Date: 1982-12-03
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

A majority of individuals who are being forced to undergo this painful process are truly disabled. Almost twothirds of those who appeal have their benefits restored. This legislation will give the Congress time to study the disability review process. More legislation may be needed to insure that $ocial Security Administration officials do not continue a pattern of cruel benefit terminations in an effort to meet overzealous cost savings goals. Mr. President. all social security beneficiaries have worked and paid into the disability trust fund In the same fashion they have paid into the retirement fund. The social security commitment Is the same in epch case. These people have earned and been promised the right to modest economic assistance In the event they become disabled. They should be secure in this right. With the Government rolling back on this commitment to disabled Americans. It further undermines confidence in the social security system and leads to distrust of Government by the American public. I hope passage of todays legislation is still another step toward instilling and restoring confidence. Without a doubt. we will be taking others in the not too distant future. I commend Senators LEVIN. METZENBAUM. DOLE. and CoREN for the spirit in which this bipartisan compromise legislation was reached. (ExHIBIT 1) [From Outlook. Aug. 29. 19821 DisAsanrryQUESTION oF BENEFIT ELiGiBiLrrY LEAVES THOUSANDS IN LIMBO (By Beth Spence) * Two months after her disability Social Security benefits were cut off. Anna Carter went back to the work she knew bestwaitressing. She lasted less than three days before she collapsed and had to be carried out of the restaurant by her disabled husband. John. That was in May. Today the 51yearold Mrs. Carter is in a wheelchair with both her legs in kneehigh casts. She has had one operation on her feet and faces further surgery. but she already has been told she probably will never again walk unaided. "I went back to work because I was thinking we couldnt make it on what John gets a month on his disability." said Mrs. Carter. a serenelooking woman with a hint of Virginia in her Monroe County speech. "We were have a hard enough time with both our checks." Mrs. Carters case is not unique. Across the country. thousands of disabled people have been cut from the Social Security rolls during the past year and a half. Between May 1. 1981. and May 28. 1982. state disability determination boards terminated benefits for 106.862 personsor more than 44.4 percent of the cases reviewed. In West Virginia. 1.509 people lost their benefits. A majority of the casesSocial Security officials say 55 percenteventually are won on appeal. but lawyers representing disabled clients are frustrated with the length of time it is taking to process the appeals. They also say tremendous pressure to deny claims is being placed on examiners who make the determinations and on administrative law judges who hear the ap-. peals. Joseph D. Coffman. manager of the Charleston Social Security office. said the reason for the increased number of reevaluations is 1979 congressional action requiring review of all claims at least once every three years to make sure recipients still qualify for benefits. Thomas II. Zerbe. managing attorney for the West Virginia Legal Services Plan in Lewisburg. argues that the review is being used as an excuse to terminate benefits for recipients whose conditions have not improved. "Sometimes this results in a disabled Indi. vidual being forced to go against his doctors advice and return to work while his case is pending." Zerbe said. "The consequences can be tragic." Anna Carter can attest to that. A sickly child. Mrs. Carter can remember that her father had. to carry her from room to room when at 9 she developed a condition doctors diagnosed as an inflammation of the bones in her legs. Through the years. the infection has recurred in different parts of her body. Mrs. Carter says the initial attack left her legs so weak that even as an adult her ankles turn if she steps on something as small as a matchstick. At 16 she quit 4chool to get married and she and her husband moved to Virginia. By the time she was 19. she was divorced. on her own. and had a child to support. She took a job waiting tables. but was soon forced to take a second job at a ribbon factory to make ends meet. For six years. she worked 16 hours a dayan 8hour shift at the restaurant. followed by an 8hour shift at the factory. When the ribbon factory closed. she worked for three years at a bookbinding factory. standing on her feet 8 hours a day. During that time her health began to deteriorate. Between 1949 and 1980 Mrs. Carter had 23 operations. including the removal of 16 inches of her intestines. part of her stomach. her gall bladder. a disc from her back and a large gland from her neck. In addition. she was diagnosed as having angina. for which she takes nitroglycerine. and an aneurysm in her temple. Mrs. Carter qualified for Social Security disability benefits in 1973. after she had to quit working at the small grocery store she and Carter. her second husband. bought after they were married in 1967. One of her more severe health problems is dumping syndrome. a condition in which food passes rapidly through the body. She developed the problem after 75 percent of her stomach was removed in 1963. "When I eat. it goes right through me." she explains. "I got to where I only weighed 98 pounds and the doctor told me to eat six times a day and lie down for an hour after I eat" By following her doctors instructions. Mrs. Carter had managed to spend more. than a year off the operating table when she was told by Social Security officials to go for an examination early in 1981. "The doctor told me to move my neck and hands. which I did. and touch my toes. which I couldnt do. and that was the examination." she explained. In February. examiners determined that