"Social Security Disability Blog" - 5 new articles
Who Collects Past Due Benefits if a Claimant Dies Before a Disability Decision is Issued
In this case, my friend's mother was married to a gentleman who had applied for benefits in the early 2000's. He had been denied at his first hearing, then appealed and ended up before a judge a second time for a second hearing. Shortly after the second hearing (but before a decision was made) he passed away. Because of the more then 7 year pendency of his claim the past due benefit amount was substantial – over $115,000. The question – who gets the money. According to Social Security law (Code of Federal Regulations, Title 20, Section 404.503(b)), the surviving spouse would be the primary beneficiary if she/he was living in the same household as the claimant at the time of death. If the surviving spouse does not qualify, the surviving children collect. If there are no children, the parents of the deceased collect. If there are no parents, the surviving spouse who was not living with the claimant at the time of his death, and so forth. Note that the funds do not go into the deceased claimant's estate – they are payable directly to the spouse or other beneficiary. I previously published a blog post about how I won a case for a deceased claimant. Prior to proceeding I submitted form HA-539, a Notice Regarding Substitution of Party Upon Death of a Claimant. Individuals eligible to receive benefits must complete and submit form SSA-1724, which is a form entitled Claim for Amounts Due in the Case of a Deceased Beneficiary. Post from: Social Security Disability Blog
Does It Matter Where I File My Application for Benefits if I Plan on Moving?I recently received a question from a woman named Carol who wants to know if she should wait to file for benefits because she is planning on moving to a different state. She writes:
Now – what about the location where you would file? At the initial and reconsideration level of appeal, your case will be processed by a State Agency adjudicator. Adjudicators follow fairly rigid protocols and I have not seen any documentation to suggest that an adjudicator in one state is more or less likely to approve a claim than an adjudicator in another state. Those statistics may exist but I have never seen then. The initial and recon appeal will eat up between 6 months and a year, by which point you would presumably be in Macon. When you move you would notify Social Security and your file may be transferred to a State Agency adjudication office nearer to where you live. Then again, it might not be transferred. I think it is certainly possible that filing an address change, thereby triggering Social Security to move your file could add to a delay in the processing of your case, but my experience has been that the State Agency adjudicators are expected to complete their evaluation within a set period of time. I don't know that having the file moved will significantly add to a delay. This is especially the case now that Social Security disability files are electronic – physical files are no longer involved so transferring a case is an electronic process. The biggest wildcard when you change venues will involve the hearing offices. Some hearing offices house judges who approve very few cases. Other hearing offices tend to trend more favorably to claimants. On the other hand the tendencies of the specific judge assigned to your case are much more important than the hearing office statistics. You can research statistics about the ratios of approval by specific judges. Local lawyers who practice in a particular hearing office can also be a good source of advice. Ultimately I don't know that I would spend a lot of effort "judge shopping." If you have a good case with compelling medical evidence and support from a treating physician, you stand a good chance at winning, while weak evidence will not convince even a judge who tends to favor claimants. Further, if you ask Social Security to change your hearing office venue at the last minute you will face delay as hearing calendars are often filled months in advance. If you hire one lawyer for location 1, then switch, you may end up paying more than 25% of your past due benefits as lawyer 2 will want to be paid. At the very least, if you are thinking about hiring a lawyer in central Florida, let him or her know about your possible move – you want to make your case less complicated, rather than the other way around. Post from: Social Security Disability Blog
Onset Dates, Consultative Exams and Cynical JudgesWhen you appear before a Social Security judge for a hearing, there are four possible outcomes:
Here is an example of what I mean: a couple of weeks ago, I tried a case before a judge who is generally considered to be very reluctant to approve cases. At the time of the hearing my client was a month shy of her 52nd birthday. She had a 10th grade education and past work as a short order cook. She alleged disability due to uncontrolled diabetes, numbness in her feet and hands, vision issues and pain. She last worked 3 years previously, when she was 48 years old. In reviewing this case, I saw it as a "grid rule" case. Grid rule 201.10 provides that a 50 year old claimant with less than a high school education, semi-skilled work but no transferable skills who was limited to sedentary work due to an exertional limitation would qualify for disability. My client had very little money and had last seen a doctor almost 2 years previously. In addition to the older medical records, there was a consultative examination report from February, 2008 that supported my argument. My client turned 50 in October, 2007. At the beginning of the hearing, I advised the judge that we were prepared to amend our onset date to my client's 50th birthday in October, 2007. I just received the decision and what did the judge do? He issued a partially favorable decision, approving my client as of February, 2008 – the date of her consultative examination. I think that any reasonable observer