HUNTSVILLE, A HUB OF SOCIAL SECURITY ACTIVITY

Huntsville, AL is a busy hub of activity involving Social Security disability claims.


As a disability advocate in Huntsville, I represent claimants in hearings that take me to Florence, Gadsden, Jasper or Birmingham.  Quite often I travel up to Franklin or Nashville, TN to represent a claimant.  Many of these claimants live in or around Huntsville.


Social Security attempts to keep hearings within a 75 mile radius of the claimant's home.  But because some hearing offices are more backlogged than others, cases that would normally be heard in North Alabama may be transferred to a hearing office Franklin.


Most claimants don't object if it means getting a hearing sooner and possibly getting paid quicker.


As I have reported elsewhere, the waiting time required for a disability hearing seems to be shrinking - a little.  The national average wait to get before a Social Security judge is still around 14 months.  Most of the hearing offices in North Alabama and Middle Tennessee have processing times slightly below the national average.


I think it is very important to file a disability claim as soon as it becomes likely that you will be out of work for 12 months or more due to a physical or mental condition.  About 30 percent of those claimants will get approved within 120 days.  The remaining 70 percent must go on to the appeal/hearing process that can take 12 to 18 months to complete. An earlier filing date can also protect more of the retroactive benefits--or back pay--that you may be eligible to receive.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GETTING MONEY FROM SSDI

SSDI stands for Social Security Disability Insurance .  When you first began working, the Government deducted a percentage of your wages, called a FICA tax.  This continued as long as you worked, in most cases.  This money was matched by your employer and set aside in a government trust fund to help you if you later became disabled and could not work. SSDI is a type of government sponsored insurance program, usually called "Social Security disability insurance."  To get benefits out of SSDI, you must prove  that you have a medical disability so severe that you cannot work any full-time job; that this disability has lasted, or is expected to last, for at least 12 consecutive months. That sounds simple but Social Security has made it rather difficult to prove that you are disabled.  One reason is that their definition of 'disability' is so strict.  You usually must prove that you cannot perform even simple, unskilled work at the sed...
Read more

POST HEARING EVIDENCE

Many people assume that a Social Security disability case is over when the hearing has been held.  This isn't always the case.  Often there is post hearing work that should be done to achieve the best chance of a favorable decision. Everyone at a disability hearing works under pressure.  This includes the claimant, the representative, the vocational expert and even the administrative law judge.  Hearings are generally limited to less than one hour.  The judge will ask questions that place the claimant under stress to answer correctly.  The representative or attorney will be asked to respond to procedural issues or points of law that place him or her under pressure.  The judge must constantly conduct the hearing so that it follows Social Security laws, rules and regulations.  Further, the judge must form accurate hypothetical questions for the vocational expert based on the medical and vocational evidence in the file and upon the claimant's testi...
Read more

CAN YOU GET DISABILITY FOR SLEEP DISORDERS? HOW?

Many of my clients who file for Social Security disability have severe sleep disorders.  The question is, do these sleep problems equate to disability? The answer is, how do the sleep problems restrict the ability to perform full-time work?  What are the symptoms?  How frequent and how severe are the symptoms. Symptoms of insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, narcolepsy or other sleep disorders often include: excessive daytime sleepiness fatigue loss of memory lack of concentration, persistence and pace irritability - unable to get along with supervisors, co-workers or customers at work If the medical record indicates treatment for these symptoms which has failed, then a finding of disability may be appropriate.  For example, if a person has obstructive sleep apnea which can be corrected by using a CPAP machine, then it is not disabling.  If a CPAP has been tried and failed to fix the problem, then we have valid medical problems that may hel...
Read more