Patchogue Fails Again

We represent a client whose initial application for Social Security Disability ("SSD") benefits falls under the jurisdiction of the Patchogue District Office. We filed the SSD application at the beginning of November. The claim has been a problem from the beginning. The applicant previously filed an application on his own. The Patchogue office erroneously denied that application because its representative made errors concerning the claimant's prior earnings. Since filing his SSD claim last November, we have spoken with three different people at the Patchogue office, one of which was a supervisor. We also received a date-stamped letter from the Patchogue office as proof that they received our letters of representation. 

On January 10, 2018, we spoke with the supervisor, Ms. Sheremeta. We explained that we had spoken with Mr. Parks on December 8, 2017, confirming with him that their office had received our letters of representation, which we had faxed to them in November. We made that call because they had previously told us that they were having problems with their fax, and we wanted to make sure we did not need to mail our letters of representation to them again. 

Ms. Sheremeta spent 15 minutes on the phone with us to correct the problems. Ms. Sheremeta advised us to send the paperwork that was needed to Mr. Hessler, and she would have him re-open and process the claim. We faxed the requested paperwork to Mr. Hessler. We called Patchogue again on January 19, 2018, and spoke with Mr. Powers, who advised us that the case had not been re-processed yet, but that he did see the notes to re-open it. 

Each person we spoke with: Mr. Parks, Ms. Sheremeta, and Mr. Powers, confirmed that they had our letters of representation in the claimant's file. If they did not have our letters, then they would not have been able to discuss anything about the claim with us. 

We called the Patchogue office yet again on February 1, 2018, to follow up on the claim. Ms. Abraham advised us that they did not have our letters of representation, and therefore, she could not give us any information. We explained to her that this was impossible, based on all our previous conversations and correspondence with the Patchogue office. Nonetheless, Ms. Abraham refused to speak with us, and refused to allow us to speak with Ms. Sheremeta. At that point, in total frustration at their ineptitude, we re-faxed our letters of representation along with a cover letter to Ms. Sheremta. 

We called Patchogue the following day, and again spoke with Ms. Abraham. She confirmed that our fax was sitting on Ms. Sheremeta's desk, but as Ms. Sheremeta was out and had not scanned the paperwork into the system, Ms. Abraham told us that she could not speak with us about the claimant's case. 

We called Patchogue yet again today, and spoke with Ms. Kanhai. She asked us for the claimant's information including, their SSN, date of birth, and home address. She also asked us for the claimant's mother's maiden name. We explained to Ms. Kanhai that previously no one ever, including the supervisor, had asked us this question, but she still refused to give us any information regarding the claimant's file. 

The Patchogue District Office is notorious for their negligence, disorganization, and ineptness. As others have told us, they need to get their act together. We have filed a complaint with the office of public affairs. This is no way to run an office, especially one that is supposed to be serving the public and helping our hard working citizens to get disability.