Millions await disability benefits due to backlog

An enormous backlog of disability claims have left millions waiting for their benefits leading to “splintered families, foreclosed homes and suicides,” reports Clark Kauffman of The Des Moines Register. “During the past year, the number of people waiting to have their claims processed has increased more than 30 percent, from 556,000 to more than 736,000…Nationally, applicants for benefits are waiting an average of 505 days to bring their cases before a Social Security judge for a hearing.”