From Social Security: Top Baby Names

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If you're in NC and want help with your Social Security disability claim, call Hall & Rouse, P.C. at 1-866-425-5347

47% Of Disabled Americans Aren't Getting The Help They Need

    From a television station in New York:

A researcher estimates that over 1 million Americans with disabilities aren't getting the benefits they may need.

Zachary Morris, an assistant professor at the Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare, wanted to look at how well a couple of big Social Security programs are working for people.

Morris analyzed data on people between 50 and 64, shy of retirement age, who have work-limiting disabilities.

He found just 47% of these folks, Americans who are theoretically eligible for benefits, get Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income or both. ...

 If you're in NC and want help with your Social Security disability claim, call Hall & Rouse, P.C. at 1-844-425-5347

On Being Disabled And Homeless In Rural America

    I recently talked with a disability client who would become homeless in a few days. Actually, she already was homeless since she's been couch surfing, which is a form of homelessness, but she's about to lose even that. She lives in a rural area with no homeless shelter. There is nowhere for her to go. She has no idea what to do. She needed money immediately but I had nothing to offer. What do I tell her? Hop a bus to an unfamiliar city so she could stay in a dangerous public homeless shelter?

    While Social Security promises to speed up cases for the homeless, in the real world little preference is actually given. This client's case will take months if not years.Yes, I'll ask that her case be labeled as "dire need" but, at least where I am, that's nearly meaningless. 

    Don't sit there and smugly think that, of course, if I really tried, I could get Social Security to act on her case immediately. If you think that, you have no idea how bad things are at Social Security. Immediate help was never available to anyone not already found disabled. We are well past the days when anyone at Social Security could or would do anything to help. I'm sure this gnaws away at many Social Security employees as much as it does me.

    There's nothing unusual about her case. Being homeless in an urban areas is a terrible thing but rural homelessness may be even worse, especially since it draws so little public attention.

 

If you're in NC and want help with your Social Security disability claim, call Hall & Rouse, P.C. at 1-844-425-5347

Why Did The Rate At Which Social Security Disability Claims Were Filed Plummet After 2000?

 

    Answer to the question posed above: It's because Social Security started turning down more and more people. You can still win. It's just harder now.

    Call Hall and Rouse for help with your Social Security disability claim.

Social Security Disability: Working Despite the Pain

Who wants to admit that their bodies have mentally or physically given out? No one I know. Most of the people I have helped with their Social Security Disability would much rather have a steady paycheck from work rather than dealing with Social Security. Generally, you have to be out of work to file for Disability. If you are still working but it is getting more difficult, you may be receiving written warnings about your performance. I know you may want to toss these into the garbage. My advice: Save them. Written warnings about work performance or copies of performance improvement plans can show proof that your health was affecting your ability to work.

If you are recently out of work and there is a shift leader, manager, or company owner who is willing to attest to the problems you had keeping a regular work schedule, ask them to write a statement for you. Just like the other scenario, this can show proof of the way your health was affecting your work.

With that said, a statement from a former employer is not necessary. In disability law, the most weight is placed on medical records and what the records show about your mental and physical function. The combination of medical records plus paperwork from a former employer about the problems you had with performance or attendance can go a long way.

If you are in North Carolina and you need a Social Security disability attorney who will help you gather the documentation that the law requires, call us! 866-425-5347

Top Three Tips for Winning a Social Security Disability Case

Tuesday Tips for the Frustrated Claimant

Injured, sick, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, frequent flare ups, migraine 

headaches—the list goes on. 

All good reasons to file for Social Security disability. All reasons likely to be overlooked by Social Security and end with denied claims. 

What can you do to win your case? The top three tips I would give are these:

 ·         Stay in medical treatment of any sort

Once out of work, it is hard to get treatment because of lack of money and lack of health insurance. You may be worried that you can’t see a specialist, or that your MRI was denied because of the cost. Don’t be. Even going to a local health department produces medical documentation to support disability. Many states have databases of free and charitable clinics. In North Carolina, visit https://ncafcc.org/

 ·         Take medications as-prescribed

We get it. Medications are expensive. Whether the medications are only available at full-cost, or the co-pay is not affordable, people easily find themselves running out of medications with no way to refill them. The problem is that Social Security laws will often judge how your health is doing when you are following prescribed treatment. To get over that hurdle, look into medication assistance programs offered through the Dept of Health and Human Services. In North Carolina, DHHS publishes a county list that you can access by clicking here and then clicking on “Medication Assistance Program Sites.” North Carolina also has a statewide free pharmacy program for uninsured and low income patients https://medassist.org/free-pharmacy-program/

·         Appeal your application when it gets denied

Most applications are denied when sent for the first review. Perhaps the greatest tip: Appeal and Appeal Again. There are policies, both written and unwritten, that lead to applications being denied on the first review. They are likely to be denied again the first time you appeal. Most cases stand their best shots at the administrative hearing level. You only have 60 days to appeal! If you are in North Carolina, and need help with your disability appeal, call us here at Hall & Rouse, 866-425-5347, or click the link on our website hall-rouse.com.  

