With the average waiting time to get a hearing before an administrative law judge taking well over a year, Congress is always considering ways to reduce Social Security’s disability backlog. Claimants are often required or at least encouraged by their long-term disability insurance companies to file for Social Security Disability benefits. But not all such claims are meritorious. Social Security has clear rules on what types of claims qualify. United States Senator Chuck Grassley said his survey of private insurers has found that some are needlessly contributing to the Social Security disability backlog, and he urged the Social Security Administration to recommit itself to preventing disability benefit application fraud and to work with the Inspector General to penalize and prosecute those filing false disability claims. Please read his entire press release.
We commend the work of Senator Grassley in his effort to reduce or eliminate groundless claims. Every year we work hard to bring only meritorious claims to hearing. All lawyers working in this area of law are made aware daily of just how dire the needs are of those we represent. It is unethical, we believe, for anyone to delay an already overburdened system with a disability claim that is not rooted in a good faith belief in the merits of the case.
