Disability claims in the civilian labor force among workers aged 16 or older have soared 33 percent since January 2020, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.
Claims Backlog Grows
The increases have aggravated the existing backlog of Social Security Administration (SSA) disability claims. According to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, applicants now wait 220 days for an initial decision and 213 for an initial appeal. The SSA’s standard is a 58-day wait for first claims, a standard that has not been met in 40 years, according to the Committee.
“Worse yet, the SSA is exacerbating the problem by spending more than $100 million on outreach efforts to increase initial disability claims instead of prioritizing clearing the existing backlog,” states a Committee news release.
At a Social Security Subcommittee hearing on October 29, committee members grilled administrators about the use of outdated occupational data to determine if a disability claimant can work, and how SSA still relies on snail mail and fax machines.
Mark Warshawsky, a former Social Security Deputy Commissioner testified that the agency was ready to launch massive and expensive processing reforms at the end of 2020 but those were put on hold by the Biden administration.
“My very rough estimate is that it cost $100 million in terms of people-time to do that, in addition to the expenditure of $300 million for the data,” said Warshawsky. “And it stopped. It’s sort of inexplicable. …It would definitely speed things up because it would be automated. And it would be relying on current data.”
Labor Force Crisis
The increase in disability claims and reports of post-pandemic excess deaths among young people have raised questions about the impact on the workforce. “These shocking developments are surely contributing to ongoing labor shortages,” wrote Pierre Kory, M.D., and Mary Beth Pfeiffer in Newsweek on October 26.
“People are leaving work at younger ages, in greater numbers, and from diseases seen mostly in later life,” wrote Kory and Pfeiffer. “We need an unbiased, nonpartisan investigation into this troubling trend. Record-high rates of incapacitation threaten our economy and signal continuing waves of early death.”
-Staff reports