Stories about filing for Social Security Disability (treated, medical, cause)

[teatime]

Originally Posted by Cunucu Beach

I second the suggestion to write or call your Congressional representative. I've known a couple of people who got approval after intervention from their reps.

On the other hand, the daughter of a friend of mine lost her husband and two children in a fire about ten years ago. Her grief was so devastating she was unable to work and managed to get on SS Disability. Eight years later she remarried and is still on disability today. She is also a drug and alcohol abuser. Her husband is also on disability for "back injury" and is also a drug and alcohol abuser. There should be periodic reviews to weed out people like this.

There are periodic reviews. I haven't had one yet as I was declared disabled three years ago and my review schedule is every 3-5 years. I think that's a relatively common schedule but I DO know folks in my support group who were reviewed after a year.

I dunno -- all they'd have to do is look at my Medicare records and it would save them the effort when the time comes. My docs declared me homebound and I have home health services Medicare is paying, plus a homemaker provider through the state disability department.

[teatime]

Originally Posted by Pikantari

About a week or so ago, I got a letter saying I received it. On one hand, I am glad, on the other, I really miss working.... I know that I would have difficulty in the workplace if I tried to go back though.

Wishing you all well..

It is a mixed blessing, isn't it? I remember thanking God when I was approved and being so relieved but also being sad and feeling useless.

[midge2914]

Congratulations on getting SSD. I am happy for you, but wish it were me. Let's be honest. We all say: we are happy for you, but in our hearts we want to be where you are, finally getting a check and an answer to our claim. I am at my wits end. No answer one way or the other. I want so bad to either get that letter or look in my bank account and find all my back monies due me. What was your diagnosis? When did you file? I really am happy and hope I am in your joyous state of mind very soon. Stay well.

[brokencrayola]

My question to the original poster is this, have you heard anything at all from Social Security? If you have heard nothing at all I would be calling them to get updated. With the economy the way it is now there has been a surge of people applying. I think that is delaying everything now. It is not a fact that you are turned down the first time. Some people are accepted the first time, some the second and some not at all. If you are turned down twice then that is when you need to hire an attorney that specializes in this. As far as PTSD it does not mean that you were only traumatized during a war or serving in the military. It is call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which means certain people that have gone through any type of traumatic event in their lives have an emotional reaction to that to the point of not being able to function at all or certainly not well.

[skitow]

Originally Posted by midge2914

Congratulations on getting SSD. I am happy for you, but wish it were me. Let's be honest. We all say: we are happy for you, but in our hearts we want to be where you are, finally getting a check and an answer to our claim. I am at my wits end. No answer one way or the other. I want so bad to either get that letter or look in my bank account and find all my back monies due me. What was your diagnosis? When did you file? I really am happy and hope I am in your joyous state of mind very soon. Stay well.

Hi Midge. It took me 9 months to get on it. They never turned me down, just backlogged. That was 19 years ago. They still send me a quiz every 3 years. I lived on borrowed money for 9 months. But it was retroactive. skitow

[midge2914]

