Social Security Disability Lawyer Blog

Myth # 1: The Social Security Administration (SSA) Staff Are Eager to Help You.
The job of the SSA's staff is not to help you personally, but to assist you in completing and adjudicating your application. Unlike advocates or social workers, the SSA's staff will not advocate on your behalf. It's your responsibility to check and be sure that the staff orders your medical records. Furthermore, you must obtain any medical evidence that's more than a year old and get doctors who have treated you to write statements on your behalf.

Myth # 2: You Don't Need a Lawyer early in the claims process. Sometimes a staff member at SSA will advise you against retaining an attorney early in the process. However, hiring an experienced lawyer is advantageous at any stage during your claim, because the chances of having your application approved will increase significantly with a lawyer's help and expertise. The attorney can help you obtain and submit to SSA a complete set of medical records. Further, the attorney may also be able to submit custom forms from your treating physicians ("Residual Functional Capacity" forms) that will greatly improve your chances of winning your claim early.

Myth # 3: You Should Be Dramatic at the Social Security Disability HearingDo not dress sloppily and try to act needy and miserable at your hearing just to convince the judge that you're deserving of Social Security Disability benefits. It's not good to dress and act overly formal at your hearing, either, but don't behave in a way that would make the judge assume that you're exaggerating your condition. Otherwise, the judge will think you're putting on a show and your appeal could be denied.

Myth #4: You Do Not Need a Social Security Disability Attorney Because You Can Do Everything By Yourself.
You're not legally required to hire a Social Security Disability attorney, but most people applying for disability benefits are unable to do everything by themselves because of their fragile health condition. That's why they're applying for disability benefits in the first place!

And contrary to popular belief, the job of Social Security Disability attorneys does not merely consist of showing up at court. They do a lot behind the scenes that clients don't see. Their responsibilities include requesting medical records and statements from doctors, framing legal arguments, researching medical conditions, preparing for hearings, and much more.

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Being an authorized representative, having a joint bank account with a beneficiary, or having a power of attorney does not make one a representative payee. In order to become a representative payee, one must apply for the position and be appointed for it by the SSA.

A Representative Payee's Responsibilities
The main responsibilities of a representative payee are to use the beneficiary's Social Security Disability payments to pay for current and foreseeable needs of the beneficiary and save any benefits that currently aren't needed. Representative payees also have to keep records of payments and provide the SSA with receipts showing how the funds were used or saved on the beneficiary's behalf. On a periodic basis, the SSA will request written reports from the representative payee that detail how the funds were spent or saved.

If a representative payee does not live with the beneficiary, he should visit the beneficiary at his home on a regular basis and consult with his caretakers to remain aware of his needs and condition. A representative payee is also required to report any events to the SSA that would affect the payment amount or the beneficiary's right to receive payments.

Other responsibilities of representative payees include helping the beneficiary get medical treatment when necessary, returning any payments to which the beneficiary is not entitled, and providing benefit information to medical facilities or social service agencies that serve the beneficiary. Examples of things that a representative payee cannot do include signing legal documents (other than Social Security documents) on behalf of the beneficiary and putting a beneficiary's payments in his own account or another person's account.

If a representative payee becomes unable to serve as a payee or there is a change of circumstances that would affect his performance, he is required to notify the SSA of these changes. Furthermore, once he stops serving as a payee, he must return any conserved funds to the SSA.

Do You Need a Representative Payee?

If you have a disability that meets the Social Security Administration's (SSA) guidelines and have plenty of medical evidence on your side, your claim might be approved at the application level. If your application is denied, however, you must file a request for reconsideration. If your request for reconsideration is also denied, you will have to request a hearing before an administrative judge. Most claims have to pass through all three of these stages (initial request, reconsideration, and hearing) before receiving approval.

Why the Process Is So Slow

There are a number of reasons why the process of getting a Social Security Disability claim approved is so slow. For one, there is a backlog of disability cases filed with the SSA. Factors that have contributed to this backlog include the economic recession and the aging workforce, both of which have led to an increase in applications.

Nevertheless, the Social Security Disability claims process has always taken a long time. It is an inherently lengthy process because you must file the claim, which is then forwarded to your state's disability agency for a medical determination. At this stage, a state disability examiner will collect your medical records from places where you've received treatment and review them on behalf of the SSA. If your medical records aren't current or thorough enough, you will be required to attend a consultative medical exam. The disability examiner will write a disability medical determination based on your medical records, the results of the consultative medical exam, and other evidence.

If you receive a letter from the SSA stating that your claim for benefits was denied, you have 60 days to file a request for reconsideration. It usually takes three to four months to receive a decision regarding your request for reconsideration, but sometimes it can take over six months. Sadly, less than a quarter of claims are approved at the reconsideration level.

If your request for reconsideration is denied, you will have another 60 days to file an appeal. At this stage, you will be required to attend a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). However, it can take a year or longer for you to get your hearing scheduled because of the hearings backlog, so by the time the hearing actually takes place, you may already be two years into the claims process.

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