California, New York, Florida Lead Top 10 States with Most Residents Stuck In Disability Insurance Backlog

BELLEVILLE, Ill., Jan. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- California, New York and Florida top the list of states with the most residents waiting in the massive Social Security disability backlog, according to Allsup, which updated its state ranking of claimants in the backlog. Allsup is the nation's premier disability representation company and has helped more than 275,000 people to receive their Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits.

Rounding out the top 10 states with the most people stuck in the SSDI hearing backlog are Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama. The ranking is based on the latest data provided by the Social Security Administration (SSA) through Dec. 30, 2016. The SSA reports the number of claimants waiting for a disability hearing now tops 1.1 million people with severe disabilities. Find the state-by-state ranking on Allsup.com: https://www.allsup.com/media/files/stateby-state-backlog-2017.pdf

"It's not surprising that states with higher populations have the most claimants in the disability hearing backlog," said Mike Stein, assistant vice president of claims, Allsup. "What may surprise people is that the wait times can be just as long in states with tens of thousands of claimants as just a few thousand claimants."

The SSA now has 58 hearing offices with waits over 600 days, which is a 57 percent increase from 37 offices in September. In comparison, only 3 hearing offices had waits over 600 days at fiscal year-end 2015. There are 168 offices reporting wait times. Social Security recently received funding from Congress to help address the hearing backlog.

Learn Quickly About Your SSDI Eligibility
People who must stop work due to an illness or injury have important choices when considering their disability insurance application, according to Allsup. "You may be able to avoid a hearing altogether if you can get your disability insurance on your first attempt—your SSDI application," Stein said.

Allsup offers an online tool empower by Allsup® to help people with their Social Security disability application. Allsup has a 50 percent success rate at the application level, compared to the national average of 33 percent.

By using empower by Allsup, people with disabilities can learn their likelihood of being eligible for SSDI benefits in about 15 minutes online. They also can begin their online application with Allsup as their representative and benefit from more than 33 years of SSDI expertise, user-friendly videos, and customer service and support. They also can receive assistance with return-to-work efforts, if they eventually medically recover. 

To qualify for SSDI benefits, individuals must have paid FICA payroll taxes, generally worked five of the past 10 years, and have a severe work-disrupting illness or injury that is expected to last at least a year, or is terminal. Applicants also must be under full retirement age (65-67).

Find more information about SSDI eligibility and filing an SSDI application on Allsup.com.

ABOUT ALLSUP
Allsup and its subsidiaries provide nationwide Social Security disability, veterans disability appeal, return to work, exchange plan and Medicare services for individuals, their employers and insurance carriers. Allsup professionals deliver specialized services supporting people with disabilities and seniors so they may lead lives that are as financially secure and as healthy as possible. Founded in 1984, the company is based in Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis. Visit Allsup.com for more information and @Allsup. 

Contact:
Rebecca Ray(800) 854-1418, ext. 65065
[email protected]

or

Tai Prohaska(800) 854-1418, ext. 68573
[email protected]

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SOURCE ALLSUP