As project manager for the Disabled Homeless Project at Catholic Social Services of Baldwin County, I see the backlog of Social Security Disability cases first hand.  The HUD grant I administer targets those who are backlogged in this system.  These people are being told by the local SSA office they will get a determination within 90 days.  Most of them believe they will get a check following those 90 days.  They are devastated when they learn most cases are denied within 90 days, and then they must wait 18 months before they are scheduled for a hearing, then another 60 to 90 days before they get a check.  My question is; what is the office of Determination doing?  Why are these cases being denied by Determination just to be approved later by the ALJ?   Has anyone looked at the cases denied at the Determination level and compared them to the cases approved at the ALJ level?   Now I am being told that a new level of bureaucracy is being created with an “assumptive approval” being allowed by folks not employed by the Office of Determination and Appeals.   How can people who are not trained to do this job do a better job than the folks at Determination?  It is a classic case of waste on the part of the United States Government!  My tax dollars must be better spent.   Fix the system we have.  Do not create more levels of bureaucracy to use resources that could be helping the folks that really need the help, the disabled folks! 

Yours in service to God and our country,

Connie Plemmons