DISABILITY BENEFIT RECOVERY

I recently represented a lady in a disability hearing.  She had applied a couple of years ago and been denied.  She had appealed, went to the hearing unrepresented and was denied again at the hearing.  Now, she had a second hearing and had prepared herself to be denied again.  When we entered the hearing office and were told the name of the judge assigned to hear the case, my client's face turned white.  "That's the same judge who denied me at the last hearing," she said. I fought back a feeling of despair.  The same client, the same facts, and the same judge?  But I tried not to let my client see my concern  "Don't worry," I said, "We'll do all right." Upon leaving the hearing my client was grave.  "That judge had the same look on his face as he had at the other hearing," she said.  "I think he's all set to deny me again."  She expressed how much an award would mean to her financially because she was surviving o

Back pay can be generated in two ways in a Social Security disability claim. First, there is retroactive pay.  This pay accumulates from the "established onset date" (the day Social Security finds that you became disabled) until the date of decision.  In other words, if you became disabled on June 1 and Social Security did not make a decision for 6 months, this would generate some retroactive pay.  In this case, retroactive pay would only be one month, since there is a 5-month waiting period on Title II disability.  In an SSI claim, however, benefits would begin the month after the application date. A second way back pay occurs is during an appeal.  If Social Security denies your claim (either disability or SSI), you are entitled to an appeal.  It usually takes at least 12 months to complete an appeal.  During the 12 months of the process, your benefits continue to "accumulate."  If your case is eventually approved, you can collect pay for all those months you h

Through its "Ticket to Work" program, Social Security tries to encourage people on disability or SSI benefits to return to work.  You can try to work without immediately giving up your disability or SSI benefits - and without losing your Medicare coverage (if you are covered by Medicare). You are allowed 9 "trial work months" within a five-year period.  The months do not have to be consecutive. You will continue to get full disability or SSI benefits during the trial work periods until you accumulate 9 months of successful work.  Any month in which you earn at least $720 will be considered 1 month of successful work.    Once you have accumulated 9 months of successful work, your disability or SSI benefits will be stopped for as long as you continue to work.  However, if you again become unable to work within a 5 year period, you can request expedited reinstatement of benefits without filing a new application.  While Social Security makes a decision

One of the reasons for taking your lawyer or representative with you to a Social Security disability hearing is to avoid the legal pitfalls that you may not see, or not see in time.  For example, I was at a hearing recently where the judge asked the claimant when she stopped working.  Then the judge said, "That's about the time time you got married, isn't it?"  And the judge followed up with, "So on that date you felt that you could afford to stop working?" The pitfall there is obvious but the claimant was under so much stress that I don't believe she caught it.  The judge may have been making an inference that the claimant quit working on a particular date, not because she was disabled, but because she could afford not to work any more. At redirect, I questioned the claimant to clarify what she meant.  "You are not suggesting that you were able to continue working but that you stopped because of your marriage are you?"  The claimant replie