| Hearing Aid Article (updated Frequently)
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| Thinking of applying for Disability Insurance Benefits? |
| By: Tim Moore |
As the publisher of a website devoted to disability issues, and
as one who receives occasional mail from claimants, one thing
stands out amazingly loud and clear: too many disability
claimants are waiting way too long to get their applications
going.
In fact, it's almost stunning how many people are out there in
their forties, fifties, even in their late fifties, with
significant physical and/or mental impairments and yet have not
filed for social security disability or ssi.
I don't use the word stunning lightly, either. In the last few
years, I've been, in varying capacties, in daily contact with
disability claimants (several thousand). Even prior to becoming
a disability examiner, I had been a medicaid caseworker, taking
applications for medicaid that would go to disability
determination services for a medical determination Yet, not in
any of that time, did I get a clear picture of how many disabled
individuals there must be who are not pursuing their benefits.
Why do so many people put off filing for benefits? There are
lots of different reasons, I suppose, and one that I can't
discount is that a certain percentage of individuals have
probably been intimidated by all the "bad stuff" they've heard
about the program (high denial rates, files and paperwork
getting lost, rude social security employees, etc, etc).
However, I have the strong impression that many potential
claimants either do not file or put off filing because A. they
feel embarassed about filing or B. they want to go back to work
and are truly hoping their condition will improve to the point
that this will become possible.
This is what I would tell a friend, relative, neighbor, and
anyone who reads this: if you believe you are disabled, file
your application ASAP. Because if your medical condition does
indeed prevent you from returning to work, any embarassment you
feel over filing will weigh very little against your immediate
financial concerns. And if you're hoping that your condition
will improve to the point where you can work again, that's a
great attitude...but what if it doesn't. You're always safer and
wiser if you hedge your bets.
The federal disability system in the U.S. is presently in a
"slow-mode" meltdown and (that's just my opinion) and right now,
start to finish, it can take up to three years to get through
the whole process (initial claim, reconsideration, alj hearing).
So, don't THINK about filing. Just FILE.
You may have read in the news that the social security
disability system is slated for improvement soon. Again, this is
just my opinion, but don't count on it. The reform proposals
being advocated by the current SSA Commissioner may arguably
make things a lot worse for claimants and the process in
general. Commissioner Barnhart's proposals will certainly make
the SSD-SSI system more hostile and adversarial to claimants.
And there's good reason to believe that her proposals will not
even speed things up. They may, in fact, have quite the opposite
effect. Please remember that this is the same administration
that thought it was ok NOT to pay overtime to people working 50
hours a week as long as they would classified as "working
supervisors". It's also the same group that thinks it's ok for
individual citizens to be barred from debt relief while
individuals occupying the ivory towers (I'm thinking of "The
Donald" here) seem to be filing for bankruptcy protection every
time you turn around.
I will leave you with this thought. It was under the current
Social Security Administration Commissioner that HPI was
instituted. This was an efficiency program that, instead of
bringing efficiency to the disability hearing process actually
slowed things down by at least a FACTOR OF THREE (hearings in
north carolina, for example, used to take at most 5 months to
get---now they take up to 15-24 months, depending on what
hearing office you have to deal with).
To reiterate: If you are disabled, don't think about filing.
Just file and get it done.
About the author:
The author of this article is Timothy Moore, who, in addition to
being a former food stamp caseworker, medicaid caseworker and
AFDC caseworker, is a former disability claims examiner. He
publishes information at Social Security Disability
Tips and Secrets which features a helpful and informative Disability
faq
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| Keywords: 'hearing impairment' will, social security disability, filing, condition will improve, social security, security disability, about filing, put off filing, disability, 'hearing impairment' |
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