S. Security office to open today in St. Pete

Manatee and Sarasota residents awaiting a hearing for Social Security Disability Insurance no longer have to travel to Tampa for a hearing before an administrative law judge.

That’s because a new hearing office is being dedicated today in downtown St. Petersburg.

The new office at 830 Central Ave., comes on the heels of a backlog of cases waiting to be heard. It is the sixth office of its kind in Florida.

It’s being opened to speed those cases up, said Paul Greene, a Sarasota-based spokesman for the Social Security Administration.

The first hearing at the new office is scheduled for early July, Greene said.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue, among other dignitaries, are scheduled to attend today’s 10 a.m. dedication.

The Social Security Disability Insurance program offers financial support to people who can no longer work because of a disability expected to last at least a year or result in death. Recipients must be younger than 65, making them ineligible for regular Social Security retirement checks.

The hearing level is the third step in an applicant’s process of receiving disability benefits. By the time they get in front of a judge, applicants have already had an initial submission and preliminary appeal denied.

Sarasota resident Thomas Presha on Thursday said the new office is much needed, and that he wished the office would have opened sooner, rather than later.

The 55-year-old former construction worker waited for more than two years before getting his hearing.

His May 17 hearing took place in a St. Petersburg satellite office, and he spoke to his judge in Atlanta through video conference.

After his two-year wait, he was overjoyed when he learned he had won his case.

“It was great, I’m thrilled,” Presha said Thursday.

Presha waited more than two years for chiropractic care for his searing back pain after a 2007 injury while working at Building Restoration, a Sarasota construction firm.

But he continued working with the pain and couldn’t prove the injury occurred on the job. He was later laid off.

He said two years was a long time to get the care he needed and that he hopes the new office helps speed other cases along.

Florida ranks 16th worst in Social Security Disability Insurance hearing backlogs, according to an analysis released in April by Allsup, a company that helps applicants get benefits.

The average wait time in Florida is 470 days, or almost 16 months, according to the study.

That is down from an average wait time of 557 days in September 2008.

Ohio is saddled with the largest backlog of cases, with an average wait of 590 days, followed by Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Delaware had the shortest backlog. Applicants wait an average of 299 days for a hearing there.

As of April, 697,437 people nationwide were waiting an average of more than 14 months to receive hearings before a judge.

For more information about the hearings and appeals process, visit www.socialsecurity.gov/appeals.

Reporter Tim Wolfrum contributed to this report.