Indianapolis Personal Injury Blog

Social Security Aims to Reduce Backlog Despite Increase of Claims

The Social Security agency's (SSA) commissioner believes that SSA will be able to eliminate all the claims' backlog in 2013.  This announcement to Congress comes even after it was revealed that SSA is faced with an increase in disability claims over the previous year.

2008 left SSA with a backlog of 1.4 million disability and supplemetnal security benefits claims, thus causing a state of limbo for those who have filed. By the end of 2009, it is predicted that the number of these claims will exceed 1.6 million.

When pressed to explain the backlog, SSA officials noted limited funding and a sharp increase in the number of disability claims that their office is faced with year after year. Disability claims are expected to grow by 300,000 this year over last year’s numbers. Most of Keller & Keller's social security disability clients are often concerned with the amount of time it takes to get a hearing.  SSA estimates that the the average wait time for a hearing on a disability claim is 500 days. 

Our Social Security disability practice agrees that the wait time is excessive, however, obtaining legal representation will remarkedly increase the likelihood that you will receive a favorable decision for your claim.