WASHINGTON - Nearly every weekday, the members of Maine's Congressional Delegation say they are asked by a constituent from back home for help with their application for Social Security disability payments.
To qualify, a person has to be unable to work, but what has some lawmakers upset is how long takes for the federal government to determine whether a person is eligible.
For many seeking Social Security disability benefits, the case is clear and payments are granted by the Social Security Administration. But in more complicated cases, when an appeal is involved, the average wait to get a hearing is 460 days.
"The bottom line is that is simply outrageous for an individual who has earned his or her Social Security disability benefits and is unable to work to have to wait for well over a year to get an answer," says Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who says part of the problem is that there are not enough administrative law judges to hear all of the appeals in a timely manner.
And some judges, she says, take much longer to decide a case than others.
Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King agrees that the efficiency of the system needs review, and that includes a look at staffing.
"The average administrative law judge across the country has something like 600 cases, 550 something cases," he says. "That's an awful lot of paperwork and decision making. So we have got to adequately staff the agency in order to get the work done."
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree says there is also a problem on the demand side. The 1st District Democrat says that Social Security trust funds are running out of money as the baby boomer generation grows older and retires. And she says more of them are becoming disabled as well.
Pingree says many Republicans in the House are pushing for cuts in benefit levels to solve the financial problems of the system, but she rejects that approach.
"They won't put money back into the fund unless we have benefit cuts, so that's a big battle," she says. "I don't think most of us want to see benefit cuts for people who are counting on retirement or disability benefits and my solution to that is raise the cap."
The cap Pingree is referring to is the maximum $119,000 a year in wages that an individual can be taxed to fund Social Security. She says the more you make, the more you should pay into the Social Security system, and believes that there should be no cap on taxable income.
Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin says he supports improving the system to reduce backlogs and to get benefits to those who need them. He also supports restricting unemployment benefits for those seeking disability coverage under Social Security.
"I co-sponsored a bill that doesn't allow this double dipping that just doesn't make sense to me," he says. "That being said, those who really need these benefits who are disabled we need to get off the dime and make sure we push as fast as we can to address those claims."
There are several bills in both the House and Senate to address some of these problems, including proposals to change the terms of administrative law judges from lifetime appointments to fixed terms so their performance can be reviewed.
