Social Security Act

New Allowances for Social Security Disability Claims, Social Security Disability Lawyers

Social Security Disability lawyers of Florida and Georgia Announce new Disease Status for your Social Security Disability Claims Today

Social Security, announced 52 new Compassionate Allowances conditions, primarily involving neurological disorders, cancers and rare diseases. According to Social Security, the Compassionate Allowances program fast-tracks disability decisions to ensure that Americans with the most serious disabilities receive their benefit decisions within days instead of months or years. Commissioner Astrue made the announcement during his remarks at the World Orphan Drug Congress near Washington, D.C.

“Social Security will continue to work with the medical community and patient organizations to add more conditions,” Commissioner Astrue said. “With our Compassionate Allowances program, we quickly approved disability benefits for nearly 61,000 people with severe disabilities in the past fiscal year, and nearly 173,000 applications since the program began.”

The Compassionate Allowances initiative identifies claims where the nature of the applicant’s disease or condition clearly meets the statutory standard for disability. With the help of sophisticated new information technology, the agency can quickly identify potential Compassionate Allowances and then quickly make decisions.

Social Security launched the Compassionate Allowances program in 2008 with a list of 50 diseases and conditions. The announcement of 52 new conditions, effective in August, will increase the total number of Compassionate Allowances conditions to 165. The conditions include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, a number of rare genetic disorders of children, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, immune system conditions, and other disorders. In his speech that opened the Congress, Commissioner Astrue thanked the National Institutes of Health for research they conducted which helped identify many of the conditions added to the list.

The agency also is improving its online disability application process, which is already substantially shorter than the standard paper application. Starting April 21, 2012, adults who file for benefits online will have the option to electronically sign and submit their Authorization to Disclose Information to the Social Security Administration (Form SSA-827). This improvement allows applicants to complete disability applications in a streamlined online session, rather than printing, signing, and mailing paper authorization forms to Social Security offices.

In March, Social Security approved eight research projects through its Disability Determination Process Small Grant Program. This new program aims to improve the disability process through innovative research by graduate students focusing on topics such as the Compassionate Allowances program, Wounded Warriors initiative, homelessness and SSI, and disability enrollment issues.

New Compassionate Allowances Conditions

  • Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome
  • Alobar Holoprosencephaly
  • Alpers Disease
  • Alpha Mannosidosis
  • Carcinoma of Unknown Primary Site
  • Cerebrotendinous Xanthomatosis
  • Child Neuroblastoma
  • Child Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
  • Chondrosarcoma with multimodal therapy
  • Cornelia de Lange Syndrome-Classic Form
  • Ewings Sarcoma
  • Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma with metastases
  • Fucosidosis – Type 1
  • Galactosialidosis – Early Infantile Type
  • Glioma Grade III and IV
  • Hallervorden-Spatz Disease
  • Hepatoblastoma
  • Histiocytosis
  • Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome
  • Hydranencephaly
  • Hypocomplementemic Urticarial Vasculitis
  • Hypophosphatasia Perinatal lethal Form
  • I Cell disease
  • Infantile Free Sialic Acid Storage Disease
  • Juvenile Onset Huntington Disease
  • Kufs Disease Type A and B
  • Lissencephaly
  • Lymphomatoid Granulomatosis Grade III
  • Malignant Brain Stem Gliomas – Childhood
  • Malignant Melanoma with metastases
  • Mastocytosis Type IV
  • Medulloblastoma with metastasis
  • Merkel Cell Carcinoma with metastases
  • Myocolonic Epilepsy and Ragged Red Fibers Syndrome
  • Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis
  • Obliterative Bronchiolitis
  • Ohtahara Syndrome
  • Orthochromatic Leukodystrophy with Pigmented Glia
  • Pearson Syndrome
  • Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease-Classic Form
  • Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease-Connatal Form
  • Peripheral Nerve Cancer – metastatic or recurrent
  • Perry Syndrome
  • Rhabdomyosarcoma
  • Rhizomelic Chondrodysplasia Punctata
  • Schindler Disease Type 1
  • Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome
  • Spinal Nerve Root Cancer- metastatic or recurrent
  • Stiff Person Syndrome
  • Tabes Dorsalis
  • Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome
  • Xeroderma Pigmentosum

When Do I Need a Social Security Disability lawyer ?

A Social Security Disability Lawyer Can Help You

As is the case with any government process, legal intervention can make the critical difference between success and failure. A social Security Disability lawyer familiar with the Social Security benefits process can protect you and protect your rights to your social security disability claim.

if you are disabled and unable to work, you must initiate a claim for Social Security disability, or ssi based on disability, and get it filed immediately. A social security disability lawyer can help. Disability claims often take a very long time to process. Waiting so long and getting disapproved can be very stressful. It is the exception that gets processed quickly, the first time around. An experienced Social Security disability lawyer will help you avoid pitfalls created by filing too late and being denied your claim. Many claimants are denied do to very simple errors and just lack of knowledge of the SSD system. Your Social Security disability lawyer will keep you out of trouble. Thousands of people with disabilites are waiting months to get through an appeal of their denied disability case.

