I had applied for disability about a year ago and was denied. Their reason for denial was weird. It said I was denied because "although my condition is severe, they do not know wether it will last 12 months or more" AND "we are unable to determine if you can do another type of work than what you were previously doing." It kinda sounded like crap to me. I did talk to an attorney about appealing, but she told me that it was pointless until I had been off work a year.
I am thinking I should re-apply, but don't know what I did wrong to get denied or why I was actually denied.
I am being referred to a new neurologist who deals more with neuralgias then my previous one under the recommendation of my pain mgmt. doctor. Honestly, I don't go to the doc for this as much as I should or even as much as I think I should..I live 120 miles one direction from my care team and cannot always get there or get appointments right away when I need them...esp with the neurologist. So I am likely seriously lacking in the medical records/evidence department because I live out in the middle of nowhere.
I just don't know what to do. I have 4 children and a husband. He has been working 2 jobs just to try and manage our finances since I became unable to work and its getting to be too much on him....The financial situation we are in is bad...I don't know what else to do.
ANy advice or help would be greatly appreciated....
In some US states half of all SSD applications are rejected on the first round. Their backlogs are legendary, and many patients believe that rejection is just a way of clearing people out of the system, generally not an issue of merit. My advice would be to re-apply, possibly with the assistance of a lawyer if you can find one willing to work for less than 40% of your back disability payments. The criteria for granting disability are really quite clear. There is also a sort of "SSDI cheat sheet" for helping you do the right things in your disability application and the in-person evaluations.
Start with a recent thread on the subject, and ask for help there, I think: http://www.livingwithtn.org/forum/topics/good-news-ssdi-approved?commentId=2413731%3AComment%3A375046
Regards, Red
Thank you very much for the reply. I do believe they were just trying to clear my app out of the system...I believe that because: My husband received one of those big, long questionaires to fill out it was dated on a Tuesday...a week later I got the denial...which was dated just 2 days after the letter to my husband was dated...Why on earth would they send that, then almost immediately deny it...without him even having the chance to fill it out and send it back..?? That's why I think they just denied it to clear it out of their system.
Do you think I should re-apply now or wait until I see this new neurologist the end of July??
Richard A. "Red" Lawhern said:
In some US states half of all SSD applications are rejected on the first round. Their backlogs are legendary, and many patients believe that rejection is just a way of clearing people out of the system, generally not an issue of merit. My advice would be to re-apply, possibly with the assistance of a lawyer if you can find one willing to work for less than 40% of your back disability payments. The criteria for granting disability are really quite clear. There is also a sort of "SSDI cheat sheet" for helping you do the right things in your disability application and the in-person evaluations.
Start with a recent thread on the subject, and ask for help there, I think: http://www.livingwithtn.org/forum/topics/good-news-ssdi-approved?co...
Regards, Red
My instinct would be to first see the new neurologist and talk with them about the requirements for establishing unequivocal disability. Your SSDI award should be retroactive to the first day since you have been unable to work.
Regards, Red
maudie1979 said:
Thank you very much for the reply. I do believe they were just trying to clear my app out of the system...I believe that because: My husband received one of those big, long questionaires to fill out it was dated on a Tuesday...a week later I got the denial...which was dated just 2 days after the letter to my husband was dated...Why on earth would they send that, then almost immediately deny it...without him even having the chance to fill it out and send it back..?? That's why I think they just denied it to clear it out of their system.
Do you think I should re-apply now or wait until I see this new neurologist the end of July??
Keep reapplying. Keep a journal on your day to day existence and how you must cope with your life. Check the guidelines of what determines disability and compare it to your capacity to do things such as lifting, doing housework, computer screen time, etc…you cannot be denied disability if you cannot do daily activities, but certainly, if you cannot hold down an eight hour a day job due to your disability, this is a huge qualifying factor. I think three times is about right for being turned down, so keep at it. It’s difficult when you have so much pain to deal with. I know. It happened to me too, but when it comes through, you will get payments for the months you should have been receiving disabilty. Remember, you may be put in a higher tax bracket the year you receive your lump back payment. Best to you.