Articles Tagged with SSDI benefits

Advocates for the disabled are watching the current federal budget process closely amid increasing evidence that cuts to some of the nation’s most critical social programs are on the agenda in Washington. disabilitybenefits-300x200

Last year, Social Security spending reached more than $2.5 trillion for the first time, accounting for 60 percent of the federal budget. However, the vast majority of this spending went to retirement benefits, for which recipients spent their careers paying via federal payroll taxes. SSDI benefits totaled just $143 billion, or about 4 percent of the federal budget. The Medicare program, primarily meant to provide health care to retirement beneficiaries, cost $707 billion, while Medicaid, which provides health care benefits to the disabled and economically disadvantaged, cost a little less than $400 billion.

While politicians derisively refer to these programs as “entitlement benefits,” it’s important to realize each of these programs are entitlements precisely because they have been completely funded by involuntary federal taxes deducted from your paycheck and earmarked specifically for these programs over the course of your lifetime.

Our SSDI lawyers in Massachusetts urge you to carefully consider the motivations behind the political rhetoric targeting these critical benefits primarily relied upon by aging employees nearing retirement age.

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Rather than reduce the 1.5 year wait for a Social Security Disability Hearing, the Social Security Administration is adding a step to the application process that is expected to add six months to the wait time for most applicants.wheelchair5-300x214

More than 43,000 applicants await a Social Security Disability hearing in Massachusetts, where a backlog of 10,000 cases has created an average wait of more than 450 days for a court hearing, according to the most recent statistics. Unfortunately, most states score even worse, with the average wait time nationwide at more than 530 days.

Seeking early representation by an experienced SSDI lawyers in Boston can best protect your rights and streamline the lengthy application process, which is largely designed to discourage qualified applicants from obtaining all of the benefits to which they are entitled. Funding received last year by the Social Security Administration aimed at tackling the hearing backlog has met with only moderate success, reducing the national average wait time by 67 days.

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