SSDI Benefits a Fight to the Death in Delaware

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Understaffed administrative agencies and increased demand for government welfare programs have left some without benefits too long - and unarguably so.  Delaware resident Gerald Coulbourne fought for 10 years to regain his disability benefits. In a way, you could say he won, but it was four months too late.

Mr. Coulbourne went on disability in 1983 for a long-standing and severe mental disorder along with alcoholism. In 1997 he lost that monthly paycheck due to a new federal law restricting benefits to those whose alcohol use contributed to their condition. Coulbourne was a natural suspect given his record, but his doctors repeatedly insisted that his condition was not related to the alcoholism. A judge finally agreed with Coulbourne and his doctors in 2006, but Coulbourne had already passed.

We Have a Problem Houst- I Mean DC

Over the last year it has taken an average of 491 days to process social security benefits claims nationwide. That’s more than a year - almost two years, in fact. Can you imagine waiting nearly two years to pay rent? To eat? To pay bills? For too many Americans, this is an all too familiar reality - 722,000 Americans, to be exact. That is how many people are currently waiting for hearings with administrative law judges as of the end of September.

Delaware seems to have this case load thing under control - their processing time is more than 100 days shorter than national average. However, they also have the highest decline rate, and some of the most desperate cases.

Lenay Harrison has struggled with obesity, hypertension, asthma, carpal tunnel syndrome, immobility, sleep apnea, and tendinitis since three football-size tumors were removed from her stomach back in 1993. She used to weigh around 100 pounds - but now she lugs that around in the oxygen tank alone, which is tethered to her at all times.

Myrna Gonzalez only just recently won a 6 year battle with social security disability. She now walks with a cane after moving furniture between classrooms due to knotted shoulder muscles, osteoporosis, headaches, and slipped discs. Edna Jopson was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2001, and she still awaits the results of her third appeal.

There seems to be a never-ending stream of these stories coming from Delaware - and the Social Security Administration will not release status updates on the 1,300 judges with Unfair Treatment Complaints, even with the Freedom of Information Act backing up the request. The SSA claims it would violate the judges’ privacy.

The price of efficiency seems to be human lives - and the path of this efficiency is littered with mistakes. In many of the claimants cases which were eventually granted SSDI benefits, it was found that a judge made a grievous mistake - such as selective reading, playing favorites with Social Security-hired doctors instead of the doctors which have been treating the clients for years, and even deciding that if the claimant can sit through an hour-long hearing, they must be lying about their pain.

Tags: Administrative Law, Delaware, ssdi
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