In this video Marc Whitehead, a Board Certified Social Security Attorney, explains how Social Security budget issues will hurt your disability claim. A lot of people are well aware that the Social Security Administration is in the middle of a budget crisis, and they’re worried about how this will effect them. This is a valid concern. While the benefits people receive from Social Security and SSI shouldn’t be directly effected, there are a number of way regular people will be impacted by the financial problems this organization is having. A few examples of this impact are:
- Long wait at field offices
- Increased processing times
- Longer distances for Social Security hearings
The SSA is experiencing losses, big and small, across the board in terms of how they are supposed to serve the public due to the fact that the federal government hasn’t been willing to meet their budgetary requests. From 2010- 2011 the budget actually decreased and in 2012 there was only a small increase from the 2010 budget. Because of this the Social Security Administration has been forced to freeze hiring for every division with the exception of ODAR since the middle of 2010. They have also had to delay the openings of eight new hearing offices and have also had to close 160 temporary remote Social Security hearing sights that made it easy for claimants in remote areas to be able to continue to fight for their benefits. They’ve also had to divert resources away from IT projects that would have improved productivity because they were needing to continue funding the core mission. They’ve had to cut half an hour at the end of the day at field offices by having them close to the public thirty minutes earlier each day. Finally they asked 9,000 of their most experienced workers, age 50 and older who have at least 25 years in the organization, to take early retirement representing a loss of 14% of their work force. Until our economy experience more of a recovery and the government become able to fully fund the SSA the organization is going to continue to struggle. Unfortunately, this means that citizens that need to work with the Social Security Offices are going to have a more difficult time. This is another reason why having a qualified attorney helping you to win your claim. For more information regarding Social Security Disability, please download our free eBook: The Social Security Puzzle- How to Fit the Pieces Together and Win your Claim. Visit www.disabilitydenials.com for a free downloadable copy.
