New Social Security Procedures will speed up disability claims

ABC News reports on New Regulations to speed up disability reviews. New regulations from the Social Security Adminstration could allow clearly disabled individuals to gain approval of their disability claims within 20 days, effective Spring 2006. Roughly 2 million people who seek disability benefits each year can expect to spend less time working through the process for appealing decisions when benefits are denied.The proposed regulations note that "Since the beginning of the disability programs, the percentage of claims involving allegations of mental impairments has increased dramatically, particularly in the SSI program." More than 11 million people, including some family members of disabled workers, receive benefits. New rules elimiante the second state level reconsideration review and replace it with a federal panel reivew. State review rarely overturns a decision and is really a rubber stamp denial. The Administration plans to publish proposed regulations for public comment on Wednesday and issue final regulations by the end of the year. The administration expects it will take a couple years to implement the new system throughout the country.