The official Social Security website gives valuable information that allows you to estimate your retirement benefit — this figure will also be approximately what you would draw as a disabled person. Your retiremnet entitlement stays in the fund until you retire, unless you become disabled before retirement age. If you can prove you meet disability standards, you’ll receive about this amount per month

“The Social Security Administration now has a calculator that lets you estimate your retirement benefit by accessing your actual earnings record through a secure interface. If you are estimating a normal retirement benefit, then you may want to try using the Retirement Estimator first, because it is easier to use than the Detailed Calculator and does not require you to enter your earnings record.

Note that the Retirement Estimator does not have all of the features of the Detailed Calculator, and does not provide estimates for everyone. In particular, if you are receiving a benefit based on your own earnings record or if you are receiving Medicare benefits, the Retirement Estimator will not give you an estimate. You also have to be permanently insured to get an estimate from the Retirement Estimator.” See site here:

This site has an amazing depth of information on many aspects of Social Security disability law. I like this link, which gives a list of specific tips on applying and appealing, See link here:

In this week’s (Portland) Oregonian, investigative reporters search out the causes of the enormous backlogs in waits for hearings. Rare interviews with sitting judges reveal the staffing shortages that keep them from being fully productive:

The slow pace of a few judges and an overwhelmed staff at Portland’s Social Security hearing office are key reasons that people seeking disability benefits here endure some of the longest waits in the nation.

Across the country, it takes an average of 480 days to get a judge’s ruling on a Social Security disability claim — but 650 days if your case is in Portland.

The problems in Portland reflect a broader national crisis, according to Social Security Administration records obtained by The Oregonian under the Freedom of Information Act. Only about half the agency’s administrative law judges meet its minimum goal of clearing 500 cases a year. Only three of nine Portland judges hit that mark in recent years, agency records show.

Last year, according to the national records, 132 of the agency’s judges — about 11 percent — failed to reach even half of the agency’s goal, dragging out appeals of disability claims as people faced financial ruin, got sicker and even died waiting. See first article in the series here:

Here’s a window into the invisible world of those with brain injuries, a touching story from the Ventura County Star in California:

…”It really just has to do with the degree of brain injury, said Dr. James Herman, a neurosurgeon at Ventura County Medical Center. There are certain areas of the brain, if you have a contusion or a permanent injury, it just changes your personality.

Advocates praise programs for care and rehabilitation after an injury. But they say theres little state or federal support for the long-term programs and living facilities some survivors need.”

See full story here:

From Today’s New York Times, here’s an interesting reminder about the core value of the Social Security system, in an era of disappearing private retirement programs:

The availability, stability and value of traditional defined benefit pensions are diminished. Americans are experiencing dramatic losses in 401(k) and I.R.A. retirement savings accounts. Home equity is shrinking. Employers have been bailing out of retiree health plans. Unemployment is increasing and now, faced with mounting pressures, some employers are reducing contributions to 401(k) plans.

This unfortunate state of affairs serves to remind the nation of the importance of the core mission of Social Security — to provide widespread and basic protection against loss of income due to death, disability or retirement.

See today’s article here:

There was nothing dramatic about how Spc. Cristapher Zuetlau’s career in the Army came to an end: he stepped in a hole. But the damage to the tank crewman’s wrenched back was so brutal he can barely walk.

The Army agreed he was no longer fit to serve, but in doing so determined his disability was not severe enough to warrant long-term care by the military. That turned his health care over to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which left him with no retirement benefits and cut off his family from government health care.

Thousands of similar stories caused veterans advocates to protest that the military was manipulating disability ratings to save money, and Congress last year ordered the Pentagon to accept appeals from wounded and injured troops.

So far, officials have yet to examine a single case.

See full article here:

Teresa Ghilarducci, an economist at the New School for Social Research, has emerged as the primary exponent of “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts,” or G.R.A.’s. The way they work is simple: workers who don’t have access to a conventional defined-benefit plan would contribute 2.5 percent of their income (with the government seeding the first $600 of that amount). Their employers would then kick in another 2.5 percent. It’s similar to a 401(k), except that the money would be deposited into an individual account with the Social Security Administration, which would pool the money and put it into relatively conservative investments.

In administering the pool, the government would guarantee a 3 percent rate of return above and beyond inflation. On retirement, participants would receive an inflation-indexed annuity that Ghilarducci calculates would replace a quarter of the wages or salary an average worker was earning. For example, someone who contributed to a G.R.A. for 40 years and retired with a final salary of $60,000 would get an annual payment of $15,500, or 26 percent of the preretirement income. (Social Security currently provides another 45 percent of workers’ preretirement income.)

See full article here:

Newsweek reports: (WASHINGTON) Master toolmaker John McClain built machine parts with details so small they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. Then a lump on his neck turned out to be cancer.

Shalonda Frederick managed a bakery, and decorated cakes for special occasions. One day her face and hands, and her arms and legs, started clenching up. Then she fell off a ladder at work. It turned out to be multiple sclerosis…After reviewing their cases, the government declared McClain and Frederick too sick to work and started issuing them monthly Social Security disability checks. Then they found out they’d have to wait two years to get health care through Medicare. Even though workers and their employers pay the payroll taxes that fund Medicare, federal law requires disabled workers to wait 24-months before they can begin receiving benefits.

See article here:

The Social Security Administration will begin using the Nationwide Health Information Network in early 2009 to evaluate disability claims, according to an agency announcement released Dec. 16.

NHIN is designed to connect providers, consumers and others involved in health care. SSA will use the network to receive medical records for some disability applicants. The records help SSA officials determine how many of the 2.6 million annual disability applicants should receive assistance. Agency officials hope NHIN will reduce the time it takes to make an eligibility decision. See full article here: