Author name: patrick@greemantoomey.com

As a Case Manager and Social Security Disability Attorney, I hear all too often a claimant asking why they have friends and acquaintances on Social Security Disability, who were approved early in the process, but they need to go through a lengthy appeal. The claimant then often mentions that the person they are talking about is “not as bad off as me.” Often the claimant is wondering if something is going wrong with their claim. The truth is, most of the time, nothing is going wrong with the claim. The reason why someone gets approved for Social Security Disability is for a variety of unseen factors. First and foremost, the vast majority of claims are approved because objective medical evidence shows that the claimant is unable to do work. This objective medical evidence, for the most part, is a person’s medical records, which most people do not get a chance to read. A person can look normal to everyone else when sitting on their porch, but their medical records indicate debilitating depression, schizophrenia, disc degeneration or carpel tunnel. These medical records are usually only seen by Social Security, the doctors creating the records, the claimant’s attorney and the claimant himself, and not a claimant’s friends or acquaintances. In addition, wait times to see claims approved have simply been getting more and more lengthy. The initial application level often takes at least two to five months to process, and has a denial rate between 70-80%. In most states, the next step is a request for reconsideration, which also takes 2-5 months to process and has a denial rate at or above 90%. The next step is to file a request for hearing, which has a wait time in excess of 12 months for the hearing itself. This results in many claims taking over two years to process, which has not always been the case. A major misconception has occurred because most people don’t realize that the standards for proving disability change when a person turns 50 years old, and again when they turn 55 years old. For a vast majority of people between 18-49, to show disability, you have to show you cannot do any job within the Unites States economy, including unskilled sit-down jobs. However, when a person turns 50, and again when he or she turns 55 years old, the issue turns more on whether they can go back to either their past relevant work, or a job like it. Finally, many people don’t realize that there are certain checks in the system that can cause a claim to go faster, in rare instances. Often times processing for claims get sped up when a person is alleging a terminal illness, or a person can provide evidence that they are imminent danger of losing shelter or the ability to feed themselves. Often times, a person doesn’t fully know what a claimant is going through until they walk a mile in his shoes and read his medical records. This is something very difficult to do for your friends. As times have changed, the Social Security Disability system has created more and more challenges for the claimant, not the least of which is the time it takes to process a claim. This is a perfectly good reason to be frustrated, but not to judge the people who have already proven their claim.

A number of contributing factors have resulted in an increase in the number of Social Security disability claims filed over the last 40 years. In 1970 there were 1.4 million disabled workers who received Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). That number nearly increased six fold by 2011 as 8.3 million people were collecting SSDI benefits according to the Congressional Budget Office, which recently released a report on SSDI policy options. The report indicated that there were three main reasons why SSDI claims have increased so much over the last 40 years. These reasons include the aging Baby Boom Generation, changes in federal policy and changes in opportunities for employment and compensation. To learn more about policy changes recommended by the Congressional Budget Office visit: http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43421-DisabilityInsurance_screen.pdf    

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