Lisa Eckman, a disability advocate and the co-chair of the Social Security Task Force for the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), testified before the U.S. House Social Security Subcommittee earlier this month about how Social Security processes claims and appeals, but it was what she said about unprocessed appeals that received the most attention.
In her testimony before the committee, Eckman informed that more than 61,000 Social Security disability appeals were not processed after Social Security updated its electronic appeals system in March of 2015. The new system allowed for appeals to be processed only if applicants completed lengthy forms, but this was not required by Social Security’s regulations. After the error was discovered by CCD and other advocacy groups, Social Security agreed the appeals should’ve been processed and began processing about 28,000 of these appeals.
“Although we appreciate SSA’s efforts, we remain concerned that the appeals system still requires more information than the regulations require and that SSA has no plans to change this. The agency’s position is that because the paper process complies with regulations, it is acceptable to have an electronic process that violates them. This faulty reasoning deprives tens of thousands of claimants of due process,” Eckman testified.
Eckman’s entire testimony was not about unprocessed appeals, she also informed how important disability benefits are in providing modest income to help support people with disabilities and testified about how Social Security’s new rules will hamper representatives who assist people with disability claims.
“When the rules SSA creates prevent a person who meets the statutory definition of disability from being found eligible, she might have trouble finding someone to represent her,” Eckman said. Eckman was one of six people to testify at the hearing, other testimony came from Social Security employees and advocates.
