There are no hidden expenses. The only expenses that you may have are the cost of medical reports from doctors. Outside of the rare federal court fees, there are no costs to file an SSD application.
We don’t charge for phone calls, routine overhead or our travel to the hearing, no matter how much it costs us.

16.  If you win Social Security Disability, you get Medicare twenty-nine months after your onset date or two years after the first date you were eligible for cash benefits, whichever is later.

17.  If you get Supplemental Security Income, you receive Medicaid effective the day you applied for SSI.

18.  To begin the evaluation process, the adjudicator first checks to see if you are eligible by having worked long enough. Social Security will then consider your age, education, work history and the medical evidence.

19.  The best report from a mental health professional is the same type he would write if he were explaining your psychiatric condition to other professionals.
First, he should give a long history. What were the initial symptoms, when did they start, when did you start noticing them, when did they become significant?
He should then mention what treatment he gave you and how well it has worked or not worked.
He should give the diagnosis and the prognosis. He should explain the basis for the diagnosis and the prognosis; that is, how he made these determinations and what psychological tests were used.

He should also describe specifically, what the tests found.

Lastly, he should summarize the impact that your mental condition has on your ability to work and function. He should describe whether it limits your ability to concentrate, focus, withstand criticism from supervisors or work on a regular eight-hour-day basis. He should describe what impact stress has had on your ability to work with others, to do so under deadlines, to multi-task and deal with the general public or coworkers and to remember instructions and job responsibilities

20.  Each state has a separate state agency that is responsible for making the initial medical determination on a disability case. The amount of time depends on your state. Generally six months is not unusual. In those states with reconsideration, reconsideration can also take six months.

21.  How long is the process?  It is rare to get a hearing in less than one year. In some parts of the country, it takes two years; the average is well over one year.

In some hearing offices, judges will try to weed out the cases they can easily grant because the medical evidence is so strong. If you have a very strong case or very serious condition, like bipolar disorder, major depression or ocd, we often will write an “on-the-record” letter to the judge hoping to expedite the matter. We summarize the overwhelming evidence of your disability, hoping that the judge will grant benefits without a hearing.
However, some judges never grant on-the-record letters and if you are assigned to one of them, you must wait for the hearing.
In order to be granted “on-the-record,” you must have very strong psychiatric evidence and it must be current at the time the letter is being written.
Because the Social Security definition of “disability” requires a consideration of your age, education, and work history, generally workers who have worked for many years and are over 50 have a better chance of getting an on-the-record decision than those under 50.

22.  You are entitled to be on disability until you stop being disabled or enter retirement age. The law requires that all recipients be reviewed every three years to see if they remain disabled; however, Social Security can make that period longer if it considers your condition to be refractory (resistant to change).

23.  The Social Security process is not easy or uncomplicated. There are complicated and legalistic deadlines to meet and reports to be obtained. You have to know what sort of information to get from your doctors. At the hearings there are often doctors and vocational experts who testify, and it’s almost impossible for a person untrained in these areas to effectively cross-examine them. All of our representatives at your hearing are fully trained and have been well-briefed by our own psychological experts. Many have had over 10 years experience and have represented thousands of claimants.

24.  If there is nothing complicated about your particular circumstances –  no Workers’ Compensation offset or State pension issue – benefits can be paid in as little as 60 days. For Supplemental Security claimants, if there is an emergency financial situation, you might be able to get benefits processed more quickly by going directly to the local office and explaining your dire financial needs.

25.  There is no “face to face” until you get to an administrative hearing.   Generally, your first opportunity to explain the debilitating effects of your psychiatric disorder to someone in person is at the Administrative Law Judge hearing.

26.  Often, the judge will question you directly at the hearing, though some prefer that your representative ask the questions. At the hearing, your representative can ask whatever questions he thinks important. Generally, you will testify about your history and psychological symptoms. Your doctors and psychologists usually supply evidence in the form of written reports.

27.  Very rarely do doctors ever appear at the hearing on your behalf. Occasionally, the government has non-examining doctors who appear and testify. Your doctors will usually supply medical information by writing a letter or filling out various forms. Your case will not be dismissed if you don’t have your doctor appear. In fact, less than one percent of hearings have your doctors appearing.

28.  After acceptance, if the government looks at your case again and decides you are no longer disabled, but you and your doctors don’t agree, you are allowed to continue your monthly benefits while waiting the one or two years required for most hearings. If on the other hand, you were ceased for some other reason, such as finding some fraudulent activity in your case, they will not be continued.

29.  Unless you have done something wrong, you are not at fault in requesting your benefits to continue until the hearing.  But when your hearing is scheduled, what if the hearing officer decides against you?  Do you have to return the benefits received while waiting?
You then only need show that it would be a financial hardship to pay them back. It is very rare to find a claimant who is so financially comfortable that Social Security benefits do not represent a significant part of their income. However, if they lose, those who can afford to pay back the benefits will be required to do so.

30.  What effect would your working part-time have on your benefits? Generally, after you win benefits, you are allowed to work part time for a limited amount of money, approximately under $800 a month. If you are working while applying for disability, you will simply be denied if the work is substantial, that is, more than a few hours a week. However, these questions depend on how much you are working, for whom you are working, how much you are being paid and how long you’ve done it. Those questions simply cannot be answered in general.

31.  The government will encourage you to return to work at any time you feel able to do so, even if your mental condition has not improved. Some people find that their condition has not significantly improved but they would rather work through the pain than stay home.
In these cases, the government allows work attempts. You are then allowed to keep your monthly benefits for up to 9 months while you are trying to work. For people who can’t return to their former job, but who desire re-training, the government will provide training if you try to learn a job that is within your capabilities, perhaps, less stressful. You can keep your Medicare as well for an extended period.

32.  Congress has increasingly made it more difficult for claimants with drug or alcohol issues to win. If drug or alcohol abuse is a “material” part of your disability, that is, you would not be disabled if you didn’t consider it, then even if you are disabled you are not eligible for benefits. However, if drinking is unrelated to your disability or if it is no longer material to your disability, you are still eligible to receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income benefits.

33.  Children under 18 can receive SSI benefits only. However, the standards for winning a child’s benefits are much harder. Children can also receive benefits if an eligible parent is psychiatrically disabled, retired or deceased. They can receive them until they graduate high school or until age 18, whichever is later. The amount they receive depends on how much the adult receives. Certain adults who never earned very much money may find that the children are not able to receive benefits.

34.  The amount of benefits that children can receive cannot exceed 50 percent of what the adult wage earner is receiving. So if you won your case and you were getting $1000 in Social Security benefits, your children cannot receive more than $500. If you have three children, each of them receives one-third of the $500. If you have only one child, the child receives the entire amount.

35.  What if your history includes working in another country?  There are many countries that the United States has arrangements with that permit work history in the other country to count towards work history in the US. It is a treaty with each country. Generally, these are more common in the Western industrial countries that have similar types of Social Security Disability benefit programs.

36.  How is the amount of benefits determined?  Generally, the more money you made, the more you will get back in Social Security benefits. However, it’s not necessarily a direct relationship.

37. Why should you choose us to fight for you?  First, our staff is highly trained and competent.  I am a clinical psychologist and screen every case first. I’ve been doing psychiatric disability evaluations in my office for many years and know these cases inside and out. We have extremely high standards for our representatives. Our people work long hours, are constantly being vigorously re-trained, and we take a great deal of pride in our accomplishments.
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To receive:  Preliminary Evaluation for Disability Benefits
To return to:  The Psychiatric Disability Office

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