Change is coming to the Social Security Disability Claims Process under President Obama. Has your claim for Social Security Disability Benefits been wrongfully denied? Have you waited forever for a hearing?

You should check out Barack Obama website! There is a plan to ” Empower Americans with Disabilities,” which describes Obama’s plan to resolve the nation’s Social Security Disability issues.

The plan is divided into four parts which focus on how to provide disabled Americans opportunities for the best quality of life:

1. Provide Americans with disabilities the educational opportunities to succeed
2. End discrimination and promote equal opportunity for the disabled.
3. Increase the employment rate of workers with disabilities
4. Support the independent, community-based living for Americans with disabilities

Obama supports a $150 million increase in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) budget.

The Obama administration is committed to streamlining the application and appeal process and acknowledge that process has been grossly under funded.

- The SSA claims backlog has reached a record high of 755,000, an increase of over 440,000 since 2000.
- The average weight time for an appeals hearing is 505 days, compared to 258 days in 2000.

Cavey and Barrett, your St. Petersburg Social Security disability claims attorneys, support these efforts and will keep you advised about how and when to call your Congressional representative. We are committed to helping those in the Tampa Bay area with their denied claim for Social Security Disability Benefits.

Posted November 21st 2008 to Benefits Overview | Comments (0)| Permalink | Trackback |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

US Representative Castor made headlines in the St. Petersburg Times recently by proposing legislation in the United States Congress that would require the Social Security Administration to hold a hearing within 75 days on any application for Social Security Disability. Nancy Cavey and Sharon Barrrett, St. Petersburg-based Social Security disability attorneys, support such legislation and urge you to contact your United States Representative in support of this legislation.

A Times Editorial

Cut short disability’s cruel waiting game

In print: Friday, July 18, 2008

The government insurance that is owed to people who are no longer capable of working is no less urgent than that paid to a family left homeless after a flood. But the Social Security Administration has turned disability insurance into a waiting game so cruel as to sometimes claim lives before paying claims.

The bill that U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, is introducing in Congress would finally put the government on a clock. It would have no more than 75 days to schedule a disability claims hearing and, then, no more than 15 days to rule.

As Castor demonstrated with some of the people she gathered for a news conference on Monday, the delays and rejections are often indefensible. Shelly Burke, who suffers from diabetic neuropathy, has been unable to work since 2000. She was twice the denied the benefits she deserved, and won them only with the help of an attorney and only after eight years of delays.

“I don’t know what I would have done without my mother,” Burke said. “I’ve been one of the lucky ones.”

In fairness to the Social Security agency, its staff has suffered cutbacks at the same time it has seen a dramatic increase in caseload. It also faces far too many attempts to defraud the government, including recently disclosed attempts by private insurers to force their injured claimants to file, wrongfully, for Social Security disability insurance.

That said, the agency still suffers some of the institutional distrust that once led the Regional Appeals Office to report that bosses were telling caseworkers to “deny, deny, deny.” The agency has rebounded from those ugly purges during the Reagan administration, but one reason for the staggering backlog of cases today is that far too many claims are being wrongly denied by the original caseworker. In turn, those denials are appealed, and two-thirds of them are reversed.

The assumption that everyone is trying to cheat the system has cost those who aren’t. The average wait for a person filing a disability claim to get a hearing before an administrative judge in Tampa is now 685 days, and some cases last for years. Even Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue has acknowledged that some disabled people have died while waiting. Yet Astrue has still done little to address the problem. Imagine the Federal Emergency Management Agency trying to prevent flood insurance payments for nearly two years after a storm.

More administrative judges and caseworkers will cost money that Congress has to be willing to provide, but Castor is shining the light in the right place. These delays are inhumane.

Unfortunately, Tampa Bay Social Security disability Attorney Nancy Cavey routinely sees delays of over two years to secure Social Security disability hearing. This legislation will help every Social Security Disability applicant.

Posted September 15th 2008 to Benefits Overview | Comments (0)| Permalink | Trackback |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

The Supplemental Security Income Program (SSI) and Social Security Disability (SSD) are sometime confused for each other. These are 2 completely different programs. SSI is a federal welfare program that is limited to the disabled, blind, and those over 65. States will supplement the federal SSI benefits. SSDI is not supplemented.

There are 4 requirements for SSI and you must meet all 4:

1. Be disabled using the 5 Hurdle test described in earlier blogs,

2. Meet an income and asset test,

3. Be a U.S. Citizen or fall into an exception class,

4. File an application.

You can get both SSI and SSDI but your total income from both can only equal the SSI amount plus $20.00. For more information, and for more help with your claim, click here or call 727-894-3188.

Posted March 23rd 2008 to Benefits Overview | Comments (0)| Permalink | Trackback |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

What is Social Security Disability? In simple terms, it is disability insurance that you have paid for through with-holdings from you earnings. Look at your paycheck. There are with-holdings for your income tax and withholding for FICA. The FICA with-holdings are like a premium for an insurance policy. Your disability insurance policy.

You must be fully insured to be eligible for Social Security Disability. To be fully insured if you are over 31, you must have worked 20 quarters of coverage out of the 40 calendar quarters before you became disabled. This is the 20/40 rule you might have heard about.

The quarters of coverage are less if you are under 31 when you became disabled.

You must show that you have paid in long enough to be fully insured.

There is also a requirement that you are still insured when you became disabled. This requirement is just like paying your premium for your auto or health insurance. After you stop working and paying social security taxes,  there will come a time when your insured status ends, just like your auto or health insurance would lapse.

If you are not fully insured or your “coverage” has lapsed, you won’t be eligible for Social Security Disability regardless of how disabled you might be.

As you can see, it is very important that you have worked enough quarters and are still insured before you stop working. This is one of the first things your Social Security lawyer will ask you about. For more information, and for more help with your claim, click here or call 727-894-3188.

Posted March 23rd 2008 to Benefits Overview | Comments (0)| Permalink | Trackback |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

If you find yourself at Hurdle 5: Other Work it is very important that you have evidence about any  exertional and non-exertional impairment you have. These impairments can cause limitations on your ability to do work.

The primary non-exertional impairments are postural, manipulative, environmental, sensory, and mental.

We have already talked about one of the most common postural impairments – the need to alternate sitting or standing. Other examples of postural impairments are difficulty bending, stooping, squatting, or turning your head. If your back or neck pain limits how far you can bend over or turn your head that will limit the types of jobs you are able to perform. How is your balance?

One of the most overlooked postural impairments is the need to evaluate your legs. If you have a vascular problem, your doctor might have told you to keep your legs elevated. That impairment will certainly impact your ability to work.

Manipulative impairments are very important to develop. These include difficulty with reaching, grasping, handling, and fingering. Can you lift a coffee cup? Do you drop things? Do you have trouble using a keyboard?

Environmental impairments are normally found in cases involving breathing or skin problems. These can include difficulties working around fumes, dust or tolerating noise, heights, humidity or extremes in temperature.

Less frequently encountered are sensory impairments involving difficulties speaking, hearing, feeling, or seeing.

In my opinion, one of the most important non-exertional impairment is mental. No, not being crazy! Many times a disability will cause you to have problems with relating to others, understanding, remembering, or carrying out simple instructions or even the ability to maintain attention or concentration. Pain can cause all these problems and they are real problems.

Sometimes  the  medication you are taking can wipe you out – make you foggy, fuzzy, slow, and sleepy. That is important evidence in support of your claim for Social Security Disability benefits. For more information, and for more help with your claim, click here or call 727-894-3188.

Posted March 23rd 2008 to Benefits Overview | Comments (0)| Permalink | Trackback |  Print This Post |  Email This Post