The Social Security Administration has a record backlog of 745,000 pending disability appeals, with the wait for a hearing averaging 17 months -- also a record, USA Today reports (Wolf [1], USA Today, 7/30). Of the 2.5 million U.S. residents who file disability claims annually, close to two in three initially are denied benefits. More than 60% of people with denied claims who appeal the initial decision eventually are granted benefits.

Claimants and SSA officials maintain that the "lengthy waits lead to bankruptcies and foreclosures, drinking and drugs, depression and divorce, even suicide," according to USA Today. Social Security appeals will increase by about 90,000 annually over the next five years, likely resulting in a backlog of one million cases by 2010, according to SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue (Wolf [2], USA Today, 7/30).

Astrue said he is attempting to reduce the wait times but noted that Congress over the past six years has provided about $1 billion less in SSA funding than what President Bush has sought. Astrue is seeking to make "compassionate" early decisions and hold more hearings electronically to limit geographic disparities. However, Astrue said, "I can't look the Congress in the eye right now and say we're doing our job as well as we can do it" (Wolf [1], USA Today, 7/30).