(WSBT) Indiana and Michigan have some of the biggest backlogs in the country when it comes to handing out disability benefits.

More than 70,000 people in those two states are still waiting to hear from the government after applying for disability benefits from their Social Security.

Indiana's backlog is the seventh worst and Michigan's is the fourth worst in the country.

People are waiting a year and a half, on average.

Attorney Bob Szilagyi says the line his clients are waiting in is more than just inconvenient.

“Because a lot of these people don't have income coming in,” he explained.

His 300 northern Indiana clients are among 24,000 Hoosiers who've applied for disability benefits and are still waiting — some for more than two years.

"If it’s today, I'd say don't expect a hearing until next summer,” he warns people.

And that's optimistic. A report issued this week, in part by the American Association of People with Disabilities, ranked Indiana as having the seventh worst backlog in the country for processing disability claims. Michigan ranks fourth worst in the country.

According to the Social Security Administration, in 2001 it took an average of 308 days just to get a hearing. Last year, it took 524 days — nearly half a year longer.

Advocacy groups say one of the key reasons for the growing delays is an ever-shrinking staff at the Social Security Administration.

They claim, nationwide, in the last two years, 2,000 field office employees retired without being replaced, all while the number of disabled workers filing claims more than doubled since 1990.

The American Association of People with Disabilities calls the backlogs a crisis, and urged Congress to work with the Social Security Administration to deploy more resources.

Indiana Senator Evan Bayh says he already is.

“I wrote to the Social Security Administration asking for an explanation and really demanding that they increase the amount of staff that's devoted to these kind of things so people who have really become disabled can get the help that they're entitled to,” Bayh told WSBT News.

The American Association of People with Disabilities and Allsup, a Social Security disability representation company, say close to 1.5 million Americans are waiting in this backlog.