwide a moral issue. "I don't want to appear self-righteous, but I do want to make it clear that that's the way I view it," said Astrue, appointed commissioner in 2007.

Attempt at a turnaround

After ignoring the problem for years, Congress gave Social Security money this fiscal year aimed at turning the tide. In December, the agency opened the National Hearing Center in Northern Virginia, where administrative law judges hear cases via video from Atlanta and other backlogged regions.

Social Security also has hired 189 new administrative law judges. Astrue said he has placed as many in Atlanta as the offices can accommodate. Seven new administrative law judges recently came on board at the Downtown office, increasing the number to 13. "Over the last several months, the Downtown hearing office has gone hog wild on scheduling," said Robert Hughes, an attorney who specializes in Social Security cases. "I've gone from five hearings a month to five a day."

At the beleaguered Atlanta North hearing office on Clairmont Road, Rick Waitsman tries to keep his mind on the case before him, not the thousands of others piling up.

Waitsman, an administrative law judge, has been hearing disability cases for 15 years. He characterized the burden of the backlog as frustrating but the work as critical and rewarding. "Every time you meet someone, it reminds you how important your decision is for them and their families," he said.

To qualify for benefits, individuals must prove they can't work for at least a year.Three of four Georgians who apply will be rejected outright by state workers under contract with Social Security to evaluate and decide claims.

However, the lion's share of those who appeal up to the hearing level will prevail. That is assuming they can wait it out. A favorable ruling by Waitsman not only provides an individual with a monthly income, it is also the gateway to Medicare and Medicaid, the government's health care programs.

Since most Americans get health care through employers, most of the individuals who appear before Waitsman lost theirs when they became too sick to work. Many of the diseases that sidelined them will march on while they wait for their hearings. "It used to be very uncommon that you would have a claim where someone would die while their appeal was pending," Waitsman said. "Unfortunately, that is becoming much more common. People are dying from what they are complaining of."

More than 2.6 million Americans will file disability claims this year, fueled by the baby boom generation hitting peak disability age. Even as the number of claims has been steadily rising, Congress has underfunded the Social Security agency for the previous 15 years running, Astrue said.

The demographic shift and the lagging resources are in large part to blame for the backlog of 761,000 people nationwide waiting for hearings.

Meanwhile, the diseases and conditions that keep people from working have exploded, Astrue said. "The system was originally designed for older people with blue collar injuries," he said. "Many of the claimants now come and allege four to six injuries, both psychological and physical."

While the system overall was underfunded, Astrue said, the Atlanta region got short-changed, compared to others around the country. This happened at a time when Atlanta's population, and by extension, the number of disability claims filed here, increased. As a general rule, an administrative law judge decides two cases a day. For every two decided at the Atlanta North office, four come in, Waitsman said.

To help move cases along, Social Security has added one new administrative law judge to the nine already hearing cases there. Ten employees from the regional office have been brought in to screen for cases that can be decided on the spot.

The agency also is transferring cases to the National Hearing Center.

'Very bad practice'

Astrue said he can't explain why Atlanta received less financial support, given the level of filings here. "All I know is it is a very bad practice and we have moved as quickly as we can to provide redress," he said. He is pushing Congress for more money to open a third hearing office in suburban Atlanta.

In the meantime, the pressure to whittle down the backlog keeps mounting.

Astrue has asked Social Security hearing offices nationwide to clear, by the end of September, cases that have languished 900 or more days. That is no easy task. The longer a case sits, the longer it takes to sort through mounds of medical records that require constant updating.

Waitsman said the Atlanta North office, with 4,000 such cases, will come close to meeting the target. But there are the thousands of other cases, growing older by the day.

"We feel like we are getting more assistance than in the past," Waitsman said. "But it is not humanly possible to work hard enough to get us out of this situation."