I am a conservative with a mental disorder who went on social security disability 25 years ago. At the risk of people not understanding why I went on and accusing me of being lazy and trying to milk the system I thought I could comment on this to give a perspective. I have gotten off disability 3 times since then and have tried to work each time getting sick and working on average 9 months each time . generaly there is about a two year wait on paperwork with any mental disability because it is the easiest one for some one to fake that being the reason for such a high percentage of people claiming that they have a mood disorder. When I was put on social security disability I was 24 I never filed out any paper work at the time the psychiatric hospital did all of that. one of the first thing I noticed when I got out of the hospital was that if someone learned I was on social security disability and they were of shady characters they would question me assuming I was running a scam trying to figure out how to do it themselves. the other thing I found out was how many people on social security disability were working under the table and not reporting to the government that they were doing it. I would not be surprised if more then half of those collecting a ssdi check were earning a substantial amount of money under the table and not reporting it. about 3 or 4 years after I went on social security disability I had recovered enough to try and seek work because I had not worked in years and the last time I worked I had been fired with cause. I was not going to be able to get anything but entry level work. I realized that and felt I needed to work just to have some self respect. after getting work I was able to keep the job about 9 months before the stress got to me and I was hospitalized. this all corresponded with me losing my ssdi because I was working and getting a paycheck. when I got out of the hospital I was fortunate in that I did not loose my job but I was back to where I was when I was hospitalized the first time. I lasted another three months and was sick again this time I quite in a manic melt down. at that point my life spiraled out of control and I had to reapply for disability. this time rather then getting it with in 6 months it was about a year for the paper work. it was at this time I learned about lawyers taking on ssdi cases and processing them. one of the biggest problems in the ssdi program is that a lawyer can get a big pay out for doing nothing but fileing the paperwork on a claim. this has caused a whole bunch of shady lawyers to get involved with filling social security disability claims. the lawyer get 1/3 of what ever the pay out is on a contingency fee basis when a claim is made of disability finally is excepted. because of this a lot of claims are being processed by lawyers that no there clients are lying to them but the pay out is real good when they pay out with a minimal of work. Basicaly right now it is taking about 2 years t6o process a claim that makes it so that when claim is paid the lawyer involved gets about 5-6 thousand dollars for the work he has done on the case. the type of work most times he is taking this payout for is the type a good paralegal could fill out. there is almost never any court house time involved . one of the best ways they could lower the amount of people making a claim of mental disability is to just have it a flat fee for the lawyer based on how much paperwork he did and whether there was any face to face court house in front of a judge time. another thing that would impact the amount of claims is to not allow law offices to advertise there services over television instead have the lawyers who are being paid on a contingency supply there names to the local social security office to hand out when asking for help with the application. the other thing that needs to be done is prosecuting those that scam the system.
Glad you stated that about the lawyers. I realized it is all a scam. I have filed for SSI because people were telling me to file for it based on the fact I am overweight but I had a mild stroke and an injured knee which occurred about 4 years ago. Well I re-injured my knee again and my blood pressure shot up so very high and my diabetes number were very high. So I filed, after getting the paper work I did some research to find there is a very high percentage of DENIALS. I then realize that the lawyers were playing a role in all of this. They take about 25% of your back pay. During the appeal it takes about 1 to 3 years. Being unemployed right now I though no way can I wait that long. Not surprisingly I got a letter of DENIAL and I do not intend to appeal it. Here is the funny catch, if you do not appeal and you reapply later they will not bother to view your case and it will be a complete denial from the get go. Also the good news is that my Blood Pressure is now normal and my Glucose is coming down. There are people in much more severe medical problems they don’t need this run around. I even heard people who are truly disable or with a severe medical disorder are also DENIED the first time around. I then figured ok this is all a scam even from those implementing SSI to the recipients.
About 2 months ago, I went to a place for legal help. As I was waiting in the waiting room I was conversing with a lady whose SS # was being used in another state and creditors were coming after her. Anyway, I stated I was unemployed and she asked me I have filed for SSI. I told her I have already filed and she stated that they will deny me but for me to go to a lawyer but claim Mental Disorder not Physical Medical Ailments. I’m like OMG lol.
A few decades ago, perhaps I would have been approved or something when I suffered severe Agoraphobia (Unable to leave outside of house) but Thank God I confronted my fears head on without meds and now I’m free from it.
I wonder who people survive waiting during the appeals process. I am sorry to hear your going thru all this. As my neighbor told me that SSI does not want to distribute the money. They prefer to keep the money because they are earning interest on it also the examiners I believe get some sort of compensation for it if they help save money.
I wish you the very best - Take Care.