would recognize that my client's condition did not change between October and February. The net result is only 2 months of past due benefits – but that means about $1,500 to my client. In my view, the judge's actions were absurd and perhaps a little mean spirited. During the hearing he made it known that he was not happy with the claimant's pack a day smoking habit (he noted that if she saved the money she spent on smoking she could afford to visit her doctor). The point here is that when you don't find a way to go to your doctor, or enlist the help of a treating doctor to identify your work limitations, you may find that your judge will pick a date later than the onset date you alleged. In fact, I know many judges who will always choose onset dates that correspond with a particular medical report. I think that tying an onset date to the date of a medical report can be a logical choice but such a practice should not be applied mechanically as it was in this case. You need to be aware of this tendency and make every effort to develop a thorough and convincing medical evidence file so you won't be subject to what could be the arbitrary choices of your judge. Post from: Social Security Disability Blog
SSI Recipients May Be Eligible for Free Cell Phones and Free Minutes
In June of this year, the New York Times published an article about the Lifeline program entitled Providing Cell Phones for the Poor. The program specifications vary from state to state – and associated programs may provide subsidies for electricity and other utilities. You can find out what is available in your state by a simple web search – I typed "Lifeline + cell phones + Georgia" into Google and the search result documented a number of carriers offering the service. Thanks to Wisconsin disability lawyer Don Chewning for blogging about this important benefit to SSI recipients. Post from: Social Security Disability Blog
SSA’s Disability Case Backlog Reduced for First Time in a DecadeWhen I talk about the disability claims process, one of the most important things I can do for folks needing help during this difficult time is to make sure they know what to expect. This is especially true when it comes to the amount of time it could take from initial filing to a favorable decision. When Georgia Congressman John Lewis set reduction of SSA’s disability case backlog as one of his top priorities, the Atlanta North processing time for claims was the worst in the country at 828 days, and in Atlanta proper it was 750 days. He noted that “people are waiting years for benefits they deserve, some are even dying while waiting. This is simply wrong…Somehow the richest, most powerful nation in the world must find a way to meet the needs of these Americans. They have suffered enough. They should not suffer at the hands of their government.” Mr. Lewis testified before the Budget Committee, and urged his colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee to give SSA the funds needed to hire more Administrative Law Judges and disability claims staff. Last month, Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue announced that for the first time in a decade, the agency ended its fiscal year with fewer pending disability hearings than in the previous year. It closed FY 2009 with 722,822 pending hearings – a reduction of more than 37,000 cases from its 760,813 hearings pending at the start of the fiscal year. Processing time for cases also improved over the same period, dropping from an average of 514 days in FY 2008 to 491 days in FY 2009. “Our backlog reduction plan is working, and progress is accelerating,” Commissioner Astrue said. “Even in the face of a significant increase in our workloads as a result of the worst recession since the Great Depression, we have reduced the hearings backlog for nine consecutive months. Thanks to the efforts of thousands of hardworking Social Security employees and the additional funding we received from President Obama and the Congress, we have exceeded our backlog reduction goal for this year.” Click on the link to see SSA’s recent news release discussing these developments. Despite Commissioner Astrue's positive spin on the statistical improvement, in real life I am still seeing delays of 2 to 3 years. We are seeing some cases processing through the case very quickly and I suspect that these fast tracked cases have something to do with making the statistics look better. We have also seen thousands of cases shifted from the Atlanta North hearing office to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Columbus and Macon. These temporary fixes may result in a short term improvement in the statistics related to delays but only time will tell if the recent backlog improvement is a true trend. We are also seeing increasing delays in the processing of hearing decisions following the hearings. I have several cases in my office that I tried in March in which a hearing decision has not yet been issued. The hearing offices advise us that they do not have enough staff to help the judges. I do think that Commissioner Astrue is making the backlog a priority in his office and I applaud him for his efforts. Moving a large bureaucracy like SSA is not an easy task and I wish him the best of luck in this undertaking. Post from: Social Security Disability Blog
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I recently received a call from a colleague about a situation that is all too common given the delays associated with the Social Security disability adjudication process – the death of a claimant prior to a final adjudication.
Over the past couple of years I have noticed an increase in the number of partially favorable decisions I am receiving. I think this is because my clients, especially low income clients, do not have access to regular medical care and judges are using consultative exam reports to move the alleged onset dates.
SSI recipients and other low income Americans may be eligible for free cell phone or landline service under a program called 