From the Salt Lake Tribune:As the worst recession since the Great Depression appears to be ending, the Social Security Administration grapples with an unprecedented flood of disability applications due to aging baby-boomers and heavy job losses.
Pending claims are expected to jump 70 percent this year, said Dan Allsup, spokesman for Illinois-based Allsup Inc., which represents people applying for disability payments.
"The number of people held up at the initial level is just exploding," Allsup said, blaming that giant jump on the ailing economy and what he terms the "silver tsunami" of America's graying population.
Mark Lassiter, media officer for the Social Security Administration, confirmed what Allsup described as a ticking time bomb.
"We've seen a tremendous spike in our disability applications," Lassiter said, noting that a year ago, 2.6 million claims were forecast and 3 million were filed.
"This year we're expecting 3.3 million," he said.
"People reach their most disability-prone years before retirement age," Lassiter said. "And those who never think of themselves as completely disabled -- once they lose a job and think they might qualify, they're going to apply."In October 2006, South Weber resident Gordon Branin (pictured) was injured while working as a commercial truck driver. Branin, now 62, was delivering cargo in Maryland with his son when another truck backed into him, pinning his body against a loading dock.
His pelvis was cracked and two disks in his back ruptured, but the retired military man said he was lucky to be alive. After a week in a Maryland hospital, his son drove him 2,500 miles home.
Amid the fog of pain medications, Branin applied for disability that November. A few months later he was rejected and then sought Allsup's assistance.
According to the Social Security Administration's 2008 report, an average 31 percent of people applying were awarded disability at the initial application level between 1998 and 2007.
At level two -- reconsideration -- only four percent won approval. And at level three, a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), 13 percent succeeded.
Mickie Douglas, Utah's SSA public affairs specialist, said the agency's Web site, www.socialsecurity.gov contains everything needed to file a claim.
"The process is broken down in two parts," Douglas said. "There is information that tells them exactly what we'll ask."
Allsup disagrees.
"It's a much more complicated and lengthy process than filing taxes," Allsup said. "And that's a primary reason that SSA denies two-thirds of applications due to poor preparation of the forms."
Even so, Allsup Inc. also rejects two-thirds of those who seek its assistance -- but for different reasons, he said.
"We work on a contingency basis," Allsup said, 25 percent, up to $6,000, of the back payments awarded to applicants. "So for obvious reasons, we won't accept a fraudulent claim or one that we know won't be awarded."
About 98 percent of their accepted clients do ultimately gain government approval, Allsup added.
In July 2007, South Weber's Branin got rejected at level two -- even with Allsup's help -- but chose to continue to level three.
"We had to resubmit all the paperwork a third time" -- including updated medical test results, Branin said.
Close to 22 months after his accident, Branin was able to walk without a cane, even though he had spent the first year confined to a wheelchair. He still cannot lift more than 25 pounds and his movement is impaired -- bending at the waist causes intense pain, he said.
"Social Security was saying I could go back to work during that first year," Branin said.
In February 2008 -- about seven months before his scheduled ALJ hearing -- Branin received word that his disability case was clear-cut and his award had been granted. Branin's first check arrived in April that year.
However, his time on hold took its toll. Even with Branin's military retirement and his wife's return to work, they struggled to pay their bills.
"From October 2006 to April 2008, we ran up our credit card," Branin said, "to keep the bill collectors at bay."