ADDING 6 MORE MONTHS TO THE WAIT TIME

President Trump is proposing to add 4 to 6 months additional waiting time to Social Security disability appeals in Alabama and 9 other states.

The waiting time is now almost 2 years.

In his fiscal year 2019 budget request, the president proposed an additional stage of administrative review, called Reconsideration, in Alabama and 9 other states that don't already use that longer process.

The Administration argues that a few cases would be approved at the state level, avoiding the need for a hearing before an administrative law judge.  However, statistics from 40 states which already use this slower process indicate that only 1 in 7 denials get approved at Reconsideration.  For the other 6, the wait is just increased by 4 to 6 additional months.

The Administration says this process will reduce the wait time and save the government 3.4 billion dollars a year. 

I can't help but believe the Administration is smarter than this.  How can denying a claim twice make anything faster?  You get denied by the Disability Determination Service.  You file an appeal.  Six months later the Disability Determination Service reviews the denial and denies the claim a second time. Then, you file another appeal and wait 2 more years.  How exactly is this supposed to be faster?  Or does anybody in Washington really believe it's faster?

You can't escape the possibility that the government is just stalling:  tying a big rock behind the runaway Social Security wagon to slow it down some more as it rumbles downhill.  They can't be serious!

What can you do?  Contact your Congressman in Washington DC and tell them that the wait for a disability appeal at 2 years is long enough, thank you!  Tell them you oppose reinstatement of "Reconsideration" in the prototype states that aren't already using the slower system.  Slow enough is slow enough.
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Charles W. Forsythe is a disability advocate at the Forsythe Firm in Huntsville.