AKRON, Ohio — Social Security efforts to trim a disability claims backlog haven't done enough to halt personal ordeals for disabled people awaiting government help, a Senate oversight committee told the head of the agency Monday.

For people in need and awaiting claims, "Your heart goes out to them," U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, said at a Senate subcommittee field hearing on disability claim backlogs of two years or more.

Nearly 2 million people are waiting to find out if they qualify for benefits, with many having to wait more than two years to see their first payment. And judges who hear Social Security disability cases are facing a growing number of threats from claimants angry over being denied benefits or frustrated at lengthy delays in processing claims.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said the agency is making progress cutting waits for decisions on claims, but a 2013 goal of resolving claims within nine months could be jeopardized by rising claims amid the recession and an aging population.

Ohio wait times, among the longest in the nation, have been reduced from an average of 23 months to 16 months since 2008.

Earlier today

Astrue said the agency was working to reduce the backlog by hiring more staff members and administrative law judges who handle claims and by opening 25 new hearing offices, including an office dedicated in Akron after the subcommittee hearing. Another office will be dedicated in Toledo on Tuesday.

The agency also has tried to speed up claims by increasing staff productivity and lobbying against state government furloughs involving claim workers who are paid by the federal government.

Employees have been furloughed in more than 12 states, and Voinovich said it wasn't saving the states any money. "It's coming from the federal government," he said.

The subcommittee chairman, Sen. Daniel Akaka, Democrat of Hawaii, introduced the backlog issue by calling it "unacceptably slow" and turned the hearing over to Voinovich, who retires at the end of the year.

Dan Allsup, director of communications for the disability representation company Allsup Inc., said in a phone interview that lengthy delays resolving disability claims can impoverish people.

"We know people are losing their homes without that income, especially when we're talking about the primary bread winner," he said.

In another panel discussion, D. Randall Frye, who handles disability claims in Charlotte, N.C., and who is president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, said the association has ranked courtroom security among its top concerns.

He said in an interview after the panel discussion with the senators that more security officers are needed at hearings and that hearing rooms, often the size of a bedroom, should be larger so they can be configured better for security.

About 1,400 administrative law judges handle appeals of Social Security disability claims at about 150 offices across the country. Many are in leased office space rather than government buildings.