With May being ALS Awareness Month, Denise Jones, a Social Security Administration employee, wrote an editorial for The Daily Nonpareil which said those with the illness may be able to get quicker Social Security disability benefits. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive disease which attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord. She said ALS is one of Social Security’s “Compassionate Allowances.”
In an editorial written on political news website The Hill, Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, writes that the Social Security disability system is broken and needs to be fixed. He said within the next five years, the program will no longer be able to fully pay the 12 million people with disability qualifying benefits that currently benefit from receiving benefits.
While many Americans want to work, it is made impossible or nearly impossible by a litany of crippling disabilities. Business Week reports that the number of workers in the country receiving Social Security Disability payments jumped 22 percent from December 2007 to April of this year. There are currently 8.7 million people receiving Social Security disability payments.
While the Social Security Administration is still dealing with a massive backlog that seems to have no light at the end of the tunnel, they have also now instituted a new puzzling policy that will shield the identity of the judge until the day of the hearing. The Law Offices of Harold W. Conick and Associates believes this could put those with disability qualifying conditions at a disadvantage.
