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August 8, 2007 A local 61-year-old Vietnam War veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder waited ten years after sending his information to the Social Security Administration before receiving his disability benefits, going so far as to hire a private firm to help him fight the agency before finally collecting his award last month. “They acknowledged I had PTSD, but my claim was denied,” said the Springfield man, who asked not to be identified in the story to keep his condition private. “They said maybe I should try a simpler job, like be a greeter at Kmart. I have a Ph.D. in physics.” Yet delays like these have become all too common in the Washington metropolitan area, according to a new study ranking the District of Columbia as the second-most backlogged area of the country in disability claim hearings. The study, co-conducted by the American Association of People with Disabilities and Allsup Inc., a Social. Security disability research company, found nearly 2,300 residents in the District of Columbia waiting for a decision. Nationwide, more than 730,000 Americans are waiting months to years. Long waits for claims at the hearing level, averaging 524 days before adjudication in 2007, according to the Social Security Advisory Board, are a result of the aging of the baby boomer generation, which has created both an influx of disability claims and an exodus of qualified staff as they retire. The $9.29 billion budget approved by the House appropriations committee in January, more than $200 million less than that requested by the president and Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart for the SSA to process those claims, only deepens the crisis, researcher Jim Allsup said. “The last several years we’ve all been hearing about the coming Social Security crisis with retirees,” Allsup said. “It’s already here with disabilities because the age is so much younger than retirement.”
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