Massachusetts Social Security Disability Lawyers Blog

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is essentially a government-run, long term disability insurance program. However, instead of paying a premium directly to an insurance company, as is required to secure and maintain a private disability benefits policy, workers have a portion of their gross pay deducted from their paychecks, and the money is used to fund the Social Security disability benefits programs, including SSDI.

Once a worker has earned enough credits by working for a minimum number of quarters and becomes disabled through injury or illness, claimant can file a claim for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. If a claimant has not worked enough quarters in the years prior to developing the illness or suffering a debilitating injury, claimant will not be eligible for SSDI benefits.
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It is often hard enough to get Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits in the first place. After Social Security Administration (SSA) finally awards you benefits, the benefits should continue for years to come. However, it is easy to understand why SSA would terminate benefits when they have information a claimant is no longer living, but one would hope they would verify this information before terminating benefits.

According to a recent news article from KITV, one disability claimant in Hawaii who was very much alive, was told her benefits were terminated because she had died. While one might assume this would be an easy problem to correct, much like other procedures involving SSA, this turned out to be fairly complicated.

Apparently, claimant’s name was accidentally added to the SSA’s Death Master File, and her benefits were discontinued. The inspector general for the agency estimates around 1,000 disability benefits claimants are mistakenly added to the Death Master File each month. Claimant found out she had been cut off when she could not access the checking account set up to receive her SSDI benefits, and she could not pay her bills. She immediately called to find out what happened, and an agency representative simply stated, “I’m sorry, we’re showing that you are dead.”
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Papesh v. Colvin, a case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, involved a claimant who worked as a bakery assistant, where she helped decorate cakes. She had earned a GED and lived with her husband and her adult daughter.

She began to experience pain, which eventually got worse. Claimant reported to doctor she had long-term lower back pain, which radiated through her legs and hips. She reported the pain was worse while she was working, because the bakery’s concrete floors were difficult to stand on for an entire day. She started to develop palpation of her lumber spine as well as general back pain.

After turning 50, the pain had gotten to a point where claimant could not stand to work an entire eight-hour shift at the bakery. After working, she was forced to lie on her back with a pillow under her knees and use an ice pack. Her treating physician determined she had some disc problems and chronic changes to her nerve bundles. He did not believe she suffered from true radiculopathy and referred her to an interventional pain clinic and a neurosurgeon. Her doctor also ordered she not work during the three weeks of the busy season at the bakery.
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Apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a daunting task for any unrepresented claimant. There is nothing more frustrating than suffering from a severe disability that will not allow you to work and take care of yourself and your family. With medical bills piling up, seemingly arbitrary denials and reductions in already existing benefits can push that level of frustration even higher.

While there is no excuse for this kind of allegedly illegal conduct, this level of frustration was so high in one Florida man that he allegedly called in a bomb threat to his local Social Security Administration (SSA) office after the agency reduced his much-needed disability benefits.

According to a recent news article from the News Herald, a man just pleaded guilty to making a bomb threat on the office. Authorities say 36-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to the charge of giving false information in connection with a threat on the SSA office. Prosecutors say he admitted he was trying to intimidate agency employees after he disagreed with the amount of his monthly benefits check.
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May is national ALS awareness month, so it seems appropriate to discuss the serious disease and how it works in terms of a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits claim. According to a recent article from NTV News, ALS, formally known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and informally referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, after the famous baseball player who was stricken with ALS, is included on Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Compassionate Allowances List.
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With GOP presidential candidates trying to get ahead in the polls and eventually attain the party’s nomination, many are trying to shape themselves as fiscal hawks, to use the term favored by many cable news pundits.

One of the main ways to seem like a fiscal hawk is to speak out about how Congress needs to get rid of “entitlements” in this country. Unfortunately, the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program falls into the category of entitlements, as defined by those who want to get rid of the system.
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