Saturday, July 23, 2011
How to Get Disability Benefits Fast!!
What Can I Do To Speed Up My Social Security Disability Claim
In this section, I will discuss what everyone who has an SSD or SSI claim should be doing to make sure there Social Security disability case is decided as quickly as possible.
When filling out your application it is very important that you answer all the questions asked of you. If you don't you will delay your claim because Social Security will review your application, and then have to get back to you for the additional information you left out.
If Social Security tells you they need certain information, even if this is information you have already sent them, make sure to respond with the information they are looking for as quickly as possible. Another thing you can do is to make sure that all of your medical records that are favorable to your case have been submitted to Social Security.
If you have a lawyer then you should make sure to stay in touch with your lawyer every couple of months to make sure either Social Security or your lawyer has been able to get the medical evidence needed for a decision to be made on your case. If you want to have a good chance at winning at application, it is important that you include opinion evidence from your doctors that explains your medical condition and limitations your condition imposes on you that prevent you from working.
How to Get a Quicker Social Security Disability Decision by "Dire Need" Letter?
Social Security understands and has rules in place for individuals applying for Social Security disability or SSI that need faster processing of their claim which they call "critical cases" which includes a "dire need". The rules for quicker processing of claims at the hearing level can be found in HALLEX I-2-1-40 and appeals Council cases in HALLEX I-3-1-51. These rules note, that there are five situations warrant critical case processing procedures. The first situation is when the claimant's illness is terminal this is called a TERI case. The second situation, (for veterans applying for Social Security Disability) is a "military service casualty case" which is when injury occurred on or after October 1, 2001 and these are also referred to as MSCC.
What Happens to Your Case if it is Designated as "Critical"?
If your case is designated as critical for any of the five reasons I noted in the above section, the hearing office handling your case must immediately start the process of expediting your case. This means they should review your case to see if an on the record fully favorable decision is appropriate. If it is found that a fully favorable decision cannot be made without a hearing, then the hearing office is required to speed up the pre-hearing development and schedule your hearing at the earliest opportunity. Management at the hearing office is responsible for tracking the progress of critical cases to make sure they are getting expedited treatment. Not only is the hearing office required to give you a hearing as quickly as possible, but the writing of the decision is also supposed to be done quicker.
Is It Now More Difficult to Get SSDI and SSI Decision Faster Based on "Dire Need"?
There has been a lot of discussion among Social Security disability lawyers, and I have also found in my practice that it has become recently more difficult to get critical case status based on dire need. I have to assume one reason for this is the poor economy and, therefore increased number of requests for claimants cases to be designated as critical cases do to dire need. It is difficult to say whether this is the case in all hearing offices, but I would imagine this will be a big topic at the next NOSSCR conference. This is a conference run by an organization of Social Security disability representatives, which I attend two times a year, and I will report back any information I find out at the next conference regarding the difficulties in speeding up Social Security disability decisions based on dire need. What you need to know now is that if you're going to send Social Security a dire need letter to get a quicker SSDI or SSI decision you should include as much supporting evidence as possible to help your chances of speeding up your Social Security disability claim. The last section is a relevant press release from Social Security which claims it will help tens of thousands of claimants get faster Social Security disability decisions.
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