For those of you who so graciously answered my poll and my questions, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I needed to know that I was not the only person going through this ordeal at the time. Just knowing there were others in the same boat had comforting effects on me. Banding together really helped, more than you know. Last week I contacted my Congressman and asked him to get involved in my disability case. His office took all my information and said they would look into it. Also, I called my caseworker's supervisor since I have never been able to get my caseworker on the phone EVER, and on the day I called the supervisor, my caseworker was out again. I told her the entire story and explained that I had done everything they asked, as far as getting examined by doctors of their choice, and still I had no answer. The supervisor agreed, and promised she would talk to my caseworker the next day and that I would have an answer within one week. This Monday, approximately five days after the phone calls, I got a phone call FROM MY CASEWORKER, saying an answer had been reached on my disability case and they were transferring my file back to the local SS office. I asked the outcome, and she said RATHER STERNLY that by law, they are not allowed to tell me. So, I called the local SS office and begged for the ANSWER, and they said I HAD BEEN AWAREDED medical disability and would get papers in the mail in 2-3 days. Yesterday, Thursday, I called the local SS office again and asked about money and when I would receive any, and she said that my disability date was 04/10/2009, and that I had to count forward five months, and the money would start the sixth month. So basically, not for awhile. I JUST SAT THERE WITH MY MOUTH OPEN NOT BELIEVING WHAT I WAS HEARING. I said, no, there's an error. My disability date is 04/10/2008, not 2009. She said, no, THE MEDICAL DOCTOR who examined your case for DDS said it was 2009. "DDS does not make errors" she stated. But if you don't AGREE WITH THE DATE OF DISABILITY WHICH HAS BEEN FILED ALREADY, THEN you will have to file an appeal and get an attorney. I then got hysterical on the phone. I literally lost it, big time. Crying hysterically as if my heart was broken. I then calmed down and called the DDS (disability determination services) -- the supervisor again - and told her what happened. She then at first agreed with the SS worker about the 2009 date. I said: "WOULD YOU JUST *@#@#%^&%$$# LOOK at my file, just look at my file". She then came back to the phone, and she said that an error had been made and the date should have been listed as 04/10/2008. She said she would call the SS office and fix it. After 3 hours, I called the SS office, and no phone call had been made by the supervisor to them to JUST FIX IT. In fact, the supervisor at the SS office said: "She just told you that", meaning -- to get me off the phone the DDS supervisor said she would call SS to fix it. Once again, I was back to the DDS supervisor, only she was gone home by now, and now they had me talk to the DISTRICT MANAGER. After explaining it all to her, I could tell that she thought I was a nut. She did not believe me. Finally, again I said: GO LOOK AT THE $##@%^&&&^%$ file. I swear, it was like pulling teeth. I said: "Why are you people doing this to me?" She then came back and agreed, but then said she didn't know what to do to fix it. I said: can't you just change the 8 to a 9, and then hit enter, and then put all my back payments in my bank account? She said that there was paperwork that had to be done and it was VERY TIME CONSUMING AND TOOK MANY DEPARTMENTS involvement. This sounded really bad to me. I just knew that this was going to get ugly. She said not to worry, she would fix it somehow and to give her a few days. A few days I could take, okay, you got a few days. Then, last afternoon, feeling good that the District Manager was going to fix things, suddenly the local SS office called and I didn't get to my phone fast enough. The message was: "This is Ms. ??? from the SS office. I MANUALLY submitted your paperwork for correction back to the 04/10/2008 date. There is money due you; however, this could take MONTHS to get fixed. You should receive a letter in the mail in a few days." I tried calling back, but she was gone for the day. So, today I called the local SS office and found Ms. ???? who had phoned me yesterday, and she reiterated her phone message. She said there is no quick-fix once the original paperwork is done. She said: "Once the original information is put into the computer, it gets very involved and then has to be done MANUALLY by all departments involved." She said there was no way to get it done any quicker and it would just take time. So, in other words, someone entered a wrong number into a computer at the DDS level, and now I have to wait months more until it is MANUALLY fixed. This sounds like a long time to me. It sounds like it is in a pile on someone's back desk and things are getting thrown on top of it, and when all the other nice, simple COMPUTER jobs are done, someone is going to find this MANUAL pile of fix-its, and go: "Who put this here? Whose job is this? And then it goes into another MANUAL pile, kind of like the "undelivered mail department" at the post-office -- some dark, damp room in the basement of an old building which has one employee who works under a 15 watt light bulb and a circulating desk fan that is 40 years old, and who, by the way, is 70 years old himself and is only working because he was not awarded SSDI when he applied in his 50's. DDS found him a job that he could do even if it was in the MANUAL FIX DEPARTMENT who previously was employed by the U.S. Special Operations Command Unit, and whose job now is to manually fix DDS's numerical computer mistakes. At this time, I have contacted my congressman's office in the hopes that they can offer me assistance or maybe even get the MANUAL (department) done away with so this will never happen to another person again. As it stands now this is what I am left to deal with: I was awarded the money, but now I have to get it out of them and sooner than months and maybe months. Why does a pitbull with a bone come to mind right now?

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” John Powell quotes

[stonecypher5413]

If anyone is still interested in this thread, I would like to add something about my husband's experience in filing for disability that may be VERY CRUCIAL for anyone trying to get approved.

The adjudicator told him today that he was approved after only ONE MONTH. Yes, my hubby is a Vietnam vet with severe PTSD and other medical conditions, but the adjudicator said one of the deciding factors in his decision to approve so rapidly was HOW WE FILLED OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRES.

Ours (both mine and my husband's) were evidently the ONLY ones in the adjudicator's huge stack of applications who answered EVERY QUESTION thoroughly and neatly in pen and in some detail, with proper grammar and spelling, to flesh out the mental picture we wanted the adjudicator to have of our "daily grind" to live with the limitations of hubby's health problems.

I hope this helps someone in their application process.

[sherbear03]

Hello All, I applyd in Nov 2004. I have RA, fibro, and arthritis in my sholder. I am 35. I have been denyed every level even after a juge. In May of this yeer I had a stroke. Same month I got a letter from them saying the juge I saw did not look at everything so they want to send me to a nother juge. No idea how long that will take. Sinse my stroke my husband has ben handeling everything. I wish he cood go online and check the status. We live in CA. Is that posibel?

[ToucheGA]

Originally Posted by stonecypher5413

..... one of the deciding factors in his decision to approve so rapidly was HOW WE FILLED OUT THE QUESTIONNAIRES.

This is a very good point. I know someone who works at DAS is Stone Mountain, GA. She commented that the most common factor that delays SSI applications is failure of the applicant or doctors to fill out forms completely and on time. Following up with physicians is vital. When you submit your application, it goes to your local SSA office. However, the people who approve and deny applications work at DAS. Your file cannot be sent from SSA to DAS until every doctor you listed in the original application has responded. So, if you listed 10 doctors, and all but 1 waits a year to respond, your file will sit at SSA until ever doctor responds. This is more common that you might think, even with very diligent doctors. Sometimes a faxed request for records falls out of the fax machine and lands behind a desk. The key to to follow up regularly with SSA and with every doctor and hospital you listed in your original application. If some doctors have received an application and some have not, ask the SSA to re-fax the request for records to the MDs who have not yet responded.

In cases where someone has a serious illness, it's really easiest for a DAS adjudicator to approve a file. They must provide a lot of justification for a denial, since many of these denials wind up in Court. If a DAS adjudicator starts reading a 1000 page medical record, and finds something on page 10 that makes the applicant eligible for disability, they will approve that individual without reading any further. The more medical data you provide, the more likely they are to find something they can use to approve you, so they can get to the next file in their never-ending stack.

[ToucheGA]

Originally Posted by Roselvr

Good luck bringing home enough money to pay for the meds. Almost my whole check goes towards meds.

The vast majority of SSI receipts receive Medicaid a month after they are approved for benefits. This can help a great deal as the individual waits the two years for Medicare to kick in.