Hannah Soyer
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A recent investigation conducted by the Des Moines Register found that there was a significant backlog in Social Security disability cases overseen by Administrative Judge Tela Gatewood in Iowa. One case was so delayed that the client died before her benefits were approved. On average, cases overseen by Gatewood take two years to be decided.

Social Security benefits come on a monthly basis and provide supplemental income for those with disabilities to cover health-care costs. Waiting 24 months for a decision — going 24 months without such benefits — could be incredibly detrimental. I receive monthly Social Security benefits because of my disability, and this extra money goes to pay for the hours of help I need not already covered by the government. Unfortunately, the case of Gatewood is just one example of how inefficient and slow moving the health-care system is.

About a week ago, I received an email that my funding for certain help for September was pending, because one agency (that processes the paychecks) had not heard back from the other agencies that provide and approve the funding. This email was sent to me at the end of September, and stated that the agency would not be able to process the paycheck for my helpers until my funding was approved.

You can’t have people who work for you not get paid, and so this threw me into a panic of how my family was going to cover these expenses for those that assist me until the governmental agencies got the issues figured out. Fortunately for me, my mother has always been on top of my care and funding and isn’t afraid tell the people in charge of things like this to do their job. After getting in contact with different people at each of these agencies, she found out the reason the approval for my funding was delayed was because the people who needed to sign off on them had gone on vacation, and had not taken care of this before they left. Luckily, my mom was able to persuade the people who were not on vacation that this funding needed to be approved, and within a couple of days, things were back on track. However, my helpers received their paychecks one week late because of the delay.

Even though the issue was resolved, this doesn’t seem right to me. And I’m one of the lucky ones whose family has always gone to bat for me and been on top of things. If my mom didn’t know what she was doing, or if it was just me trying to deal with this funding issue, who knows how successful I would have been.

For many other people with disabilities, this is the horrific norm. The fate of many awaiting the decision of Gatewood is just an example of this. The investigation found that a number of these people awaiting decisions are now homeless or have lost their eligibility because Gatewood did not issue a renewal of the benefits before deadlines expired.

Issues such as these — issues that show just how difficult it is for people with disabilities to acquire the funding and help they need — are often glossed over or seen as being the responsibility of those who need the help. Hopefully, the case of Gatewood will be handled differently.