One of the most frustrating things about Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits is how long people have to wait to start receiving them. It can be difficult for those with serious medical needs and no income to wait patiently for a review of their benefit request or appeal.
Early approval for benefits isn’t a given. Even people with permanent, fatal conditions can receive a denial of their initial application and need to wait for a hearing with an administrative law judge. Just the waiting between the rejection and the hearing could be 10 months, to say nothing of the delay during reconsideration and the early stages of applying.
Those who need SSDI benefits are often stuck in limbo waiting for the approval of their claim. An increase in funding may soon change that.
More staff could lead to faster claims processing
The Social Security Administration (SSA) simply does not have enough staff to quickly and effectively process all of the benefit applications it receives. The SSA relies on a combination of computer analysis and individual review to approve qualified applicants as quickly as possible.
It’s possible that the SSA could receive more than a billion dollars in additional funding if President Biden’s proposed 2022 budget is approved by Congress with that item intact. Those funds could serve multiple beneficial purposes. For example, they could allow the busiest offices to bring on more staff or to afford overtime for current hourly workers.
Although it would take some time before this added funding has any practical effect on the experience of those reaching out to the SSA, people might eventually find that it’s easier for them to communicate with a real person about their SSDI benefits claims.