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I recently saw on the evening news a report that those who apply for Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income may wait up to three years before receiving their benefits. The Social Security Administration runs both programs. From my experience working with people with psychiatric disabilities, I know that many applicants are forced to hire specialized legal counsel to obtain benefits. In addition, the very symptoms which require government assistance can make it difficult for the person to apply for such assistance.

I believe that this is an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) issue and the Federal government is responsible for creating reasonable accommodations for those with emotional and cognitive disabilities. I will outline some possible accommodations:

People must be able to receive General Assistance ("welfare") in the amount of their proposed claim while they are waiting;
People should have an advocate assigned to them by the Social Security Administration in order to help them with any issues that come up in this process; a lawyer is costly and unnecessary;
The time to process these claims should be reduced so that by 2003 the average claim processing time would be 1 ½ years, by 2004; one year, by 2005; 6 months, by 2006; 3 months, 2007; 1 month by 2008; and same day processing by 2009;
If people are going back to work, please do not add to their anxiety with the threat of losing their benefits. They are under enough stress just getting back into the job market. They need a few years of steady employment before their benefits should be discontinued; and
Their income should be a living wage with an expectation that the person will return to work in a reasonable time.