From the Orange County Register:
...Under Social Security, about 150 million workers are insured not only for old age benefits, but in the event they suffer a serious injury or illness that prevents them from working before retirement age. Currently, 8.7 million disabled workers get an average of $1,172 a month — barely enough to live on.
But since 2010, Congress has squeezed the Social Security Administration’s operating budget, resulting in an 11 percent cut when accounting for inflation. The effect: staff reductions, a quintupling of hold times for telephone assistance, and a backlog in claims processing that has reached an all-time high.
The agency has closed 65 of its field offices since 2010, including in Corona, Redlands and Barstow. Overall, California field staff is down 14 percent.
For claimants in the pipeline, the delays are “devastating,” Lisa Ekman, an official with the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, a coalition of some 100 nonprofits, told a Congressional hearing in September. “Some become homeless. Some declare bankruptcy. And some die.”
Social Security officials counted 10,002 people who died in FY 2017 while waiting for a hearing. Many more, without income, grew sicker. ...
