Social Security Disability

If you’re nervous about how Social Security disability benefits are going to work in the future, you’re not the only one. This past September, a subcommittee in the House of Representatives held the last in a series of hearings about the future of SSDI. They asked academic and business researchers, a director of public policy, …

As a disability attorney, people are always asking me all kinds of Social Security questions. One of the most common involves whether or not they are required to provide evidence that would hurt their case at their Social Security Disability hearing.

Short answer: no. Under current SSA rules, you are allowed to pick and choose the evidence that you bring to the hearing. It doesn’t stop the ALJ from bringing up that evidence and asking you about it, but it does make it easier for you and your rep to build your case by creating a narrative that shows how your disability has negatively impacted you.

Unfortunately, the SSA has tried on a number of occasions to change this by instituting a rule that would require claimants to submit any and all evidence they have.

Yet another reason to love the Lone Star state—the processing time for Texas Social Security Disability cases is among the fastest in the nation.

Out of 165 total hearing offices across the country, five of Texas’s six locations are in the top 50. That’s pretty impressive for one of the biggest and most populous states in America. As a Social Security Disability attorney who’s handled many cases in this great state, I can’t say I’m surprised. When Texans set their mind to doing something, they do it well.

Want to know what those numbers really mean? This might help to put it into perspective—the hearing office with the lowest processing time in the country is Mayaguez at 168 days; the worst is St. Louis, which takes a ridiculous 505 days to process claims.

As an experienced Social Security Disability attorney, I get lots of Social Security questions on a variety of aspects of the process. Often I refer people to our free eBook but I also try to answer some questions here.

Probably one of the things that is most confusing to people is how time extensions work. General guidelines used to give claimants and representatives 40 days to turn in arguments and evidence, but this time was reduced a few years ago to a standard of 25 days to hand over any additional material.

Because that’s such a short period of time, it’s become far more common for attorneys and claimants to ask for more time. Unfortunately, every single one of these requests has to be looked at individually and either approved or denied.

As a Social Security Disability attorney, I’ve worked with many overweight and obese clients and understand that our weight plays a major role in how we feel and what we are able to do. Those suffering from obesity tend to not only struggle more than the average person with everyday tasks, but they also face more aches and pains, are prone to more accidents, and are more likely to develop ongoing ailments. They also have to deal with the psychological effects that come along with not matching up to the idealized body image in our society

Obesity makes life harder. If you’re already suffering from a disability, it’s likely that your obesity will only exacerbate the symptoms. This is why your weight should be considered when ruling on your disability claim.

It’s pretty common for me to get Social Security questions dealing with how people should fill out their work history report. And that’s really not much of a surprise, because these forms do a terrible job at explaining to you how they should be filled out and what you really need to include.

Unfortunately, this document is incredibly important to your claim, so it’s highly recommended that you talk to an experienced Social Security disability attorney to get help filling it out. A well-prepared work history report can be the difference between getting the benefits you deserve and having your claim denied.

As a Texas Social Security Disability attorney, I understand completely that the Social Security Administration isn’t overflowing with money. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re bound to have heard rumblings about how long the program might last and whether or not younger people are now paying into a plan that won’t even be able to help them when they get older.

Something big has to change if Social Security is going to be around for future generations, but their new policy of charging fees to perform simple actions seems like the wrong way to go.

Do you know that Social Security can charge you civil penalties and assessments if they think you mislead them into giving you money? If not, consider yourself lucky, because I can tell you as an experienced Social Security Disability attorney that it happens far too often.

The general idea behind the penalties and assessments isn’t a bad one. Social Security wants to punish those who are cheating the system so the money will be there for people who really need it. The problem with this however is that Social Security is a giant bureaucracy that makes mistakes all the time.

Judging by the Social Security questions I get, lots of people are well aware that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is in the middle of a budget crisis, and they are worried about how this will affect them.

To put it bluntly, people are right to be worried. While the benefits you receive from Social Security and SSI shouldn’t be directly affected, there are a number of ways that regular people will be impacted by the financial troubles the organization is having. Just a few key examples are a longer wait at field offices, increased processing times, and some people will have to travel further for Social Security Disability hearings. More than ever before, you need professionals on your side who know disability law.

Every Texas Social Security disability attorney knows that the official job definitions that the SSA goes by in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) are old and out of date. The organization has even been getting advice from an independent panel to help out with job data since 2008 while they work on creating a new Occupational Information System (OIS), but recently the SSA decided not to renew the panel’s charter and will be working alone again.

Why is the SSA so worried about updating this system now? Simple. Because they want to save money, and changing the definitions in a way that’s favorable to the SSA could make it harder for people to prove that they have disabilities that prevent them from working and making a living.