SSD Embarrassment

Most people applying for Social Security Disability ("SSD") benefits or Supplemental Security Income benefits ("SSI") understand that their doctors need to support the disability claims.  What most people don't know is that their doctors must support the inability to work at any full time job.  The Social Security Administration ("SSA") evaluates if there are any occupations in the economy that exist "in significant numbers" that a claimant could perform.   The SSA doesn't care if the occupations they find are still in existence, or performed in the same manner, or what the purported jobs pay.  The SSA only cares about denying as many cases as possible, even if their methods are questionable and inaccurate.

The SSA relies on testimony from a "Vocational Expert" ("VE") at hearing.  The VE uses an antiquated publication called the Dictionary of Occupational Titles ("DOT") to come up with jobs that a claimant could do when the claimant can't perform their own occupation.  The DOT was updated in 1977.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that a lot has changed in the last 45 years, especially in the ways jobs are performed.  A lot of the jobs in the DOT don't even exist anymore.  Claimants are continuously denied SSD/SSI benefits when a VE finds jobs in the DOT that claimants supposedly can do, and then the VE uses unreliable methods to estimate how many of these jobs are available nationwide.  The SSA wastes billions of dollars, and can never seem to make the necessary updates and changes to their system to be able to make more accurate assessments and decisions.  It's embarrassing!

It is vitally important that you retain an experienced attorney who specializes in disability and knows how the system works.  We have over three decades of experience working with the SSA and its Administrative Law Judges ("ALJs"), cross examining the medical experts and VEs, which requires a thorough understanding of the DOT and ONET.  Unlike many other disability attorneys, if an ALJ denies your claim, we can appeal your case to Federal Court, where we can succeed in obtaining a new hearing, or an approval of benefits.  While we cannot guarantee the outcome, we can guarantee that we will fight for you to make certain you get a fair hearing.

Please feel free to call our office for a free phone consultation.  We have offices conveniently located on Long Island in both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Approved In Under Two Months

As the Washington Post just reported, the system for processing applications for Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits is more overburdened than ever.  Knowing how to navigate the process is more important than ever.

We represent a 60 year old barber from Fresh Meadows with cancer.  We succeeded in obtaining SSD benefits in less than two months during the time when most claimants are waiting years.  Understanding what was needed, and promptly obtaining and submitting it, enabled us to expedite securing the claimant's benefits.

CE Boondoggle Continues

Time to discuss again the needless demands the State agency makes for a Social Security Disability (“SSD”) claimant to attend a consultative examination (“CE”).

Since the last Century, virtually every CE notice I have received has violated the Social Security regulations.  Demanding a CE means the State agency refuses to believe what the treating doctors say.  The CEs have delayed claimants’ receipt of SSD benefits, wasted taxpayer money, and wasted the time of administrative law judges.  To make matters worse, the State agency has insisted on CEs throughout COVID.

I represent a 47 year old former clerk from Glen Cove with multiple sclerosis (“MS”), bladder cancer and depression.  Despite supportive reports and records from the claimant’s urologist, neurologist and psychiatrist, the State agency denied SSD benefits because the claimant, with a compromised immune system due to cancer, would not attend a CE.

The case was approved today without a hearing.  As soon as an attorney from the Social Security Administration received the case, it was approved OTR.  The four demands for the claimant to attend a CE obviously were unnecessary.

Does the State agency have an unwritten regulation that requires they insist that every claimant attend a CE?  Doubtful.  More likely, the State agency examiners are too lazy or too busy to read the file.  Therefore, the examiners want to disregard all the medical evidence in the file, and just want to rely on what the CE says.

 

ALJ Grossman Reversed Again

Only 14% of cases that the Appeals Council reviews are reversed.  As a statistical matter, the odds of a case being reversed by the Appeals Council twice are an infinitesimal .0196%.  However, those odds increase greatly when a decision of administrative law judge (“ALJ”) Seth Grossman is being reviewed.

ALJ Grossman has a very low approval rate, and a reputation for issuing biased decisions.  As a result, I have filed extensive Complaints and requests for investigations pursuant to Social Security Ruling SSR 13-1 at the request of clients.

