I feel a strong inspiration to write an absurdist play that I’ll call Waiting (and Waiting and Waiting) for Social Security Disability. It will feature two protagonists who have a lot in common.
The median wait time reached a high of 839 days in 2015, according to the report, but then the Social Security Administration “made substantial progress in reducing the wait” to a median of 506 days in 2019.
Both are disabled and have applied to receive monthly Social Security disability payments. But both have had their initial claim denied, so they’ve appealed. Now all they can do is wait for a hearing and final determination. And they wait and they wait and they wait for a year or more. And in the end, while still waiting, one of our protagonists goes bankrupt and the other one dies.
I know this sounds like wild, implausible fiction, but it’s all based on a true story. I read all about it in a recent report by the Government Accounting Office entitled “Social Security Disability: Information on Wait Times, Bankruptcies, and Deaths among Applicants Who Appealed Benefit Denials.”
The report stated that between 2008 and 2019, about nine million people who applied for Social Security Disability support were initially denied and filed an appeal. Most of them, the report said, waited a year or more for a decision to be made on their appeal.
The median wait time reached a high of 839 days in 2015, according to the report, but then the Social Security Administration “made substantial progress in reducing the wait” to a median of 506 days in 2019.
Didn’t I tell you this was an absurdist play? In what other kind of universe could reducing the time someone has to wait for a monumental life decision down to still nearly a year and a half be heralded as substantial progress?
The GAO also determined that of those who appealed between 2014 and 2019, about 48,000 filed for bankruptcy while awaiting a final decision. That’s about 1.3 percent of those who appealed, which may not sound like a lot unless you’re among that 1.3 percent.
And of those who appealed between 2008 and 2019, 109,725 or 1.2 percent, died while stuck in appeal decision limbo.
What will the protagonists in my play do while they wait? Well, that’s a good question.
I could have them kill off a good many hours getting their appeal paperwork together and/or waiting on the phone on hold with the Social Security Administration. Whatever they do for entertainment will have to be free. So they’ll probably watch a lot of daytime television, where they’ll see many commercials for bankruptcy lawyers. And they’ll make frequent trips to the food pantry.
That’s why I’m so excited to adapt this GAO report for the stage. Who knew that waiting could be such a harrowing journey?