There are many lawyer representatives which can provide a realistic analysis and help in your Social Security Disability claim. Also there is a governing body in each lawyer’s state who can take real action in case the lawyer misrepresents himself/herself. On the contrary, non-lawyers have little regulation, educational requirements, and no license is required. Being “certified” as a non-lawyer is taking a couple hour test via SSA which does not give any oversight to actual educational requirements besides passing a singular test.

It is easy to be mislead by a multitude of the non-lawyer advertising in the Social Security Disability process, just don’t make the mistake of being fooled by absurd success rates.

David W. Magann, Esq.

USMC Veteran

www.TampaVeteransLawyer.com

813-657-9175

SSA has recently changed its policy regarding the availability of the annual Social Security Statement. Effective May 1, 2012, SSA will begin to provide real-time online access to the Statement with the release of the new “MySocialSecurity” portal, www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement. In March 2011, due to budget issues, SSA suspended the mailing of all annual Social Security Statements and disabled the online and automated telephone service for requesting the Statement. It also discontinued the use of Form SSA-7004 (Request for a Social Security Statement). In February 2012, SSA resumed the mailing of the Statement, but only to workers age 60 or older.

SSA will offer the revised Form SSA-7004 (Request for a Social Security Statement) only to individuals unable to access their Statement online, either because of the inability to register for the MySocialSecurity account or to access any online services. In those situations, access to the SSA-7004 will be available by contacting the local SSA.

More information is available in Emergency Message EM-11021 REV2 (Eff. Date 5/1/2012), https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/public/reference.nsf/links/05012012024529PM.

Any self employed person has a duty to report ANY and ALL work activity to SSA. Beware, often the Office of Inspector General (OIG) (investigative unit for SSA) will follow or use surveillance on an SSA claimant who was or is currently engaged in self employment work. Do not take a chance, assume you are being watched. Report all work activity to SSA in writing via U.S. Certified Mail. Obtain legal counsel for specifics on what the reporting should consist of to the SSA.

The interplay of the 12 consecutive month rule, meaning you have not engaged in SGA work activity over 12 consecutive months, and those “self employed”, is a SGA minefield for not qualifying for disability benefits. In general, those “self employed” claimants who go before a Judge must provide a monthly breakdown of an income and loss statement, provide details on the type of business, volume of business, and with specific regard, as to the “significant services” (services rendered rule) you the claimant/worker performed. The Judge must also consider the comparability and worth of the work.

The above details are a minefield which can be easily avoided. Simply do not engage in self employed work while your Social Security Disability claim is pending. If you have an incorporated business you should resign all officer positions. In Florida see, www.sunbiz.org if you are not sure about being an officer of the corporation. Holding stock in a corporation, closely held or otherwise does not impute “self employment” in and of itself. Self employment work is detail specific. If you are answering a phone for a business, this is indicative of work activity. Arranging deliveries, setting up work or jobs for another, scheduling deliveries of business related goods, etc., are examples of engaging in work activity. Do NOT split hairs in regards to self employment work. For example, a claimant may have a spouse or relative in the house who is self employed. The claimant must not “help” the spouse or relative with anything for the business enterprise. That spouse or relative is not to depend on a Social Security Disability claimant who alleges “total disability”. Common sense should be utilized. In the end, obtain an actual attorney, do not hire a law firm from the television, many send non-attorneys to your hearings which is not fully disclosed to you. Do your research, hire an attorney who will see you in person and can discuss the law of SSA’s self employment rules.

For more information please contact:

David W. Magann, Esq.

A current Social Security Trustees Report found that in order to responsibly fund Social Security the payroll tax rate for employee and employer
would need to rise by 1.3 percentage points each. The increase would enable the system’s viability through 2086. The long term fix, beyond 75 years, could be a multitude of devices, but attempting privatization is a “red herring” where the private sector, i.e., the financial sector has shown great vulnerability to mismanagement, and catastrophic failure, think TARP bailout.

The lack of Congressional action is extremely frustrating since the options for fixing the problem have been known for decades. “Social Security is a simple system. It takes in money and pays out benefits. If projected benefits exceed projected revenues plus the assets in the trust fund, either the outflow of benefits must be cut and/or the inflow of revenues must increase. Numerous commissions have contributed to a laundry list of ways to cut benefits or raise taxes. So the problem is not like health care, where the answers for controlling costs are elusive; in the case of Social Security, we know exactly what to do. Reasonable  people – Republican or Democrat – could sit down for an hour and come up with a compromise plan….Describing the magnitude of the problem in terms of a tax fix is designed simply to show that the challenge is manageable. Increasing the age of eligibility for full benefits slowly and changing the indexing would reduce the required tax increase.” www.smartmoney.com, Anger Over Social Security Financial Woes, Alicia Munnell, June 15, 2012.

Since 1993 Congress has known what the fix is for Social Security, but nothing has been done. Political polarization and pie in the sky privatization rhetoric has stalled, delayed, and may soon create needless funding shortfalls where Social Security is at best, only viable until 2044. Kicking the can down the road is going to be crushed by Social Security funding realities which appear to be a simple fix now, not later.

