5. Wisconsin
The situation in Wisconsin doesn’t beg to differ from others mentioned in the previous pages. Older people rely on Social Security for benefits, but also the non-beneficiaries need to get replacement Social Security cards and other services.
Typically, the average processing time for a disability claim has been fairly consistent in recent years, ranging from three to four months, but it has been rising and reached more than six months this year in April. Almost 1 million applicants are waiting for a decision on their disability benefit.
Unfortunately, this issue will last for an undetermined period of time.
Takeaway:
At the beginning of 2022, the SSA was at its lowest level of staffing since 1997. And the expectations regarding losing a lot of people from the staff worried a lot of employees. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the situation even more because a lot of offices were closed and a lot of people had to work remotely.
Staffing shortages and reduced budgets lead to a lot of delays in processing Social Security disability claims.
According to Grace Kim, the deputy commissioner for operations at the Social Security Administration, increasing the amount of funding for the agency can help replace and train new staff and actually invest in good quality technology. This will also help reduce the amount of paper wasted on thousands of documents.
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