More than 100,000 People Died Waiting for a Disability Hearing
This week I did hearing a hearing for a young woman whose claim was pending for two years. She passed away two months prior to her hearing. We substituted her mother as the party and a successful hearing occurred this week. Her family will collect the benefits due their daughter for the past months from which her claim was pending.
The process of applying for disability benefits is a tedious one, with most applications moving to an appeals hearing. The wait for the hearing can be arduous. According to a new report, as many as 110,000 Americans died waiting for a disability hearing over a span of 5 years.
Those shocking details came in a report released by the Government Accountability Office. As an Atlanta Social Security disability attorney, I know that most applications for disability benefits are rejected the first time around. Most of these rejected applications are then appealed, and claimants must wait for a disability hearing before a final determination can be made about whether the individual qualifies for benefits. The process of waiting for a hearing can take as long as a year, or even longer.