© Marek As of June 2016, there were about 10 million disabled people receiving monthly Social Security disability benefits. Stressing the importance of the national disability program, the Social Security Administration wrote in one of its publications that a 20 year old worker has a high chance (about 1 in 4)…
© 4Max Many people journal nowadays. 20 years ago it was called keeping a diary. (Remember those small books with a lock on it?). Today there are numerous apps which facilitate creating and maintaining a journal. People journal for different reason: some journal to obtain a cathartic effect; others journal…
© studiodr The End of the Administrative Process. Claimants who have been denied Social Security Disability benefits at the initial, then the reconsideration level, then at the administrative hearing and finally at the Appeals Council level have competed the administrative process. The decision of the Appeals Council is the last…
© highwaystarz The speed at which the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (SSA hearing office) adjudicates cases has not improved much. The fastest SSA hearing office in the United States is located in Fort Smith, Arkansas. There, it takes an average of 346 days from the date of filing a…
© Cherries Very often, I meet with people who are too sick or too injured to work at their old job. As a consequence, they believe that they should qualify for federal Social Security disability benefits. Unfortunately, for many of those people, the inability to perform past work is just…
© Petrik In a blog post on February 7, 2015, “Will Money Run Out For the Social Security Disability Trust Fund?”, I wrote that the “consensus in the country is that unless Congress acts to rebalance the Disability Insurance Trust Fund, there will be a short fall starting in mid…
© Aquir In 2009, the US Congress waived the work requirements as part of the stimulus package passed under the law known as the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The stimulus package, and its waiver, expired in 2015. As a consequence, non-disabled, childless Hoosiers, from age 18 to 49…
Hidradenitis suppurativa is an absolutely terrible skin disease. The cause of the disease is unknown. It is a chronic condition, meaning that the disease lasts for a long time or recurs often instead of getting better. This disease is a pus-like inflammation of the sweat glands. The sweat glands involved…
© Laz’e-Pete The Social Security Administration’s HALLEX I-2-5-48 contains a bare bones description of a vocational expert: “VEs are vocational professionals who provide impartial expert opinion during the hearings process on claims under title II and title XVI of the Social Security Act or claims for Black Lung Benefits by…
The consensus in the country is that unless Congress acts to rebalance the Disability Insurance Trust Fund, there will be a short fall starting in mid 2016. The belief is that this shortfall will cause the government to pay about 80 percent of the monthly disability benefit to those who…