The Role of a Social Security Disability Lawyer

The role of a Social Security disability lawyer is to make filing your disability claim as painless as possible while ensuring that you receive the full amount of benefits to which you are entitled.

It’s hard for the average person to deal with the mountain of paperwork that comes with filing a Social Security disability claim. The Social Security Administration is diligently working to prevent fraud in disability claims (they suffer almost one hundred million dollars worth of fraud every year) and as a result their rules and regulations on how to properly file a disability claim have grown increasingly strict.

It’s unfortunately not uncommon for someone with a genuinely legitimate disability claim to be denied because of some minor clerical error in preparing their paperwork. A misplaced form or improperly filled out paperwork can make the Social Security Administration incorrectly flag your disability claim as fraudulent and that means you get denied the benefits that you are entitled to.

It’s not your fault; you don’t deal with this sort of bureaucratic red tap everyday. That is why you should always consult with an experienced social security disability professional when you need help getting your disability benefits!

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Social Security Disability and Obesity

SSR 02-1p, effective September 12, 2002, provides guidance on SSA policy concerning the evaluation of obesity in Social Security disability claims. This ruling came about as a response to the deletion of listing 9.09 for Obesity, which had once been a part of the Listing of Impairments in 20 CFR, subpart P, appendix 1.

Listing 9.09 first required that a claimant filing a Social Security disability claim exceed a certain weight based on his or her height. Once this requirement was met, the claimant would have had to exhibit one of the five following impairments:

• History of pain and limitation of motion in any weight-bearing joint or spine…
• Hypertension with diastolic blood pressure persistently in excess of 100 mm
• History of congestive heart failure manifested by past evidence of vascular congestion…
• Chronic venous insufficiency with superficial varicosities in a lower extremity with pain on weight-bearing and persistent edema
• Respiratory disease with total forced vital capacity equal to or less than the value specified…

As of October 25, 1999 when the deletion became effective, a person filing for disability benefits could no longer claim obesity as stated above. However, pursuant to SSR 02-1p, obesity must still be considered in the evaluation process. Listing 9.09 was deleted because Social Security felt the listing’s criteria “were not appropriate indicators of listing-level severity.” In other words, the criteria set forth in listing 9.09 “did not represent a degree of functional limitation that would prevent an individual [applying for disability benefits] from engaging in any gainful activity.”

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Retirement and SSDI Benefits

We all know that, in order to receive disability benefits under Title II of the Social Security Disability Act, one must have enough work credits to establish eligibility. Once a person with the proper amount of work credits stops working because of disability or any other reason, he or she will be “insured” for five years. The date in which an individual will no longer be eligible to receive disability benefits because his or her insured status has expired is referred to as the “Date Last Insured.” Because of the Social Security Administration’s technical eligibility requirements, sometimes, otherwise medically eligible claimants will not be eligible for benefits. For instance, those individuals with too many resources to be eligible for Supplemental Security Income, whose Date Last Insured has also expired prior to the established onset date, will be deemed technically ineligible regardless of medical eligibility. This is a frustrating situation for claimants applying for disability benefits.

However, what happens once a claimant who’s Date Last Insured has expired reaches retirement age?

It would seem unjust, that a person who has worked all his or her life, but who became disabled and could no longer work for the years preceding his/her retirement age, would not be eligible for it because of the fact that he or she neglected to file for disability benefits or waited too long to do so. If this scenario were true, a lifetime of hard work and paying into the system would be all for nothing.

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http://www.socialsecuritylaw.com/blogs/Retirement-SSDI-Benefits.php

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Social Security Disability: Why is this taking so long?

I’ve been working all my life and paying taxes. Now that I’m not able to work and need help, SSA keeps denying my claim for disability benefits. Why is this taking so long?

It’s hard to be patient when you can’t afford to go the doctor and you don’t have money for medicine food, rent or utilities. But if you think about it logically, you can begin to at least understand why this process is necessary.

Think back to when you were working. Your employer would hand you your paystub, and you’d look to find that a chunk of your pay was taken out before they even gave it to you. You were paying toward the Social Security System. But you know that the government wasn’t holding your money in an account for you in case you should one day need it. The government was giving your money to the elderly and people who could no longer work.

So suppose that some government official approached you on payday and said, “Here’s your check, but before I give it to you, I’m going to take back three hundred bucks and give it to someone who can no longer work.” Your initial reaction might initially be a negative one, but you are human, and you at least to some extent agree that humans must take care of their elderly and sick – or you would not be applying for benefits now.

But this is the tradeoff - as a member of the workforce, I’ll contribute now to those who can no longer work so that I can be treated the same when I become unable to work. With one condition: before you take my money away from me and give it to those who can no longer work, at least make them prove they can no longer work. I surely do not want to give my hard-earned money to everyone who merely claims they can no longer work.

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http://www.socialsecuritylaw.com/blogs/Disability-Why-So-Long.php


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Be informed! Stay in control!

Most claimants applying for Social Security disability benefits are completely in the dark as to how much the lifetime of contributions has been calculated and archived. Unbeknownst to applicants, it can be the details or errors on their records that can hold up their applications for months. These errors can range from unresolved arrest warrants to improper name changes. It is every American’s right to obtain the public information about them. Exercise them and request information about your standing today!

Below are examples of some of the information available:

FACT Query – contains your name, Social Security number, sex, date of birth, address, phone number, direct deposit information, account data, insured status data, payment cycle, primary insurance amount history, benefit data, benefit entitlement data, prisoner data, disability data, hospital insurance data, medical insurance data, medical insurance premiums, third party data, state exchange information, enforcement information, SSI information, overpayment/underpayment information, payment history, appeal information, remittance history

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