Most individuals in American think that if something happens to them, such as an illness, an injury, or a disability that affects their ability to work, they will be taken care of through disability benefits, obtained from the social security administration. And unless you have experience with the federal disability system, you may think that it is all a matter of simply filling out the proper forms and claiming your due benefits. However, the truth is that the system is failing many people.

As the backlog of social security disability and SSI disability claims piles up around the country, in every city and every state, many people are waiting years to have their case hearings to receive rulings on their applications for benefits.

Waiting is now an indelible part of the process, and many applicants are waiting a very long time. While the disabled wait to get their disability benefits, many times their lives fall apart. Many have to exhaust their hard-won savings, file bankruptcy and many even lose their homes. Many that are injured and ill become sicker while waiting, unable to pay for medicines they need and medical care that is detrimental to their health and survival.

While the Social Security administration acknowledges the problem of extraordinary wait times to receive disability claim decisions and to have disability hearings scheduled, budget inadequacies have made the problem worse, giving the agency less staff and therefore less power to get the backlog problem taken care of. And while there have been years of budget shortfalls, there has also been an increase in claims. In Florida alone, there are nearly 38,000 unresolved disability cases.

This number of unresolved cases is nearly 750,000 (yes, three quarters of a million) in the entire country and the best that is hoped for is to cut the number of people waiting to 430,000 by 2013. Over the last two years, the agency has at least been able to resolve some cases that are over 900 days old (in other words, cases that are still pending thirty months after a social security disability claim has been filed at a social security office).

Instead of receiving social security disability benefits or receiving a date for a hearing, it is more likely that disability applicants wait for a variety of things before they see any help, or hope of help on the horiozon. It is extremely typical that they are denied twice and have to appeal before they can again wait for a hearing before a judge. Once they have this hearing it is quite likely that the judge will reverse their denial--nearly two thirds of denials are reversed by judges--yet this does not help much when those who are disabled are waiting patiently while losing homes, becoming more ill, not receiving treatment they need and have no money coming in.

The government is said to be trying to remedy the failing system by hiring more administrative judges, holding hearings by videoconference, testing new programs that can help approve very cut and dry cases, and switching to electronic records.

Hopefully these new measures will help cut backlogs and make sure that those who are injured and sick are taken care of during their time of need.