Social Security Denies Me Yet Again
Submitted by The Aspie Corner on Sun, 03/05/2017 - 11:34am
Yup. Second denial in 3 damn months. Apparently the only disabilities that are considered 'disabled enough under our rules' are blindness or death. It doesn't matter that I have medical records going back to childhood proving my disabilities, according to some fuckin' bureaucrat, my disabilities don't exist.
Guess it's time to lawyer up.
Comments
Yes sadly
you will need a lawyer. Much like insurance companies the SSA is more inclined to deny claims unless you are dying of cancer or a quadriplegic.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
There are a number of books
…on strategies for nailing SSDI over at Amazon. As you might expect, they are written by insiders and former workers there. It was a real eye-opener to read through them and learn that the first two or three rejections are mandatory. The policy is to get the disabled to give up, especially those with mental disabilities.
Some of the books have scripts to follow. Some have checklists of the documents needed to put you over the top. Some are written by lawyers. Some tell you all the "secret" words to use in your applications and appeals, and what not to say. Some guarantee success. Lawyers may drag their feet, as well, because the longer they drag it out the more money they make. The most important thing to have, according to what I've read, is a doctor who knows how to use the right "trigger" words and who will provide copious data and notes.
Good luck to you.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
It is time to lawyer up--
Sadly, that is the way the game is played. The attorney will, in all probability, refer to your first application, file the papers and then you will get back pay less the attorney's fees. I've seen this many times among my older friends.
Best of luck!
PS. This assumes that you have your medical evidence in order.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
There's an age factor too, which is seldom mentioned
The closer you are to age 60, the less likely they are to deny you. The rationale here is probably that you will soon be out of the workforce anyway, so they're not losing that much money on you.
All the great and small gods help the young applicants, however, because the bureaucracy will not.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Please put the blame where it belongs
On Congress, the executive branch and the appointed officials.
The folks who are taking and adjudicating claims have very little leeway in what they do, they have to follow the procedures established by the political class.
I was at SSA for almost 30 years. It gets pretty annoying as an employee when you are trying to keep up with procedures only to have them change (and change back and change change back) as Congress and the Secretary-level people mess around with things.
If someone on high decides that rules should be more stringently or loosely enforced, or there's a new court case that goes for or against the Agency, the local office and State agency staff get told what the new policy is and boom, that's the way it goes from that point until it gets changed again.
I can recall getting cases back from an ALJ (administrative law judge) hearing where it was very obvious to me and the other claims reps that the judge was doing a very poor job of reading the law/regulations. And I've seen that work in both directions, people who were very obviously not entitled getting paid and people who were very obviously entitled getting denied.
I worked in a QA review position for a long time, our job was to make sure that the field offices did what they were supposed to do. There's a difference between that and "what it would be nice if they were allowed to do."
I have little doubt that the Trump Administration with Congress' help will be changing the law/regulations once again (probably for the worse), and the person sitting at a desk in the office is the one that will bear the brunt of someone's venting, not the elected/appointed officials.