For more information see:

Although there can be experienced and non-experienced representatives in both realms of attorney and non-attorney representation the problems is that non-attorney representation has a weak baseline standard and is virtually unregulated. Attorneys as a group have undergone the greatest, training, education and testing  standards of higher education available. The GAO in their 2007  Report found the SSA standard for a non-attorney representative as the following: 

“[SSA] currently allows nonattorneys who have represented as few as five disability claims before SSA over a 2-year period to qualify for fee withholding. Most judges we interviewed and more than half of the eligible nonattorneys considered this insufficient. And, according to an association of representatives, fee withholding is attracting more inexperienced nonattorneys to the field of disability representation….”

As stated in prior blogs repeatedly, ask your representative the following questions:

1. Will you be at my hearing and have you been to over 1,000 SSA hearings?

2. Will you be writing a prehearing brief with a chronological history of my medical records for submission to the hearing Judge?

3. Will you meet with me well before the day of the hearing to review the documents in my file and go over my testimony?

4. Will you obtain and purchase medical records before my hearing?

5. Will you contact each of my doctors with a questionnaire about my restrictions?

If your representative can not say YES to these basic questions you should find one who can.

Call 813-657-9175 for more information. www.TampaSSA.com

www.TampaVeteransLawyer.com

In general, Adult “Child Disability Benefits” retroactivity is determined in the following manner:

If the wage earner (the parent in this claim) is disabled, the application for adult-childhood disability could pay 12 months before the date of application but not before the wage earner’s onset (disability) date. 20 CFR §§ 404.620(a), 404.621(a)(1). If the wage earner is deceased or retired, the application for adult-childhood disability could pay 6 months before the date of application but not before the wage earner’s retirement entitlement date, in this case the “full retirement” date, age 65, considering the wage earner’s DOB which is in 1946. 20 CFR § 404.621(a)(2).

Also a key consideration is the calculation of the benefit amount:

If the wage earner is alive, the disabled adult child is entitled to 50% of the wage earner’s primary insurance amount (monthly benefit), subject to the family maximum. If the wage earner is deceased 75% of the wage earner’s primary insurance amount (monthly benefit), subject to the family maximum. 20 CFR § § 404.353, 404.304, 404.403.

As always we recommend that you find an experienced attorney in the matters above to represent you in your Social Security claim. The key considerations are the difference in obtaining thousands of dollars in benefits rightly owed. Just because you received an Award from SSA does not mean that its correct. In this case there was only 60 days to appeal the Award and the non-attorney failed to recognize the error. A second opinion from an actual attorney made all the difference. For more information please contact us at 813-657-9175.

Often, upon review of the hearing transcript an ME’s appearance and testimony goes uncontested via an inexperienced representative especially in the case of non-attorneys and those “last minute” day of the hearing representatives.

Some basic tips regarding the appearance of the ME are the following:

1.) If the ME appears by telephone object to phone testimony. Would a doctor diagnose or review a patient over the phone without seeing that person?

2.) If no Notice of a ME appearance by phone, object.

3.) If no Notice of a ME appearance, object.

4.) If the ME is an internist and is testifying regarding an orthopaedic condition then object. This kind of objection holds true in a multitude of “speculations” a medical expert often makes at SSA hearings where he/she is not “qualified” to answer, etc.

The above objections should only be done by a experienced and licensed attorney. Sometimes if testimony of a doctor can be “foreseeable” then the objection may not be warranted. This is a decision only an experienced attorney can make.

Some of the above objections may hold true for Vocational Expert (VE) testimony. VE’s will testify about jobs and the ramifications of your restrictions on the ability to perform work.

The objections above are only a small sampling of objections and problems at your SSA hearing.  The key factor is to obtain an experienced attorney you have met well prior to your hearing and an attorney who has gone over your testimony in depth with you before your hearing. For more information you can call us toll free at 1-855-418-9354 www.FloridaSocialSecurity.com.

SSA is still digesting and issuing the procedures around SSR-11-1p. Recently, SSA Office of Appellate Operations Executive Director Judge Patricia Jonas has implemented a policy change where a claimant may be able to file a “new”/”subsequent” application if there is an allegation of a “new critical or disabling condition” with an onset date AFTER the date of the hearing decision. Such requests are suppose to be processed within in 2 days.

However, what defines a “new critical or disabling condition” AFTER the onset date remains to be seen. There has not been any data that suggests a 2 day response time has been effectively followed.

SSR-11-1p implementation is just one of a thousand reasons you should hire an actual licensed attorney who has handled at least a 1000 Social Security Disability claims.

813-657-9175

David W. Magann, P.A.

Attorneys at Law

It is important to hire an actual attorney. Disability Experts of Florida, Quikaid, and Allsup are not attorneys. Binder & Binder although attorneys in New York send non-attorney clerks to hearings. Avoid these names and others where you don’t meet or can not talk to an actual attorney.

We recommend, to ask to see your representatives Florida Bar card before the Hearing and find that person on the www.FloridaBar.org website to see his or her history with the Florida Bar.

If your Social Security representative is not an attorney you should immediately ask the Judge for an attorney. This is your right.

Don’t be hurt by a law firm sending a non-attorney to your most important day of your claim which will predict the outcome of winning or losing precious benefits.

The Social Security Administration has a list of actual attorneys who can represent you and/or you can call us at 813-657-9175

There are 28 exclusions for “deeming” under 20 CFR 416.1161. Generally the exclusions does not include, for example, a personal injury settlement amount given directly to a person in the household. In order to avoid problems with SSI recipients, if a person in the household obtains a monetary settlement or the SSI recipient will be obtaining a settlement amount then one should seek out an attorney who can advise on a Special Needs Trust.