The surrogate
It begins with a woman who yearns for a baby and another who is willing and able to give her one. You can imagine the motives of the prospective parents. But what about the woman willing to carry a baby, give birth and then walk away?
Friday Night Rewind It doesn't matter which team you cheer for. We've got video previews of every high school football program in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando County.
The head of the Social Security Administration has announced new steps to reduce the backlog of disability claims cases in the Tampa Bay area.
The roughly 5,000 hearing requests now pending at the Tampa office, and all new hearing requests from outside the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, will be sent to the Fort Lauderdale office. The changes are set to go into effect on Oct. 1.
The South Florida office will serve some areas formerly handled by Tampa but are closer to Fort Lauderdale. In-person and video hearings will continue to be offered at the agency's Fort Myers and West Palm Beach remote sites.
Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue outlined the new procedures in a letter to Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat who introduced a bill on July 14 to address the national backlog of disability claims.
The bill would require that a hearing be held within 60 and 75 days from the date of the request, and that a final verdict be given no more than 15 days after a hearing. Rep. C.W. Bill Young is among the co-sponsors.
"These are positive first steps,'' Castor said.
"The long-term solution is to adequately fund the Social Security Administration so they can process the claims on a timely basis,'' she said.
Advocates for the disabled blame the backlog primarily on inadequate funding, a lack of administrative law judges to hear cases and a shortage of support staffers. Increased funding last year made it possible for the Tampa hearing office to increase its number of judges from 16 to 17, but the person hired for the job decided not to take it. Astrue said his agency hopes to fill the vacancy in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
Tampa has one of the worst backlogs in the country.
In his Aug. 29 letter to Castor, Astrue said progress is being made toward reducing Tampa's backlog.
"In only one year, we have reduced the overall number of pending hearing requests by nearly 1,000 cases, from 15,577 in July 2007 to 14,638 in July 2008,'' he said.
In October, he said, the Tampa office had 5,103 cases pending for over 900 days. At the end of July, only 236 remained.
Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at wmoore@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2283.
[Last modified: Sep 18, 2008 09:03 PM]
Comments on this article
by Marylou
Sep 18, 2008 9:03 PM
It takes three years to receive the money. Plus, SSD reports it to the IRS as earned income for one year. This causes the sick person to pay taxes at a higher rate, when they are inundated with medical expenses. Many people cannot afford medications.
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