April 2012 Archives

What are the "rules" for SSD when two people in a household have disabilities? I there any difference?

By SSDRC on April 27, 2012 8:47 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
What are the "rules" for SSD when two people in a household have disabilities? Is there any difference?

Basically, there are no rules for Social Security disability beneficiaries with regard to both or two people in the same household receiving disability benefits.

If both are entitled to receive Social Security disability they will both receive their full disability benefit amounts. However, SSI disability beneficiaries are subject to a couples (if they are married )maximum benefit amount that is less than the full SSI disability amount for each person. The 2012 SSI couples amount is $1048.00 per month.







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Will SSDI Disability convert to SSI at retirement age?

By SSDRC on April 26, 2012 4:36 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
"I am receiving SSDI for almost a year for Inflammatory Arthritis and associated auto-immune conditions, etc.. I will be 60 soon and am concerned that at retirement age, my benefits will convert to SSI which is at least $200/mo. less. My attorney told me that the SSDI benefit would not change when I become eligble for retirement. Please let me know what is true . . . as I am permanently disabled. Thanks!!"

Your Social Security disability benefits will not convert to Social Security retirement benefits until you are age 66. You're receiving disability benefits that are equal to your full retirement benefits amount. So there will be no change in your benefits when you turn 66. You will just be receiving full retirement benefits versus disability benefits.







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Getting a Waiver of a Social Security Disability Overpayment

By SSDRC on April 26, 2012 4:29 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
"My brother was receiving SSDI for four years while working part-time. A year and a half ago, he received a notice for a hearing for over-payment and stopped his payments. After SSDI never scheduling said hearing for months, my brother passed away last April at the age of 34. Now my retired parents have received notice from SSDI requiring payment and all their financial records, including IRA holdings, annuities, etc. so they may determine an amount of repayment (approx. $36,000). The original hearing would have determined minimal to no repayment amount but they refused to schedule the hearing. My parents were not his legal guardians. How is this possible?"

It could only be possible if your parents or a parent was a representative payee for your brother. The representative payee is held accountable for benefits paid. They are responsible for notifying Social Security that the person they represent is working.

I would like to add that your parents can file for a waiver of the overpayment. In order to file a waiver your parents would have to provide their financial information. Financial information is used to determine if the repayment amount can be reduced. If your parents were not your brother's representative payee, they need to contact Social Security. If your parents go through the waiver process they will be entitled to a hearing as well. An administrative law judge might determine that they owe nothing or a very low repayment amount. I would suggest filing a waiver and going through the process until they get a chance to see a judge.







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Veterans, Disability Lawyers, and Win Rates

By SSDRC on April 24, 2012 12:17 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
I recently posted at a forum I had seen many times but had never participated in. One of the members had a question about a certain Social Security Disability Website. He had contacted the website and then been contacted back by them. They claimed they could drastically raise his veterans disability rating. I decided to respond to the poster and this is what I wrote:

"I honestly don't know anything about veterans disability. I'm a former disability examiner for the Social Security Administration's DDS, or disability determination service (www.ssdrc.com). However, I would be wary of anyone stating that they could increase a person's disability rating, just as I am wary of certain social security attorneys who advertise a 90% win rate. On that issue, do those attorneys actually get a 90 percent win rate? Yes, but that's only by being extremely selective about the cases they take, effectively cherry-picking only the winners. They achieve those high win ratios that way, then go out and advertise their win ratios to draw attention to their firm or practice so they can continue cherry-picking cases. The best disability attorneys, IMO, are those that get maligned as "the ambulance chasers" of the social security representation field. These are the guys who take every case that walks through the door. Others tend to speak negatively about this approach, but these reps tend to be the ones who work a little harder to win more difficult cases and aren't looking for every guaranteed slam-dunk win (and an easy paycheck). Don't get me wrong. They may be looking for those too, but they're also looking to provide assistance to people who need help. Two of the best ones I came across were former legal aid lawyers (obviously, you don't get rich working for legal aid)."







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Autism either being more precisely identified, or simply increasing?

By SSDRC on April 4, 2012 8:11 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Autism is now appearing in 1 in 88 children according to the CDC. The question is whether or not autism in actually on the rise or is being identified sooner as a result of more precise diagnostic techniques.

I recall reading a few short years ago the notion that autism may be increasing as a result of internet dating, a means by which individuals with more milder forms of autism--and who according to the reports seem to have a higher-than-average representation in the sciences--could meet. A little bit of autism here and a little bit there and then...more autism?

However, I don't think the idea was simply that. One of the proponents of this idea (Susan Greenfield if I recall) seemed to take the position that increased internet usage (and that was a few years ago, say about five or six--online time has increased considerably since then) was actually affecting the development of the brain.

Interestingly enough, I recently read "The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains" by Nicholas Carr. The book is a compelling read and was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction.

Carr also wrote an article for The Atlantic Monthly titled "Is Google making us stupid?". My feeling is yes. Carr wrote that acquiring information through web documents that are extensively hyperlinked provides a disruptive effect between the temporary storage of newly learned information and the physical transfer of this information into areas of the brain that serve as long-term storage.

Basically, the constant flitting about online has the effect of overwhelming what is referred to as our working memory, thus preventing the ability of individuals to retain what they are exposed to. This in turn has a dumbing down effect because it hampers the development of schemas of organized knowledge that, ordinarily, would serve as a mental library that provides context and insight for all the information that we continually come across (and these days, that's a lot).

In short, we should expect upcoming generations of children to be better multi-taskers but with poorer attention spans, less accumulated in-depth knowledge, and, most distressingly, less insight and, perhaps, poorer judgement.

It makes me wonder how difficult things may be for teachers and parents in the coming years.







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