Articles Posted in Boston SSDI

A recent editorial from The Des Moines Register discussed what has been called the nightmare shared by millions of disabled Americans. What they all have in common is they are waiting to learn whether they will finally be approved for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. They are waiting for the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) to make a decision, hold a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), or both.

The author compares this to a place where you are typically given a number a number and told to wait your turn until that number is called.  We could be talking about the RMV, or even your local deli counter at the Stop and Shop.  In this example, if they agency really gave out numbers, you would be handed a number with a value higher than 1.4 million, and they would be calling number six.  While this may seem like an absurd example, if you are waiting for your ALJ hearing, there are likely more than 1.4 million people ahead of you, system wide. Continue reading

In Brown v. Colvin, a case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the claimant had applied for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits due to severe back problems and obesity.  When she first applied for disability benefits, her application was denied.  She then filed for reconsideration.

Filing for reconsideration is typically done in writing or via the Internet, and a co-worker of the Social Security Administration (SSA) employee who first denied your application will review your application. For this reason, SSA considers this a peer review process.  Almost all applications that were initially denied will be denied once again at the peer review stage. Continue reading

According to a recent news article from Fed Week, the United States Social Security Administration (SSA) has some very strict standards for those who are applying for disability benefits. This includes those who are applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and those who are applying for what is known as Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

The fact that SSA has very strict standards for applicants who submit a claim for benefits is likely not a surprise to anyone who has submitted a claim and had that claim rejected (which is most applicants), this article takes a closer look at what these standards are and what you should do to increase your chances of obtaining a successful disability benefits award. Continue reading

Each year, millions of Americans struggle to pay their student loan bills.  This is true for younger people who are just out of college, and it is true for people who have been out of school for 20 years.  It is also true for parents of students who took out federal student loans and may still be struggling to pay them off many years later.

This is reason we see Americans who have reached the age of retirement and are still saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of federal student loan debt.  While it is difficult for many people to pay off this debt and make their required payments each month, it is especially challenging for those who are disabled, according to a recent news article from the Money and Career Cheatsheet. Continue reading

According to a recent news article from the Wisconsin Watchdog, a publication that has been following the many problems at the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and their disability benefit program, the agency is requiring personnel to take whistleblower training after it has already allegedly fired one whistleblower. The alleged firing of a whistleblower in retaliation for reporting problems with delays, along with judges making derogatory comments to employees and disabled claimants, has gotten some members of Congress concerned, and they have commenced oversight hearings.

In this recent article, the author discusses how this mandatory training is designed to tell employees about their rights to report misconduct and thus become a whistleblower, and the whistleblower that started all of this is not there because she was fired three months before the first training.  It has been alleged that she was fired illegally in retaliation for reporting the various different instances of misconduct. Continue reading

Over the past couple of years, we have been hearing a lot about how there is not enough money in the budget for the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs.  For a while, it looked like Congress might not approve a stopgap measure to shift money from the much larger Social Security Old Age and Retirement Program and the Social Security Survivors programs to the two disability programs.

However, apparently realizing that it would be very bad in the middle on one of the most divisive elections in our nation’s history to let around 11 million Americans have their monthly benefits checks slashed by nearly 20 percent, they decided to add additional funding at what was basically the final hour.  This allowed us to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff at the United States Social Security Administration (SSA) for at least the next few years. Continue reading