Massachusetts Social Security Disability Lawyers Blog

Boley v. Colvin, an appeal argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, involved a claimant whose application for Social Security Disability benefits was denied. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is the federal agency that denied her claim for disability benefits.

As your Boston Social Security Disability Insurance lawyer can explain, the SSA denies most applications for SSDI and SSI benefits as a matter of practice. It is often only after aggressive representation by a disability attorney that claimants are able to obtain the benefits to which they are entitled.

In Boley, the court looked at the time limit for filing an appeal to a denial of a claim by the SSA. Under the regulations, claimants have 60 days to request a hearing from an administrative law judge (ALJ) after their claim is denied. The claimant in this case did not file her notice of appeal for 9 months. However, the reason she waited so long was that her lawyer never received the notice of denial, as required by the regulations.
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In Hanson v. Colvin, an appeal heard in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the claimant filled for Social Security Disability (SSDI) benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) because he was unable to work a full 40-hour week due to acute back pain. The claimant asserted that the back pain would radiate to his leg, making it even more difficult for him to work a full week.

According to court records, the claimant takes a variety of pain medication, including oxycodone and Percocet that he reports helps with pain but does not eliminate it. The application for SSDI benefits was denied, and the claimant appealed to the U.S. District Court, which affirmed the denial by the SSA. The claimant then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

As your Boston SSDI attorney can explain, the SSA initially denies the vast majority of all claims. If you have an attorney representing you from the beginning of the process, you have a significantly better chance of obtaining a satisfactory outcome, because a lawyer who regularly handles SSDI understands the process.

In Hanson, the appellate court reasoned that the SSA’s denial of the claim for SSDI benefits, and the District Court’s affirmation of the decision was quite possibly based on incorrect information. The information at was issue related to the opinion of two doctors.
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Our Boston Social Security Disability Insurance attorneys understand the importance of keeping up with current changes with the SSDI program.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Medicare’s hospital program expenditures were lower in 2013 than they were in 2012. This is thought to show a leveling off of the increases in health care costs that we have been experiencing. Based upon these promising trends, the Social Security Administration is predicting that it will be able to pay all benefits through the year 2030. The last estimate predicted funding to run out in 2026. Some of this reduction was credited to lower hospitalization rates.

While the Medicare program is doing well as of late, the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) fund will only be able to pay just over 80 percent of current benefits by 2016. One suggestion to help alleviate the strain on the SSDI fund is allocate more of the money from payroll taxes to the SSDI program by reducing the amount allocated to the Medicare program for retired workers.
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Williams v. Colvin, an appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, involved a 44-year-old claimant who applied for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits due to what she called a cascade of physical and psychological events that occurred in 2002. She claimed that she was no longer able to work due to fibromyalgia, which is a neurological condition that can cause extreme neurological pain and emotional distress.

Some of the symptoms of fibromyalgia, as noted by the U.S. Court of Appeals, are musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, memory loss, mood disorders, and general problems with the way in which the brain processes pain. This is a very serious condition that has affected millions of Americans, though it has only recently been accepted as a legitimate illness. For many years, patients suffered unimaginable and debilitating pain, while basically being told they were imagining the illness.

The administrative law judge (ALJ) at the Social Security Administration (SSA) made a finding in 2012 that fibromyalgia did in fact leave the claimant in this case unable to work, but he found that her date of disability for the purposes of obtaining benefits was 2008 rather than 2012.

As your Boston disability attorney can explain, upon a finding of disability by an ALJ, you may be entitled to a retroactive award of benefits, so the date in which you were determined to be disabled is obviously significant.
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Our Boston SSDI lawyers urge claimants to understand that they may be required to pay taxes on any benefits received. If you are the beneficiary of a private insurance plan and also the recipient of SSDI benefits, your insurance plan may require reimbursing them for any benefits collected from the Social Security Administration. However, the insurance company may not be concerned about the tax consequences you may face and the money you may to owe to the IRS.

It is important to keep in mind that private insurance companies and the Social Security Administration are often much more concerned about their respective bottom lines than your wellbeing.

According to a recent story in Forbes, a disabled woman began receiving benefits from her private insurance plan. The plan required that any benefits received under the plan be reduced by any Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) she received from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
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Close to half of all Americans have more credit card debt than savings. According to CBS News, the overall personal savings rate in the United States fell even as Americans increased spending. This has resulted in a situation where a lot of people don’t have cash on hand to pay their debts.

If you become disabled, your debt problems could become much worse. After all, if you are sick and unable to work, you will not have income to pay your bills. You may also incur additional medical expenses and costs that make your debt rise. This is especially true if it takes a long time to get Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits approved. For many, this process can take months, even with the help of a Boston disability lawyer, because the SSA works slowly and because many initial claims are denied.
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Our Boston SSDI lawyers know that the task of applying for benefits can really seem like an uphill battle to an unrepresented claimant.

In Murphy v. Colvin, an appeal filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the claimant was admitted to the hospital after having a stroke. The examining physicians noted a past history of headaches and issues with her speech. The doctor noted that, while the claimant could read a basic sentence, she would sometimes substitute random words.

The doctor also diagnosed the claimant with a degree of weakness on her right side and a neurological condition which affected sensation and caused her to be unaware of the location of her own hand without looking at it. The doctor recommended physical therapy.
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Our Boston disability lawyers understand that many people need SSDI with costs of private insurance going up every billing period.

According to a recent article in the Portland Herald Press, employers are starting to phase out benefits, including long-term disability insurance. Many people do not realize the importance of having long-term disability coverage. This type of disability insurance, as its name implies, will provide benefits on a long-term basis for people whose disability makes it difficult or impossible to work in the same or similar job that they had before becoming disabled. To get an idea about how important having disabled coverage may be, statistically, one in 20 workers will become disabled before their retirement.

The key to understanding how long-term disability insurance differs from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is to look at how a disability is defined. With long-term disability coverage, if you become disabled and can no longer perform the services required for your current job, you may be declared disabled for the purposes of benefit eligibility.
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