Mrs. Carter again could work in a store. and she was told that her checks would be cut off in March and her Medicare benefits would end in April. "Iknew I had to go to work." she said. "I thought I was lucky to find the Job I did." The first day. her heels bothered her. but she thought they would be all right. that she just had sore feet because she wasnt used to standing all day. "For the three days I worked I never ate a mouthful of food because I knew the owner would let me go if I had to keep going to the bathroom." Mrs. Carter explained. The second day her feet were worse. "The third day I Just couldnt put weight on my heels. John had to come and get me and carry me out. If he couldnt have helped me. I would have had to crawL" Her doctor said the infection. which has spread through her body since childhood. had been touched off again and she should not bear weight on her feet. "But you know how it is. sometimes you have to get around." she said. "I let the dog out and she was in heat. A male dog came around and I just forgot about my feet. I took two steps toward the dog and I must have hit the back of my heel on the doorsill. The tendons snapped in both my heels." Mrs. Carter had to have the tendons wired back to the bones in her ankles. Complications developed in her right leg. which doctors have told her will require further surgery. and a large sore has appeared on her ankle. "I asked if I would walk and the doctor said he was afraid Id never walk like I did." she said. As Mrs. Carters medical bills mount and her appeal drags on. she and her husband are trying to sell their twostory farmhouse just outside Alderson in Monroe County. They plan to move to Virginia and care for Carters aging mother in exchange for food and shelter. "We had planned on this for our retirement home." said Carter. who has had a heart attack and triple bypass surgery. "Weve been more contented here than anywhere we ever lived. But we just cant make it... Social Security officials are convinced that situations like Mrs. Carters are rare. "We are concerned that some people have been taken off the rolls who are indeed disabled. although we believe that number is small." said John Trollinger. deputy press officer for the Social Security Administration in Baltimore. Trollinger said the agency has found an error rate of only 3 percent in monitoring state decisions. In West Virginia. Social Security disability claims are reviewed by the Disability Determination Section of the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. A.J. Allen. administrator of the DDS. said reviews show that the conditions of a number of individuals have improved. making them no longer eligible for benefits. Others werent disabled in the first place. he said. Allen said he believes "far too many claims" denied by examiners are being reversed by administrative law judges. Asked if the Reagan administration has set a national goal of terminating 25 percent of the cases reviewed. Allen said bruskly. "No. But well probably terminate more than that." Trollinger cited a number of reasons for the high number of reversals by administrative law judges. "Sometimes the condition may have worsened." he said. "Sometimes medical evidence can be presented that wasnt available when the decision was made to terminate benefits. And when the administrative law Judge hears the case. he or she has the ability to look at the person. Sometimes you can tell a lot more when you see someone." For Janet Friedman. the paralegal in Lewisburg who is handling Mrs. Carters appeal. the reversals arent happening quickly or often enough. "I feel that attitudes are changing." Ms. Friedman said: "Im just not winning the cases I used to win. One examiner as much as said to me that he wanted to decide the case in favor of the client. but he was afraid it would be kicked back to him. "Its a waste of time. energy and money." she said. "They hired more people in DDS when they had to start making the decisions. they get rooms at Holiday Inns. hearing assistants are paid. Wheres the saving? It seems like the money is being redirected instead of going to recipients." A case that was decided quickly. according to Ms. Friedman. involved a client whose benefits were cut off in March. His hearing was Aug. 11 and the decision to restore his benefits made on Aug. 19. But that was "unusually fast." according to Zerbe. More typical is the case of a client who was terminated in March 1981. had a hearing in November and didnt get a decision until the following June. "So many of these people are being asked to do without benefits for more than a year and. because our funds have been cut. were having to turn away clients." Zerbe said. "Theres not only an injustice here. but peoples ability to respond legally is being cut off." Zerbe said examiners and administrative judges have admitted privately they are under a lot of pressure to get people off the disability rolls. He said decisions in favor of the clientsboth by DDS officials and administrative law judgesare being carefully scrutinized. while decisions against clients are not being monitored. Trollinger said his statistics show more reviews of cases decided against clients. "We have reviewed twice as many reviews that terminated benefits as those that allowed benefits." he said. Social Security "is such a political football and no one wants to cut old age and survivors off." according to Zerbe. "This seems to be a way that required no congressional action and no one had to take the heat." No one. that is. except people like Anna and John Carter. who cant hide their bitterness toward the Reagan administration. Wiping tears from her eyes. Mrs. Carter said. "When I woke up after that last surgery. if President Reagan had been standing at the foot of my bed. I would have told him what I thought. Just think. all of this for 2/ days work." "This is all on account of Reagan." Carter said. "Because of him. what walking shell be doing will be on crutches."