DELTONA, Fla. – A News 6 investigation has uncovered a significant customer service crisis within the Social Security Administration, impacting those who need assistance the most.
Greg and Heather Woods said they did everything right. They put money into their retirement and built up a nest egg, but then came their son’s life-changing diagnosis.
Ben, 18, has two rare medical conditions. He has been diagnosed with Jordan’s Syndrome, a rare neuro-developmental disorder along with another rare type of autoimmune disease. Both, his parents said, have left him disabled.
“I mean, it’s pretty much an every day, 24-hour-a-day job,” Greg said. ”It’s worth it though. I mean, he’s at home.”
Greg is a firefighter in Volusia County. Heather was a teacher but had to leave the workforce to help take care of Ben. The Woods’ applied for Social Security disability benefits last December.
“I would check on it, you know, and basically you would see like it’s at 30% and 35% and then, it all disappeared,” Greg told News 6. “I went over to Social Security in DeLand, and you know, to talk to them over there and basically was told, ‘Well sorry, it’s at the state level.‘”
The state told Greg that Ben’s application is in the file with all of their backlogged cases.
“I think the worst part is you call and the phone rings. One time I called the number they gave for the place over in Tampa and it just rang and rang and rang and nobody answered,” Greg said.
Social Security is a federal program, but it is up to each state to decide whether someone is eligible for it. In Florida, that decision is made by the Division of Disability Determination, which is under the Florida Department of Health.
News 6 investigated and found out Social Security processes about 7,600 disability applications per a month in Florida, but the workers are chipping away at a backlog that averages more than 70,000 cases just in Florida alone.
News 6 turned to the Social Security Administration for an explanation. A spokesperson emailed this statement:
Social Security has been chronically underfunded, and our staffing is continuing to decline, while the number of beneficiaries keeps growing. This has led to a customer service crisis, with historic backlogs and long wait times in our workloads. People are waiting far too long for decisions on disability claims.
Despite these immense challenges, we’ve made promising progress towards eliminating the disability backlogs. In mid-June, we saw our disability claims backlog peak with over 1.2 million claims pending. For 21 consecutive weeks we have managed to clear more cases than we’ve received, resulting in us driving down the disability backlogs by over 100,000 cases.
Patti Patterson, Regional Communications Director
According to the Social Security Administration, there are three steps in the initial disability claims process:
- Field office checks to see if a person meets basic non-medical requirements.
- State Disability Determination Services checks to see if that person’s medical condition meets the disability requirements.
- Field office approves or denies the claim and issues the decision.
Field Office processing times (Steps 1 and 3)
State DDS processing times (Step 2)
SSA steps to improve wait times:
Process initial disability claims within approximately seven months by the end of fiscal year 2025.
- Field offices should take a combined total of 19 days to check the non-medical requirements and then after DDS review, make a decision.
- DDS should complete its medical review within an average processing time of 180 days.
- Add 400 more disability examiners nationwide.
- Provide disability examiners with improved technology to gather and review medical evidence.
News 6 asked Rep. Cory Mills, who represents the Woods' district, if anything else is being done on the federal level to fix these issues. His office did not respond to our request.
News 6 found out there is a bill in Congress that could make the Social Security disability claims process easier. The bill, the Social Security Administration Processing Claims Improvement Act of 2024 was filed in May. It does not have any co-sponsors.
According to the legislation, a recent Social Security Administration Inspector General report found that nearly half of the 151,000,000 callers to field offices and the national 800-number went unanswered.
“If this was their child, what would they not do to help take care of their child?” Heather asked.
After News 6 reached out to State Rep. Webster Barnaby, his office called the Woods family and the Florida Department of Health. The next day, Heather said she got a call from Social Security and that agency is reviewing Ben’s application.
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