Charlie Averill brings us a report that does not surprise me.
When it comes to processing and holding hearings on the denied claims of individuals for disability benefits, Indianapolis ranks dead last. And offices responsible for handling denied claims for individuals in Northwest Indiana rank among the most backlogged in the nation.
On average, it takes the Indianapolis office, handling cases south of Pulaski County, 896 days to process a disability claim. That’s about 2.5 years. A fair number of my collection cases involve people with unpaid medical bills who have applied for disability. Typically, in the absence of any alternate resources, I’ll put these cases on a long leash. Even so, these folks will usually have to come to court 2 or 3 times as I check up on them (making sure nothing has changed, they haven’t moved, etc.) before their disability case gets resolved.
I’m all for reviewing these claims — there are plenty of folks who apply who at least appear able bodied to me — but this looks like one of those justice delayed is justice denied type deals.
It’s who you know as to how fast your claim can be processed and who you have sign the paper work. There are some people I know that only had to file their claim and it was approved. It makes me mad to think there are people that really deserve disability and then those people that don’t are the ones with the least problems getting it. Amazing.
A good friend of mine finally got her disability claim approved. She struggled with it – if you saw her for a half hour or so, you’d think she was absolutely fine. That’s because she’s too proud to show the pain… but she fears that people will look at her and see her as a fraud.
That’s why I’m not too quick to judge. I’m sure some of the seemingly able bodied people filing for disability are, in fact, able bodied. But I don’t know which.