“Fully Favorable” Decisions

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

You apply for Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits. Two years later, after the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) lost your file and eventually held a hearing, you receive a decision that is entitled “fully favorable”. Unfortunately, that does not necessarily mean that your troubles are over. It is not uncommon for the SSA to make an error regarding the disability onset date or application filing date, which may reduce the amount of your retroactive SSD benefits.

One of my clients received a “fully favorable” decision last April that had the correct onset date, but the wrong application filing date. This error reduced the amount of the claimant’s retroactive SSD benefits. Even though I advised Administrative Law Judge Newton Greenberg about the error at the claimant’s hearing and afterwards in writing he failed to correct it.

To preserve the claimant’s rights I sought review with the Appeals Council. In the interim, because I had so many cases where the SSA was repeatedly ignoring my pleas to pay the correct amount of SSD benefits and fees, I was compelled to file a mandamus action in federal court against the SSA. As a result of that lawsuit, the SSA finally issued a supplemental notice of award today. Although this correction resulted in no additional attorney fees being paid to me, the claimant received an additional $7,149.30.

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