Rejected Disability Claims

After the initial claim for benefits has been rejected, people with disability should pursue their claims for their much-needed help by filing an appeal.

The Social Security Administration is responsible for providing disability benefits under the Supplemental Security Income and the Social Security Disability Insurance.

If your claim for disability benefits under any of these programs has been rejected, they will send you a letter explaining briefly why the claim was denied and what you can do to appeal it.

You should appeal your case within 60 days together with other proofs of your eligibility for the disability benefits.

In the reconsideration stage, your claims, as well as other evidence, will be reviewed by a person who wasn’t involved in the initial determination of your eligibility.

If your case is still denied in the reconsideration case, then, you can ask for an Administrative Law Judge to review your case.

An ALJ will set when and where these hearings will be conducted and if he finds that you are not eligible for disability benefits, you can ask the social security appeals council to review it and to see if the ALJ has made any technical and substantive errors.

Once the appeals council finds any flaw in the ALJ’s decision, he can either bring the case back to another ALJ or determine your eligibility.

If there’s no flaw in the ALJ’s decision making, then the appeals council will uphold his decision and your last resort is to bring your case to the federal court.

Here, you should expect to go against experts from the agency. So, it is best to have a lawyer coach you throughout the process.

Increasing Life Expectancy Affects Social Security

Since the Social Security Program started way back in 1936, life expectancy has gradually increased, from 50 years old to above 80 for men and 57 years to 85 for women. Hence, the government has nothing to do but to raise retirement age from 65 to 67.

Another issue that may affect Social Security is lower mortality among infants. Yet, Social Security confirmed that the case is completely irrelevant. They just consider these people did not exist at all.

For an instance, if an individual dies at the age of 4, he/she will not be able to collect benefits rather he/she will not be able to pay payroll taxes.

Lower mortality rates may be attributed to those medical and technological advances. Infants and children would have less chances of dying because scientists were able to formulate the cure for these common diseases.

One thing that also helps in stabilizing Social Security is lower teen mortality. As we all know, most Americans start working and paying Social Security taxes at this age. Having safer and more efficient automobiles to prevent fatal accidents is the main reason for this.

Raising the age of retirement, I guess, favors the middle class and the wealthy people. The poor and the working class will definitely be affected by this act. Since the majority of the poor are inclined to work under tougher conditions, they tend to die earlier than those doing office works.

Social Security, as our economy, is dealing with financial crisis. Hence, the government must examine all the possible strategies to resolve the problems they are facing. It will definitely be unfair to keep on raising the retirement age and preventing our workers from acquiring their benefits earlier.

If you need to file your Retirement benefits and Social Security disability benefits, it is advisable to seek assistance from a qualified Social Security lawyer.

SSDI: Increasing the Chances of Approval

Workers pay social security taxes for many reasons - to prepare for their retirement, as insurance coverage when they meet an accident or when they become disable and unable to work and earn income.

Aside from this, one of the reasons why they pay social security taxes is because certain family members who are disabled will also be eligible for the said benefits.

Unfortunately, not all of these applications for benefits are approved on initial filing, which delay the much-needed benefits of a person whose ability to earn income has been taken away.

To help them, here are some tips to ease the application/appeals process:

• Submit necessary documents (i.e. work history, proof of payment of taxes, medical charts and diagnosis) to prove your eligibility. Remember to submit only copies of these documents as they can get lost as your appeals/application id being processed.

• Cooperate with the personnel handling your case by immediately responding to their requests and queries. Also, it will help a lot if you let them contact your doctor and other people who can verify your disability.

• Maintain a good relationship with your doctor as he may be contacted by the agency to verify your condition and your inability to work. Your physician’s assessment of your condition matters so treat them well.

• Follow-up on your case every once in a while.

The process of filing an appeal often takes a lot of time and effort. A disabled person should hire the services of an advocate or a legal expert whose knowledge of the processes involved in applying for the social security disability benefits will help his client.

Public Hearing on Compassionate Allowance for Autoimmune Disease Held

Compassionate allowances are provided by Social Security Administration to applicants of benefits whose condition are severe and require immediate medical treatment. But, for these beneficiaries to be provided with compassionate allowance, they must have a disability that is apparent and clearly qualifies as a disability.

Commissioner Michael J. Astrue has recently held a public hearing on compassionate allowances for people with autoimmune disease.

The hearing is attended by some of the world’s leading experts on autoimmune disease to discuss possible ways to identify the disease and provide Compassionate Allowance to children and adults carrying the disease.

According to reports, there are about 20 million people all over the nation who has autoimmune disease. The 7th public hearing is aimed at better ways to identify the disease and to accelerate the application process of its carriers.

This way, according to Astrue, they can alleviate and somehow help carriers and their family who battle financial burdens because of it.

Hopefully, the hearing has provided better information about autoimmune disease which particularly affects women and children.