In her testimony, Ms. Hathaway, underscored the human toll created by the long delays when people apply to Social Security Administration (SSA) for disability benefits. If someone is denied at the first level, the average waiting time for an appeal is about 500 days. In some offices it is much worse. Ms. Hathaway and other witnesses said the main reason for the delays is that, until very recently, SSA has been persistently under-funded for many years.

She thanked Congress for new money for SSA in the economic stimulus bill and for the current fiscal year and urged Congress to support the President’s budget for SSA for this coming year.

Ms. Hathaway represented the Social Security Task Force of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), a coalition of over 100 national disability groups, at the March 24th joint hearing of the Social Security and the Income Security and Family Support Subcommittees.

She met with Congressman Joe Crowley (D-Queens NY) before testifying before Congress and her testimony listed CCD’s recommendations to solve SSA’s disability backlog. See Hathaway’s full testimony at See Hathaway’s full testimony at www.unitedspinal.org/pdf/ccd testimony.pdf