Claimants with mental disorders living with family members are most likely to be improperly denied by Social Security Administration adjudicators. A social Security disability lawyer can help you thru this process. It is critically important for family members or other caregivers to provide your lawyer with as detailed information as possible about specific tasks you can or cannot do.

If you have a physical illness or mental condition that is expected to prevent you from working for at least a year or that will result in your death, you may be eligible for social security disability benefits. Many cases of toxic exposure fall inot this category. If you do not present a strong case you could have your claim denied. You may be rejected because you did not file properly. About 70% of initial social security disability claims get rejected. That is why you should hire a competent social security disability lawyer.

Look for a social security disability lawyer who is experienced in handling all types of disability cases. You obviously want a lawyer who is knowledgeable about the social security system and understands what it takes to win social security disability benefits for their client. The fact is, if you re applying for social security disability benefits, you are already dealing with enough issues and taking on filing a Social Security disability claim may just be too overwhelming. A social security disability lawyer will do everything for you as they guide and advise you every step of the way. It is imperative that you have this support and assistence.

Application

When you decide to pursue getting benefits you need to fill out the initial application. This can be done by phone, in person, or online. You must fill out an application and acquire medical records. A good social security disability lawyer will develop your claim based upon your work history, age, impairments, and how you reached the point of being unable to work. They will also assist in obtaining the medical evidence necessary to support your claim.

The finished application is then sent to Disability Determination Services (DDS). This is where your initial claim will be reviewed, not at your local Social Security Administration office. Again about 60 to 70% of these initial claims are rejected. If your claim is rejected, your social security disability lawyer will help with the appeal. This is much better then attempting to go it alone where the disability claims interview lasts about one hour.

Reconsideration

You and your SSD lawyer will have 60 days to request having your file reviewed again. This is called Reconsideration. Your social security disability lawyer will handle this request for you. During "Reconsideration" your claim is reviewed again by the Disability Determination Services (DDS). Unfortunately, the chances of a successful review are very slim. At this point many folks just give up. Don t! The next step is a hearing. It is important and a must to have a disability lawyer for theis process.

Appeal/Hearing

Social Security hopes that every decision they make about your Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claim is correct. But, somtimes decisions are made that are not in your favor. That is waht a social security disability lawyer is for. A social security disability lawyer will carefully review all the information in your case and help to overturn decisions that affect your eligibility or your benefit amount.

When a decision is made on your claim, you will be sent a letter explaining the decision. If you do not agree with the decision, you can appea it with the help of a sicial security disability lawyer. and to have them look at your case again.

When you ask for an appeal, we will look at the entire decision, even those parts that were in your favor. If our decision was wrong, we will change it.

You have 60 days to request a hearing. If at this point you still don t have a social security disability lawyer, we strongly recommended that you have one for this hearing. Most claims are won at an administrative hearing,

The hearing will have an Administrative Law Judge who will decide whether or not you will be awarded benefits. The wait time to get this hearing may vary greatly, but it may take over a year to finally have a hearing scheduled. It would be a shame to not be fully prepared, and going to this hearing without a social security disability lawyer would greatly reduce your chances of successfully winning.

A social security disability lawyer will prepare your whole case and prep you before the hearing where the judge will ask you a number of questions. Using an experienced social security disability lawyer who is familiar with the presiding judge is to your advantage because your lawyer can prepare you for the questions that your specific judge is most likely to ask. One thing that many people don t realize is that the files the judge now has will be outdated since a number of months have passed from the initial application. When you request a hearing your file is transferred to the Office of Hearings without any updated information. If you are represented by a social security disability lawyer, he/she will be sure to supply all updated records, as well as get written supporting statements from your healthcare providers to be presented at the time of your hearing.

If you have just hired a social security disability attorney at this stage, he/she will look over your file, see why you have been declined in the previous stages, and then create a strategy that presents your story in the most compelling way. Those folks who choose not to have legal representation still have the opportunity to look over their file, but may not understand most of it or know how to best present their case before the Administrative Law Judge.

There are still legal options available if your application is again declined. If your social security disability lawyer feels that there was some error on the judge s part he/she may appeal to the Appeals Council. If the appeal is accepted, the council will review your claim and either overturn the decision or return it to the original judge. If denied you may still appeal to Federal Court in which case your social security disability lawyer will file a petition.

As you can see from this description of the process for filing and appealing for social security disability benefits, there are many situations along the way where having expert legal advice would be to your benefit.

There really are no disadvantages to hiring a competent social security disability lawyer. A lawyer will be motivated in helping you since he/she only charges if you win and receive benefits. Therefore, you should not dismiss the idea of hiring a social security disability lawyer for financial reasons.

For many people the best advice is to seek representation from the start of the process. Without the proper guidance you can unknowingly be hurting your case. A social security disability attorney will take care of everything for you as far as paperwork, filing, research, and personal prepping for a hearing before a judge. In addition your lawyer will make sure that you meet all the deadlines and check to make sure your files are received. Your social security disability attorney is your guide making the whole social security disability process much simpler for you. And once your claim is accepted, your social security disability lawyer will make sure you receive the proper payment from the Social Security Administration.

Contact free legal shield for a free social security disability lawyer.