Hints using SSDI!

[sashaming1]

Any hints using SSDI?

[rjoneslaw]

What do u mean?

What kind of hints?

[sashaming1 in reply to rjoneslaw]

If you've used SSDI before, then, in your experience, what did you learn that made it more successful, quicker, easier. Any other advice that may help in pursuing the SSDI experience. Thanks.

[hairbrain4]

Be as thorough as possible when filling out the forms. List every detail possible even if you don't think it is significant. Make sure your doctor fills them out with the same info that you do so there is no conflicting information. Be patient. If you aren't accepted the first time them get an SSDI lawyer & you will be approved especially if you can no longer work. I was approved the first time by giving every detail I could and then going to the follow-up doctor visits.

[Hidden]

I got an attorney from the beginning. It was comforting to me. I filled out each form in one sitting so you could see how quickly my handwriting deteriorated. As much as I hated putting it on paper, I detailed all my problems with ADL's. Like sitting on the floor of the shower because I was too weak to stand. I was an accountant and couldn't balance my own checkbook. It was hard because I had so many coping mechanisms to hide my disability.

It also helped that I had a 30+ year work history, per the attorney.

[Tina11762]

My best advice is to hire an attorney. It does not cost you anything really. They take whatever fee out of your first payment. They are only allowed a certain amount by the government and all attorneys receive the same amount. They know what they’re doing and this way it’s not a problem with missing deadlines. Are used an attorney and I was approved for SSDI in 12 days. To be honest though I am a pretty severe case. Basically I am a functioning quadriplegic . The attorneys fee is either 25% of your backpay or $6000 which ever is lower. Since I did not have any backpay I did not have to pay the attorney. I know it may seem like a lot but in the long run I really believe it’s worth it. Good luck and keep us posted.

[bxrmom]

Be as thorough as you can. Sometimes it feels like you are repeating your answers to the various question but that is okay. I was lucky to be approved on the first try. When I tried to consult an attorney as my family had suggested, they told me I had to be denied first (and maybe a second time) before they could take my case. That is just my experience.

Best of luck to you.

Jessie

[Cutefreckles72]

Hi sashaming1, At first I went online and filled out the SSDI application and I called a disability attorney. I filled out the application from my attorney's office sent it back with letter I requested from my doctor stating what my illness is on paper. The letter stated the doctor's names, title and address of his office. Now I am in process of waiting on SSI accept or decline. I couldn't use my Social Security Disability because I haven't worked enough years to receive it so I am going for Supplemental Security Income. I just hope it goes through.

[sashaming1 in reply to Cutefreckles72]

Thanks! I hope it goes through for you too.

[kearnan in reply to Cutefreckles72]

If you get SSI, it's a much lower amount but then you qualify for medicaid which pays for practically everything. Good luck.

[Cutefreckles72 in reply to kearnan]

And that's what I waiting for. Because I wouldn't receive SSDI at all. I was told that by the SSD representative in my second interview. I like said its a process.

[Cutefreckles72]

Thanks and Good luck. Its a process of ups and downs. Hang in there. 👍

[Iona60]

I was still working an hour a day in my same occupation, which the SS office listed as the reason the I was turned down the first time and for the appeal. By the time of my judicial hearing, two and 1/2 years later, I had sold my practice and was no longer working. I then used an SSDI attorney that helped me to gather letters from my neurologist and the cognitive testing place. The judge quoted these letters verbatim in his favorable decision. I think that the letters carried more weight than the medical records. In hindsight, I wish that I would have I had obtained the letters and used them with my initial application. To the best of my recollection, to qualify for SSDI for MS you need to have an impairment in two limbs (I think using a cane counted as one arm and one leg for me), and a cognitive impairment (being unable to "persist and maintain" counted for me), Hope this helps.

[kearnan in reply to Iona60]

70% percent of people who apply for SSDI get denied. The only ones that get approved the first time, like me, are those with stage iv breast cancer and ALS and I believe pancreatic cancer. There is still an UNPAID five month waiting period when approved. You cannot be working when you apply. If SSDI sees that you are working, then they will not consider you disabled. I think they hope people give up eventually. I did not apply when first diagnosed....I had some money. When I transferred to another cancer center, the nurse navigator did all the work (I am not into doing paperwork and probably would not have applied for a while.) She just had me sign a piece of paper and she gathered all the medical records and filled out all the forms. But what surprised me and what I didn't know is that I expected SSDI would count the day the application was submitted. But they did not with me. They actually went back a year and a half to the first time I was diagnosed at another hospital. I even tried to work after that, one job for three months, another job for a month. But SSDI did not count that against me (if I would have stayed for six months in one job, that would have hurt me.) They considered that I tried but it was "failed attempts." So they went back a year and a half to the first day I was told at the other cancer center that I had cancer, deducted the five months of the UNPAID waiting period and I got $25,000 in back pay. That was a shocker. I was told that it would take me longer to get the backpay than it would my first paid SSDI month. But because I was not working anymore and had no income coming in and I had not used an attorney or collected any long-term disability payments (they check all this first), I actually got my $25,000 a month before my SSDI started. I could not believe it.

[sashaming1]

Thank you to everyone who had some advice for me! I appreciate the help.