The checks come pretty quickly, though the backpay will take awhile. Your first step is to go to SSI, I think, and they ask you all these questions, and then they cut you your first check. After that everything comes from SSA, if that's what you're getting.

Also, congratulations. It's hell, I know, both to be disabled and to go through the process of applying for disability, but you've finally beaten the dumb bureaucrats down.

(hugs!)

Hugs to you, mischief. I know a few people who have gone through the process, and the red tape, and I know it's hell.

more hugs, here, and congratulations on finally escaping your own personal Kafka novel! {{{m}}}

Congratulations, mischief. Just yesterday I was discussing with my colleagues this article from the NYT, which shows that the wait for a hearing has nearly doubled in the last seven years, from 258 days to 500 days. This delay, and the effect it has on some of the most vulnerable of our population, is unconscionable. I'm glad they finally came through for you.

That's great, mischief! The grindingly glacial gears came through after all. Congrats!

well done! Human 1, bureaucracy 0.

However, I still think it is plumb ridiculous that anyone should have to pay a lawyer $5300 to reach this point.

That sucks. Quite fiercely, in fact.

Can you recover attorney fees from the Feds?

However, I still think it is plumb ridiculous that anyone should have to pay a lawyer $5300 to reach this point.

That sucks. Quite fiercely, in fact.

Can you recover attorney fees from the Feds?

I am in a fortunate position to have disability insurance through my employer that will pay 80% of my last salary (minus whatever SocSec pays) until whatever retirement age is when I get there. Plus, I had supplemental medical and dental insurance for both me and my son this whole time (now it will be Medicare). As for the $5300, my insurance company will eat that, and they will get the entire lump sum back pay (except for whatever SocSec owes me for my son).

My distaste for the whole process really does not involve me, but goes out to those who do not have such coverage as I have. Stress is supposed to be a leading killer and debilitator among americans, yet the Social Security process is fraught with stress from start to finish. The process is so complicated that a person really does need a lawyer and frankly, no one who is truly disabled can navigate this process on his or her own.

Lassie, while the wait for the hearing has doubled, that wait time for a hearing begins after the first appeal. It does not include the time waiting for the initial decision and the appeal decision.

Also, I recall reading a few years back that the number of initial applications skyrocketed after 9/11. So many new applications that they 'artificially' deflated the unemployment numbers by a couple percentage points. I use the scare quotes because while technically speaking disability applicants are not unemployed, their job positions completely vanished.

I am convinced that Shrub Inc. successfully blindsided the public with what is happening in SocSec, taking advantage of the fact that the disabled are generally unable to speak for themselves and that the lawyers are too busy raking in such high fees. I cannot say that there is corruption in the system -- there's so much money involved there's no need to be corrupt -- but I will say that the process itself has corrupted the very meaning of security. However, personally I don't have the energy to fight it.

Anyway, I am now officially out of the career rat race, and I can begin making actual plans to move to Wisconsin in March. Vegas served me well as a backup in case I needed to go back to work. I managed to network with some great people and I had the interest of three of the four leading gaming organizations here who were willing to accommodate my health problems.

Also, I was greatly assisted by my friends, especially by BoringPostcards during my time in Atlanta. So, now I can write the final chapter on this section of my life and begin trying to figure out what I am going to do from here. One thing is for sure, poker is not the hobby for me. heheh

While the wait for the hearing has doubled, that wait time for a hearing begins after the first appeal. It does not include the time waiting for the initial decision and the appeal decision.

Absolutely right. We have cases in my office that have been waiting for years for our clients to get their money.

Also adding to the stress is the attitude of the some members of the bureaucracy (not all) that any applicant for SSI/SSD is a malingerer just trying to defraud the system. A story is told around my office of an ALJ who, when confronted with evidence of our client's chronic explosive diarrhea (which was related to the person's HIV diagnosis) observed that the client hadn't proved an inability to perform a job -- he recommended a position as a bathroom attendant.

The government--and employers, for that matter--can be remarkably callous in dealing with people with disabilities. When I was clerking for a judge on a federal court of appeals, we routinely had to deal with Social Security and ADA appeals. I remember one case in which the district court concluded that a women who was functionally blind was not disabled, and granted summary judgment to the employer. Fortunately, the appellate court reversed that decision.

"an inability to perform a job" -- Although this didn't really apply to my case, I think the system makes too much of a distinction between ability to perform a job and ability to hold a job.

My brother got totally screwed by SS disability. It took a lawyer and a lot of time to get it straightened out. Thankfully, my family could take care of him for several years, but not every disabled person has that option.

So, I do feel your pain, and I'm glad it finally got approved.