http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070730/1a_lede30.art.htm
Quotes from the article:
The Social Security Administration faces a record — and rapidly growing
— backlog of appeals by people who claim they are too disabled to work.
Through June, it had just over 745,000 cases pending, and the wait for a
hearing averaged 17 months, also a record. Claimants in some parts of
the country must wait up to 31 months, according to the agency.
....
Congress has provided nearly $1 billion less than President Bush sought
over the past six years. Field offices have lost more than 2,300 workers
in less than two years, leaving the agency with its lowest staffing
level since the early 1970s.
"We don't have enough staff members to answer the phones," says Richard
Warsinskey, president of the National Council of Social Security
Management Associations, which represents 3,500 field office managers.
District offices handle 110 million calls and visitors a year. As the
baby boom ages, he foresees "almost a tsunami of additional people
coming on to the rolls."
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