Get Down In The Weeds

    Let's say you want to really get down in the weeds on Social Security matters. Here's a few places you can go online to see what's happening at the agency that administers Social Security:

• Congressional Research Service -- Posts reports on all kind of things, including Social Security. Tends to be written at the elementary level since they're writing for members of Congress and their staffs.
• FOIA Reading Room -- Social Security posts some of their more popular responses to Freedom of Information requests.
• HALLEX -- An manual for agency employees working on hearings and appeals.
• POMS Recent Changes -- POMS is Social Security's main staff manual.
• ALJ Discussion Board -- Where some of the agency's Administrative Law Judges go to talk about agency matters but it's mostly for wannabe ALJs.
• Disability Stats -- Statistics on Social Security disability claims.
• Emergency Messages -- Important staff instructions but usually not really about emergencies.
• Federal Register -- Where official notices are posted.
• OIG Reports -- Where the agency's Office of Inspector General posts reports on investigations they have completed.
• OMB Regs Review -- Changes to regulations that Social Security has asked the Office of Management and Budget to review.
• Social Security Contracting -- Where Social Security posts information about contractors they are seeking.
  

If you're in NC and want help with your Social Security disability claim, call Hall & Rouse, P.C. at 1-866-425-5347

Don't Be Your Own Worst Enemy!

 

    You probably already know that Social Security takes what seems like forever to act on Social Security disability claims. That's an enormous problem. You're waiting and waiting for Social Security to act while your savings are rapidly dwindling. You worry about being dependent on relatives and friends.

    I'll tell you how many disabled people deal with this problem. They make it worse! How do they make it worse? Faced with Social Security's backlogs and the indignity of filing a claim in the first place, they work hard to convince themselves they don't really need to file a Social Security disability claim because they'll get better and go back to work but they never do get back to work.

    If you've been out of work for more than six months due to illness or injury, the chances of you getting back to anything like regular work for long are slim. If you don't accept this harsh reality, you'll be making a bad situation worse but adding even more time to a process that already takes too long. I've had clients who waited seven years before applying for Social Security disability benefits, all the time fooling themselves into believing they'll get better and go back to work.

    One important thing about this is that applying for Social Security disability benefits doesn't prevent you from going back to work. Depending upon when you go back to work, how much you earn and how long you're able to do it, the work may not make a bit of difference. In any case, you're not going to get in trouble as long as you don't try to conceal the work from Social Security.

If you're in NC and want help with your Social Security disability claim, call Hall & Rouse, P.C. at 1-844-425-5347

There's Help For Frustrated Social Security Disability Claimants

If you're in NC and want help with your Social Security disability claim, call Hall & Rouse, P.C. at 1-844-425-5347

What's A BNC?

     You may have noticed that correspondence from Social Security these days lacks a Social Security number. Instead there's a BNC. You may have even noticed that the BNC changes from time to time. What is this BNC?

    The BNC is an attempt to protect your security. They're afraid that correspondence intended for you will be stolen. With the name and Social Security number a person up to no good could try some form of identity theft. Instead they're substituting a number they create for you and they change it from time to time. They know who the BNC refers to. They don't expect you to remember your BNC or to use it.

If you're in NC and want help with your Social Security disability claim, call Hall & Rouse, P.C. at 1-866-425-5347

Twelve Secrets For Doing Your Best At Your Social Security Disability Hearing

 

1. Don't dress up. It's not necessary. It tends to make you look healthier than you are.
2. Other than a wedding ring, leave the jewelry at home.
3. Keep makeup to a minimum.
4. No fancy fingernails.
   
5. To the extent it's practical, cover up tattoos.
6.  The hearing isn't a math test. You can't study for it.
7.  Tell the truth. If you're not going to win the case on the truth, you're not going to win the case. Telling the truth also means that you don't try to minimize your problems. If you want a fair decision, you have to tell the judge what's keeping you from working even though you might not want to admit to weakness. They're not handing out medals for bravery!
   
8.  If you don't remember something, just say you don't remember. If you don't know, say you don't know. That's part of telling the truth. 
9.  Don't worry about calling the judge "Your honor" or anything like that. Just be polite. 
10.  Don't worry if you can't remember dates. No one does. The judge has a lot of medical and other records that establish when things happened.
11. When you're asked a question, listen to it and answer just that question. Don't come in prepared with a speech you want to give. Just let your attorney shape the narrative and ask the questions that need to be asked and answered.
12.  Don't expect a decision on the date of the hearing because it's not likely to happen.

If you're in NC and want help with your Social Security disability claim, call Hall & Rouse, P.C. at 1-866-425-5347