Yesterday, the Appeals Council reversed a decision by ALJ Grossman, for the second time.  The Appeals Council determined that Grossman had committed fundamental errors yet again.  Consequently, the Appeals Council ruled that it would be inappropriate for further review by ALJ Grossman, and ordered that the case be reassigned to another ALJ.

Is SSD Permanent? No.

The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) will periodically conduct a continuing disability review (“CDR”) to determine if you remain disabled.  The regulations state that a CDR should be done at least once every three years, unless you have a medical condition that is not expected to improve, in which case the CDR should take place every five to seven years. If the SSA determines that your medical condition has improved, then your Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits will be terminated.

We represent a 34 year old financial services manager who the SSA found disabled in 2018 due to IBS. However, the SSA terminated his benefits on the grounds that his health had improved, and he retained us again. On reconsideration, we were able to obtain reports from the claimant’s doctors that explained how the objective medical evidence supported his persistent functional deficits. As a result, the SSA reversed its decision, and reinstated SSD benefits.

The SSA has been increasingly seeking ways to reduce the number of claimants collecting SSD benefits. You cannot assume that you will continue to receive SSD benefits until you reach retirement age. That is why it is vital that you continue to see your doctors on a regular basis even after you are approved for SSD benefits.  It is equally as important to retain an experienced Social Security Disability attorney if the SSA erroneously terminates your benefits.  Our office offers free phone consultations and we have offices located on Long Island in both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Fraudulent CE's

Social Security constantly sends claimants to Consultative Exams ("CEs"), even when the claimant has supporting medical documents from their own treating doctors.  Social Security's own rules specify that the treating provider is the preferred source, and a CE only needs to be scheduled if a claimant does not submit medical documents from their own doctors.  Nevertheless, Social Security almost always ignores their own regulations, and schedules unnecessary CE's for the claimants to attend.  Unfortunately, most of the time, this is not in the claimant's best interest.  The companies that Social Security hires to perform the CEs, and the doctors who perform them, routinely commit fraud.  If you do attend a CE, it is vital that you note everything that the doctor does and does not do, and the length of the exam.  You should bring someone with you to the CE who can be a witness at a hearing if you do get denied based on the CE.

 

SSA - Is Anyone Listening?

by Susan Golden

The Social Security Administration ("SSA") has problems.  Serious problems.  Years and years of backlogged claims, analysts who don't give a damn, inexperienced employees, and Judges who don't follow the rules.  Unfortunately, we have had claimants pass away, while waiting for a decision on their Social Security Disability claim.  And there are thousands of people across the country who are dying before their claims have been decided. 

We have a client who passed away almost four years ago.  He left behind a wife and two children.  He filed for Social Security Disability benefits on December 5, 2017.  His case, which was supposed to be expedited, went before Judge Carlton at the Bronx Hearing Office on April 12 2019, who erroneously denied the claim, and who took months to make the decision; September 26, 2019 to be exact.  We appealed his case to Federal Court.  On January 29, 2021, a Federal Court Judge made the decision to remand the case back to Judge Carlton for a new hearing.  We immediately sent a letter to Judge Carlton, reminding him the that the claimant had passed away, and that the case was supposed to be expedited, and asked that the hearing be scheduled right away.  The remanded hearing wasn't held until June 9, 2022.   At the hearing, we reminded Judge Carlton that there were no new records to submit because the claimant had passed away.

It's been well over four months since the hearing, and not only has the Judge not made a decision on the claim, he has not even LOOKED at the case since the hearing.  We have spoken to supervisors at the Bronx Hearing Office, mailed and faxed letters to the Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Bronx Hearing Office, and have had the claimant's wife call her local congressman's office.  There has been NO movement at all.  How is this even possible?  The answer is, there are no consequences or repercussions for Judge Carlton, the Bronx Hearing Office, or the SSA.  The way this case has been handled is a disgrace and a travesty.  And it's not the first one and it won't be the last.  No one deserves to be treated like this.  Is anyone listening??