www.iwantmydisability.com

SSA on the Hotseat

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on October 26, 2023, to question the acting assistant deputy commissioner of operations from the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) about the decades old systemic problems that affect millions of Social Security Disability (“SSD”) applicants.   If you ever applied for SSD benefits, or know someone who has, then you probably already know about these problems.

The SSA is supposed to help people who are eligible for SSD benefits when they become too ill to work.  However, the application process is antiquated, customer service is almost non-existent, the wait time to speak to someone on the phone averages 35 minutes, and the wait time for a decision is ridiculously long.

Some of our clients retain us after they have applied on their own, and they realize that trying to navigate the SSA’s system is extremely stressful and difficult.  We take that burden off of them and make certain that the SSA has no direct contact with them.  Our clients would rather be working than applying for SSD, but due to any number of medical conditions, cannot work on a full-time basis.  But trying to stay afloat while the SSA makes a decision is almost impossible for many of our clients.  We have had clients pass away while waiting for a decision, and the SSA just does not seem to care.  The SSA simply blames the delays on backlogs and lack of staff.

David Camp, interim chief executive of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, also testified at the hearing.  He explained how changing some of the SSA’s rules and regulations, which are ineffective and old, could reduce the wait time for a decision, and free up the State agencies’ analysts to work more efficiently.  These common sense changes could make a huge difference in many people’s lives.  Of course, the members of the Ways and Means Committee would have to agree to continue to fund the SSA, because any cuts to their budget would be detrimental for anyone that is trying to obtain SSD benefits.

Medical Investigating

Attorneys representing claimants seeking Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits frequently will attack an administrative law judge (“ALJ”) for failing to credit the claimant’s subjective complaints.  Attorneys need to listen their clients as well.

We represent a 55 year old claims adjuster from Franklin Square, who asked us to seek SSD benefits due to mental impairments.  When preparing the claimant for his hearing, he complained about neck and hand pain.  We immediately advised him to see a neurologist, who performed EMG testing, which yielded abnormal results.

The ALJ disregarded the claimant’s physical impairments when denying the case.  Shortly thereafter, in light of the abnormal EMG, the neurologist sent the claimant for an MRI of his cervical spine.  The MRI revealed shockingly severe findings.

When appealing the ALJ’s decision, we submitted the MRI.  The Appeals Council remanded the case to the ALJ in near record time.  The same ALJ approved the claimant’s SSD application today based primarily on the physical impairments.

Our client, who suffers from extreme anxiety, was so grateful to us for being successful in getting his claim approved.  We are glad we were able to relieve one burden from his shoulders.  Please call our office if you are looking for an experienced disability attorney to help you apply for Social Security Disability benefits.  We have offices located on Long Island in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and offer a free phone consultation.

COLA Increase

More ALJs Needed

We represent a 58 year old from Fair Lawn, NJ, with mental and physical impairments, who requested a hearing with an administrative law judge (“ALJ”) on September 7, 2022.  The good news is that ALJ Dina Loewy from the Jersey City hearing office approved Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits today OTR.  Unfortunately, it took 13 months to obtain the OTR.

The average wait time for a hearing at the Jersey City office is 13 months, which is better than most hearing offices.  For example, the average wait time for a hearing at the Long Island hearing office is 16 months.  Consequently, the Long Island hearing office has been transferring SSD appeals to other offices, like Albany and Hartford, which have average hearing waits of 14 and 13 months respectively.

It is not a secret that ALJs are under pressure to increase the number of cases they adjudicate in order to reduce the hearing wait times.  An internal memo from last year from the Deputy Communications Commissioner for Social Security, said that years of inadequate funding resulted in the agency  being unable to ” keep up with the demand for service and our annual fixed cost increases.”  According to the memo, Disability Determination Services (“DDS”), which assesses disability claims, experienced “historically high attrition as workloads become less reasonable with fewer staff.”

It would seem to be in everyone’s best interest if the number of ALJs and State agency representatives could be increased.  The SSD safety net was designed to help workers at the most vulnerable point  of their careers.  Workers paid into the system for the explicit purpose of receiving some limited financial assistance just in case they become disabled.  Workers should not have to wait a year for the DDS to render a decision, and if denied, then wait over another year for a hearing with an ALJ.

If you are thinking about applying for SSD, you should retain an experienced disability attorney to represent you.  The process of applying is not a simple one and can cause a claimant a lot of undue stress.  Our offices are located in Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island.  We offer a free phone consultation.

DDS Laziness

We represent hundreds of clients applying for Social Security Disability (“SSD”) at any given time.  It is our job to make certain that we are getting all the relevant medical evidence from our client’s treating sources, so the State agency, which processes the claims, has the requisite  information to make a timely decision.  Thus, it is very frustrating when, not only do we have to do our job, but we also have to do the State agency’s job for them because/when they are to lazy to do it themselves.

We represent a 61 year old teacher from Atlantic Beach, NY, who was approved for SSD benefits today, but only after we repeatedly called the State agency to ask them to look at the medical evidence that we had submitted.  The analyst handling the application repeatedly insisted that she did not have the claimant’s records, even though we had the electronic filing receipts that proved the State agency had received the records.  To make matters even worse, we have access to the claimant’s file, and could see the records were in there.  My office had to tell the analyst where to look in the file to find the documents that the analyst claimed were not there.

To compound matters even further, the analyst’s supervisor had asked us for a more detailed job description.  We immediately provided the description on a Friday afternoon.  We called the supervisor the following Monday to confirm she received it.  The supervisor advised my assistant that she was no longer the supervisor for that analyst, and required us to call the new supervisor.   We waited until Wednesday to call the new supervisor, Mr.  Senser, to give him a chance to acclimate himself with the claimant’s file.  Mr. Senser said he did not see the job description that we had submitted.  Once again, we had to tell him where to look in the file, at which point he miraculously found it.

Apparently, because Mr. Senser was humiliated, he told us that the claimant needed to go to a Consultative Exam (“CE”), despite the fact that the last supervisor agreed to accept a neurological exam from the claimant’s treating doctor in lieu of a CE.  In fact, the prior supervisor had also stated that she did not need any additional medical information.  However, Mr. Senser professed that somewhere in the medical notes he saw that one of our client’s doctors said she had improved.

We sent a letter to Mr.  Senser asking him to identify the  notes which supposedly stated that the our client had improved.  We also pointed out that even if someone shows some improvement, that does not mean they can work.  A coma patient who improves by waking up, but is paralyzed, cannot work.

We called Mr. Senser back a few days later to confirm that he had read our letter.  Of course, he was unable to find the letter, until we told him exactly where it was located in the file, that he was responsible for maintaining.  Once again, Mr. Senser miraculously found the letter that he had insisted was not in the file.  Since he could not even find the letter, he obviously had failed to read it.  Curiously, Mr. Senser then represented that he could not remember his statement about the claimant’s notes showing improvement.  Instead, Mr. Senser advised us that the claimant had been approved the previous Friday, which was the very same day when he told us that the claimant needed to go to a CE.

One can only wonder how the State agency gets anything done.  While there are some good analysts, most are either incompetent, or just don’t care about their work.  Consequently, if we do not stay on top of them, and spend our time doing their job, then our clients would still be waiting for their decisions, or even worse, have their claim erroneously denied.

There is no better example of why it is so important to have an experienced disability represent you if you apply for Social Security Disability benefits.  Our office offers free phone consultations with offices located in both Nassau and Suffolk counties.