Disability applicant caught in Social Security limbo

Agency promises it will expedite 3 1/2 -year-old case

David Hintz had waited nearly three-and-a-half years for this.

At the end of July, the Social Security Administration called his attorney to schedule a hearing. A judge would finally determine if the 39-year-old man from Custer was eligible for disability payments.

For years, Hintz and his wife had lived off her parents. Blood clots in his lungs, an injured leg and a plethora of daily pain medication and blood thinners had kept Hintz out of the work force since 2004. He hoped the call from Social Security signaled the end to a long road.

Instead, the red tape only got longer and more tangled.

When Hintz's attorney reported that his client had moved from Custer to South Milwaukee last year, the Social Security worker said the case had to be sent back to Milwaukee.

The wait for Hintz, a towering man at 7-foot-1, would begin again.

His file is among a stack of more than 762,000 disability cases pending nationally in the Social Security Administration. The agency has been plagued with a growing backlog in the past decade as it struggles to handle more retirement and disability cases. The problem has been compounded by shrinking staffs, archaic record-keeping and ineffective management, according to a report issued in December by the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog agency that tracks government spending.

On average, people wait 512 days for their disability case to be processed. In Milwaukee the wait is about three-and-a-half months longer, according to the agency.

"It is just bureaucratic red tape," said Gordon Leech, Hintz's attorney.

Since Hintz first applied for disability three-and-a-half years ago, Social Security has lost his file, transferred it around the state or just let it sit idle, according to Hintz and his attorney.

When Public Investigator asked the federal agency why the South Milwaukee man's file would need to be transferred back to Milwaukee - thus likely putting him at the back of the line to receive a hearing - Social Security acknowledged the problem.

"We dropped the ball," said Doug Nguyen, regional public affairs specialist for the agency. "We should have understood the individual's circumstances here."

Nguyen said agency employees were likely "going by the book," but he promised to have Hintz's case expedited in response to questions from the P.I. Team. He explained that Hintz's case had been handled by the Wausau office, where cases were being heard in California via teleconference. The move to Milwaukee meant an administrative law judge in Milwaukee could hear it. But it's uncertain when that will be.

Social Security officials insist they are trying to fix the problems. Last fall the agency commissioner ordered local offices to clear out the backlog of cases that had been pending for more than 900 days.

That effort has been somewhat successful. About a year ago, Milwaukee's office had 11,050 cases pending for a hearing. That number has now dropped to about 6,777. People's wait times in Milwaukee, however, have increased slightly, to about 618 days, because processing older cases bumps up the average.

Ann Laatsch, an attorney for Community Advocates, sees many cases like Hintz's. Laatsch helps people with disabilities fight for an answer from Social Security.

"We've had to learn how to fill the gap in the interim while people are waiting for benefits," Laatsch said.

Clients are referred to other places for help - county, state and federal government programs that offer medical insurance, food stamps and other emergency assistance - as well as community programs like food banks, Laatsch said.

Back in Washington, legislators are urging the agency to do something, especially since Congress has recently increased funding.

The proposed budget for next year is $10.46 billion, a 6% increase over the 2008 budget.

Social Security administrators said the extra money will allow the agency to significantly improve service in its field offices and telephone services. For the past seven years, Congress has appropriated about $150 million less each year than the proposed budget, Social Security reported to the GAO.

In addition, the agency employed 19,000 fewer people in fiscal year 2005 than it did 30 years ago, according to the GAO report. In late February, Michael Astrue, commissioner of Social Security, told a House Appropriations committee that his agency would fix the backlog within the next five years.

But some lawmakers say that isn't fast enough.

Rep. David Obey, (D-Wausau), chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee for labor, health and human services, education and related agencies, has said he worries that too many families will be hurt in the meantime.

Hintz has felt perhaps the worst desperation of all. He said he sometimes thinks about what he could do to make sure at least his wife and children are taken care of.

"I've been thinking about ending it all," Hintz said. "I'm nothing but a goddamn stump on the couch."