MEDIA LIES ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY DISABIITY

The media lies constantly about the Social Security disability program.  I expect the media to lie; however, it is making it difficult for disabled Americans go get benefits.  Here are some of the worst lies the media is telling us.
  
Social Security benefits are responsible for the growing national deficit. The truth:  Social Security benefits are not included in the national budget.  Social Security is a self-financing program.  Benefits are not allocated by Congress and not included in the national budget.  Social Security benefits are funded by FICA taxes paid by workers, deducted from their pay checks and matched by their employers.  These premiums go into a special fund and benefits are paid out of the fund.  There is one fund for disability benefits and a separate fund for retirement benefits.  There is no provision for the government to pay benefits if these funds become unable to do so.

People are using Social Security disability benefits to replace unemployment benefits.  You cannot receive disability benefits until you provide objective medical proof of a disability.  It takes the average person over 24 months to get a hearing and then there is only a 42 percent chance he will be approved.  The claimant will be examined, prodded, poked, examined some more and his entire medical record examined with a fine toothed comb.  He will be placed under oath, questioned, cross examined and treated like a criminal in many cases. In over 90 per cent of cases, he or she will have to hire a lawyer to get any benefits.  Does this sound like a good replacement for unemployment insurance?

Because the number of disability claims have risen in recent years, that's an indication of massive fraud.  Not true at all.  The population is increasing.  People are living longer.  Baby boomers are aging and getting sick by the millions.  The number of women in the workforce has quadrupled since World War 2.  Social Security's own numbers predicted a peak in claims based on population and demographics.

Crooked doctors sign patients up for Social Security all the time.  The truth is, doctors cannot approve anyone for Social Security benefits.  That decision is reserved by law to the Commissioner of Social Security.  Doctors may provide medical evidence, as they should, but they cannot sign anyone up or approve anyone.  And if the objective medical evidence does not support a doctor's professional opinion, the opinion will be ignored--I promise.  I've seen it happen too many times.  On final thought on this subject, my experience is that doctors usually won't help their patients who are very legitimately disabled because they don't want to get involved.

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 sedentary (sitting) leve
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 testimony.  The vocational expert th
Read more

PARTIALLY FAVORABLE DECISIONS ON DISABILITY

You attended a hearing on your Social Security disability claim.  A few weeks later, you receive a Notice of Decision in the mail that says you have received a Partially Favorable decision.  Does this mean that you are only partially disabled, not fully disabled? ANSWER:  No.  Social Security does not make awards for partial disability.  You are either disabled or not disabled.  There is no such category as "partially disabled" within Social Security law. A "partially favorable" decision means that the administrative law judge has found you to be disabled.  However, he or she has changed some material fact in your application.  Most often, this change involves the established onset date--the date you were found to have become disabled.  For example, in your application you may have alleged that you became disabled on June 1, 2012.  After reviewing the facts of the case, the judge may have decided that you did not become disabled until September 1, 2012.  Theref
Read more