Articles Posted in Social Security Disability Insurance

The Census data on disabled individuals in the United States paints a disturbing picture. An estimated 11 to 12 percent of people in the United States have a disability that the Census defines as “serious.” The Census restricts its questions on disability to people over the age of 15, so these percentages largely refer to adults in the population. Unfortunately, many adults with serious medical conditions will not be able to work and generate the income that they require to ensure their basic needs are met.

While the Social Security Disability benefits program is supposed to help these disabled individuals, the fact is that there are a lot of people falling through the cracks. Statistics show that as many as one disabled adult out of every five in America is currently living in poverty. In some cases, financial struggles are caused by low disability payments and/or high medical expenses. In other situations, however, a disabled person will be denied SSD benefits that he needs in order to survive financially without being able to have a job.
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The Social Security Disability benefits program is one of the few lifelines that people who are sick or disabled have in the United States. If you cannot work because of a severe and incapacitating illness or injury, you can receive a monthly check from the Social Security Administration. The amount of this check will vary depending upon whether you receive income through Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

While your disability check should hopefully provide you with enough money to live on since you cannot have a job, the benefits are far from being lavish. For SSI recipients, an eligible individual would receive around $721.00 per month and a couple eligible for benefits would receive $1,082. Earnings for SSDI are usually higher for most people, but are based on your wages over your working life.
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No one who has ever applied for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits has ever argued that the process was too easy. This argument is reserved for TV pundits and politicians who have never known the worry of not being able to pay the bills because a disability prevents you from working and because the Social Security Administration (SSA) has delayed or denied your benefits claim. It’s unfortunate, however, that it is the politicians who are in charge of a program that is supposed to help the disabled but that instead denies more than 50 percent of all applications.

In an effort to prevent even more people from getting benefits, the Social Security Administration has recently released a new Notice of Proposed Rule Making. Comments are being accepted on the rule until 4/21/2014 and those who wish to make their voices heard should be sure to comment on the suggested rule. For those applying for SSD benefits, it is also important to ensure that the SSA gets a true picture of how disabled you are.
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Individuals with intellectual disabilities face many challenges as a result of their conditions, including a pervasive difficulty in supporting themselves with paying employment. Despite billions of dollars in government programs designed to help people with intellectual disabilities enter the workforce, more than half of people in the U.S. who have an intellectual disability are not either working or currently looking for work.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) provides benefits for people who have impaired cognitive or communicative functioning; who have IQs below a certain level; or who have severe impairments in their social and personal functioning. While these SSA benefits provide an important lifeline, providing work opportunities may be a better long-term solution for the disabled, who could support themselves with the right job and the right assistance. Further, those who are on the cusp of having a severe intellectual disability may not be able to qualify for SSD benefits but also may be unable to find gainful employment in a difficult job market.

If you or a loved one is intellectually disabled and you have difficulty qualifying for SSD benefits, a Boston disability rights attorney can help you to pursue your claim. An attorney can assist in the initial application or in appealing a denial or termination of disability benefits.
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The month of February is American Heart Month, and there are public service announcements and educational efforts throughout the month designed to draw attention to the serious risks of heart disease. Each year in the United States, around 600,000 people die from heart disease. These deaths account for around ¼ of all deaths over the course of the year. Heart disease is also the leading cause of death for women, although many people incorrectly assume that breast cancer is the top killer of females.

In addition to American Heart Month, February also has several other days devoted to bringing attention to serious health problems. For example, World Cancer Day is February 4, and National Organ Donor Day is February 14.

The myriad health-related events in the month of February are an important reminder that people every day get sick or hurt and become disabled. Often, these disabilities end a career and make it impossible to work, throwing families into chaos as they lose a breadwinner and face crippling medical bills. The Social Security Disability (SSD) program should be there for those who are sick and who need help, but it can sometimes be hard to qualify for disability income. A Boston SSD lawyer can help applicants to qualify for benefits or appeal denials.
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Veterans who are disabled and who need financial help currently face a bureaucratic nightmare. There are lengthy backlogs in the veterans’ disability benefits system that leave some people waiting years to have their claims evaluated. In addition to navigating through the VA system, veterans who also qualify for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits have an entirely separate application process to go through that is also lengthy and that also requires providing a mountain of paperwork and medical records.

Navigating through this application process for both VA and SSD benefits is not only time consuming but it is also very stressful for people who are sick or impaired and who need income to support themselves and their family members. While a Boston disability benefits lawyer can provide invaluable assistance, up until now, there has been very little that can be done to cut down on the months-long waiting period.

Fortunately, the Social Security Administration has reportedly decided to take some action to help disabled veterans who need SSD income. The SSA plans to streamline and expedite the application process of certain qualifying veterans.
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In a recent New York Times editorial piece, Social Security Administration administrative law judge D. Randall Frye laments what he considers holes in the system that allow claimants to perpetuate fraud. He calls for drastic changes to the system, such as allowing judges to tap into social media when making their considerations and limiting the amount of attorney involvement in these cases.

We respectfully disagree with his stance. Our Boston SSDI attorneys have a great deal of admiration for the work that administrative law judges must do. It’s not an easy task to sort through hundreds of cases annually – sometimes two or three a day – and do their best to reach a fair conclusion in each case. We recognize that almost every one of these judges is working very hard to be fair to claimants, while also being good stewards of the public trust. It can be a tough balancing act.

That being said, there are very good reasons why, for example, judges shouldn’t be weighing social media posts in connection with their decision and why lawyers are necessary to help usher people through the process.
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More than 100 defendants have been indicted on charges that they sought to defraud the Social Security Administration of disability benefits by feigning physical and mental illness.

Officials say the retired New York City firefighters and police officers were coached on how to behave and what to say during their medical exams. Those who had worked during the 2001 terrorist attacks were reportedly instructed to detail their fear of skyscrapers and airplanes and told to reiterate that they were unable to leave their homes.

Many of those individuals were successful in securing SSDI benefits. However, officials say their Facebook pages revealed a much different narrative. Claimants who attested to being terrified to leave their homes were seen in posted photographs flying helicopters, playing basketball, riding motorcycles, fishing and more. Officials say the fraud may involve as many as 1,000 people and may go back as far as 1988, which, if proven true, would be the largest fraud ever perpetuated on the SSDI program.
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Senate Republicans and Democrats alike are throwing their support behind S. 1845, a measure that would pilfer money set aside for disabled workers in order extend benefits to those who can’t find work.

It’s a horrible idea.

For one thing, it’s predicated on the idea that somehow the Social Security Disability Insurance program has excess money to spare. In 2012, the total disability insurance expenditures topped $135 billion (that includes costs for staff, judges, etc.). That sounds like a lot, until you begin to consider that the trust fund for the program is projected to be exhausted in just two years. Legislators still haven’t offered a concrete plan to address this issue.
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The Social Security Disability (SSD) system is an important safety net that provides income to disabled children and to adults if the individual and family has a limited income or if the individual has earned a sufficient number of work credits and is now too disabled to work. The SSD program has a number of very strict qualifying requirements and is tightly regulated to ensure that only the truly disabled are eligible to receive benefits.

Our Boston disability lawyers know that the Social Security Administration is currently undergoing a number of different changes to the organization and operation of the SSD system. The Wall Street Journal has provided a summary of these changes, which can affect any applicants who are disabled and who are in need of disability benefits.
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