A Social Security Claim – What to Expect | Lee Ann Torrans Social Security Strategy

Average SSD Payment

The average SSD payment in 2008 was $1,063 a month. Once you have received disability payments for two years, you automatically qualify for Medicare coverage.

Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri, the District of Columbia and Alabama face the 10 worst Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) hearing-level processing backlogs.

Hearings are held when an SSDI decision is appealed, many people have already waited 12 or more months following their application, denial and, for many, reconsideration. By the time they reach the hearing, it's not unusual for applicants to have waited two to four years for an SSDI decision.

The 10 states with the lowest wait times are Delaware, Maine, Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, Utah, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Connecticut and Hawaii.

The SSA reports the national average processing time for a hearing decision is now 442 days, down from 514 days in September 2008. The total hearings backlog has decreased by more than 71,000 cases since December 2008.

Last year, more than 2.8 million people filed SSDI applications, and the SSA projects 3.3 million will file disability claims in 2010. The SSA recently reported that the level of initial claims pending now exceeds 1 million people - nearly a 40 percent increase over the level from FY 2008.

High Rate Claim Denial in Texas

In Texas at the initial claim level (the application), SSD and SSI claimants have been denied at the rate of 61.5%.

For those who were denied and chose to file appeals, Texas claimants were again denied at an even higher rate: 84.2%.

More initial claims are denied than are approved and an astoundingly high percentage of first appeals are likewise denied.

Steps to protect your Social Security Disability, Veteran's or Pension Benefits:

Do NOT commingle Social Security and exempt benefits with nonexempt funds.

Do NOT obtain a loan or credit card from the bank where your Social Security or pension is deposited. If sued, go to court and demand proof of the debt.

If your bank account is frozen, file an exemption claim within 10 days.

IRS and SSD

The IRS can take money each month from a Social Security disability check.

The practice is part of the agency's Federal Payment Levy Program, which allows up to 15 percent of any federal payments a delinquent taxpayer receives to go directly to the IRS until their overdue taxes are paid in full.

The IRS employs an automated levy system that withholds Social Security payments to taxpayers with incomes below the poverty line. If this is happening to you ... call.

Ask for a person -- not a computer -- to provide a review. You may be classified by the agency as unable to pay.

IRS Taxpayer Advocate: 1-877-777-4778

If your reasonable expenses are more than your income you may be eligible to have an IRS levy from your bank account refunded. The IRS will have a telephone interview with you to determine your ability to pay. This includes and discussion of your assets and resources. They will then ask for your monthly expenses. Typically you will have to fax the IRS your last three months of bank statements.

While the IRS has ten days to decide on a refund they actually can and usually do act more quickly. You bank may require 72 hours to restore your funds. In reality the IRS may act more quickly than your bank.

There is a possibility that you will have a partial restoration of funds rather than a full restoration.

A restoration of funds for hardship and a classification of 'unable to pay' does not mean your debt is forgiven. You will continue to owe your debt. However, your funds for living expenses may be partially or fully restored.

A Social Security Claim – What to Expect

child6 A Social Security Claim What to Expect

For all individuals applying for disability the definition of disability is the same. The law defines disability as the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity (SGA) by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment(s) which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.

Three Stages of Social Security Disability Claim

Your Social Security Disability Claim may be initiated online.

Stage One - Disability Determination Service in Your State

Your Social Security Disability Application is reviewed by the Disability Determination Services located in your state.

The Disability Determination Examiner makes the decision at the first level.

You may contact your Examiner at the Disablity Determination Service office by phone after finding their identity and phone number from the Social Security Office.

A Social Security Disability Examiner in reviewing your claim for Social Security or SSI will open the case by requesting claimant's medical records from doctors, hospitals, and clinics. If you send your own medical records this will speed your case along. Honestly, this should NOT be an option. You absolutely should do this.

An Examiner may:

Call the claimant for further information;
Call the claimant's friends or relatives for additional information regarding you condition;
Confer with medical specialists physicans and mental health specialists Disability Determination Services regarding your case;
Send you to a to a medical examination paid for by DDS.

In Texas over sixty percent of claims are turned down at this level -- and over eighty percent at the second level. But you must go THROUGH the second level to appear before an Administrative Law Judge. So -- Carry On.

Step Two: First Appeal or Reconsideration

This first Appeal or Reconsideration is not handled differently from your initial case. A different Social Security Examiner will review your file.

An Appeal or Reconsideration is initiated by a phone call to the Social Security Administration requesting the forms to perfect the Appeal and there will be details included in your denial of claim letter.

Appeal forms will must be completed for your claim to be transferred to DDS for a second evaluation of your claim.

However, if you have more medical evidence be certaint to submit it.

Step Three: Hearing Before Administrative Law Judge

A denial at the second level means your next stop will be a Hearing before an Adminstrative Law Judge.

Hearings before an Administrative Law Judge for social security disability or SSI disability are informal with only the judge his secretary. The judge may have a vocational expert present to testify regarding jobs the individual can perform.

Social Security Disability Attorney (is it wise to have one?)

Statistically claimants that are represented by an attorney are much more likely to win their claim.
An experienced attorney knows what proof social security and SSI disability system requires
Using legal help eliminates both the necessity of waiting in long government lines and the chance that a government clerk’s incorrect notation on your condition jeopardizing your claim.

Social Security Listing of Impairment

To make this decision, the disability evaluation specialist first checks to see if the disability can be found in a special listing of impairments that is contained in Social Security's regulations.

Your condition does not have to be one of the conditions on the list. But, if the symptoms, signs or laboratory findings of the child's condition are the same as, or medically equal in severity to the listing, your are considered disabled for SSI purposes.

If your impairment(s) does not meet or medically equal a listing, the DDS then decides whether it "functionally equals" the listings.

Following are some of the disability categories in which we can presume you disabled and make immediate SSI payments:

HIV infection
Total Blindness
Total Deafness (in some cases)
Cerebral palsy ( in some cases)
Down syndrome
Muscular dystrophy (in some cases)
Mental retardation
Diabetes (with amputation of one foot)
Amputation of two limbs
Amputation of leg at the hip

Note: if you've been disabled and are not able to work for at least twelve months, then you should apply immediately as the social security disability and (or) SSI Disability claims process takes a long period of time to complete.

Disability Conditions: