There is a set of about 700 people in the US legally, many of whom are refugees from counties in South East Asia. They came here because they sided with the US during the Vietnam war and were unsafe at home. Many were disabled and all are now elderly. Their benefits are suddenly threatened, and a Minnesota lawyer has taken on their challenge.

“There are people whose circumstances make it much more challenging and difficult and in some cases nearly impossible for them to become U. S. citizens,” Keller said. “We need to honor our international humanitarian commitment to these folks and their families.”

An immigration attorney says more than 700 Minnesota residents will lose their federal disability benefits. Immigrant Law Center director John Keller says the recipients are not U. S. citizens. They were granted refugee status and allowed to collected disability benefits. Keller says in many cases, the refugees helped the U.S. Military in the war in southeast Asia. Keller says their disability benefits should be extended.

Share this article with

Bloomberg reports today that the “air of crisis is striking, given that the program — far from being broke — can pay promised benefits for the next 25 years. After that, even without fixes such as higher payroll taxes or further increases in the retirement age, it could meet about three-quarters of its obligations through 2085, the latest report of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees shows.” See full story here:

Share this article with

This article echos our wonder at the many articles (and candidates) who refer to Social Security as an “entitlement”program. Although the SSI program may be this, the majority of the Social Security programs administer money that was PAID In my workers, and is drawn out upon retirement or disability. It is more like an insurance program that a worker pays for. Read on:

“An often-repeated assertion in the debt-ceiling talks is that Social Security must be cut if the deficits are to be reduced.
This raises many questions among those who have paid into the program all their working lives and who expect an unquestioned return on that investment. They resent being told that they are living at the expense of the taxpayer like some welfare recipient receiving an “entitlement.” Isn’t Social Security a separate program? After all, it has its own revenue source, the payroll tax, and its own spending formula based upon total taxes paid during the recipient’s work life.
Why is Social Security on the chopping block as if it were just another program in the federal budget? If it is separate from the rest of the budget, how can cuts in it reduce the deficit? What’s the connection?…” Read full article here:

Share this article with

Christian Science Monitor joins many other of today’s Associated Press papers in noting the surge of applications for disability this years, fueled by the high unemployment rates:

“Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding the Social Security disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding the Social Security disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.

“Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can’t find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.

“The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants — many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved — and worsening the financial problems of a program that’s been running in the red for years…”

Full story here:

Share this article with

Today’s Washington Post reports on the deluge of applications for disability:

“Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security’s disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.

“Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs — in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs — and can’t find new ones.The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants — many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved — and worsening the financial problems of a program that’s been running in the red for years.

Full story here:

Share this article with

Today’s Washington Post reports:

Diane Braunstein’s large smile and warm laugh can be infectious. She speaks calmly as she sits in a high-backed, dark wooden chair in her spacious Baltimore office, a master bureaucrat.

If that seems a cold or callous characterization, her actions have been anything but. One look at her résumé shows she’s spent a lifetime mastering the minutia of process and regulation on behalf of the elderly, the ill and the disabled at the Social Security Administration and other organizations. Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue appointed Braunstein director of a program called Compassionate Allow­ances in 2007 after she helped him about 20 years earlier when his terminally ill father could not quickly obtain benefits.

The two were working together at the Department of Health and Human Services. Astrue’s father developed glioblastoma, an often-fatal brain cancer that resulted in a coma. Astrue found himself trying to file for benefits on behalf of someone who wasn’t able to speak.

“It was a huge surprise and a time of high anxiety,” he said. “Having someone as competent as Diane was a great blessing.” See story here:

Share this article with

Our national advocacy organization NOSSCR (see: www.nosscr.org) today issued this bulletin:

In today’s Federal Register, SSA published SSR 11-1p, which revises SSA’s policy for filing subsequent applications where a prior application is pending at the Appeals Council. 76 Fed. Reg. 45309 (July 28, 2011). Available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-07-28/pdf/2011-19103.pdf.

Under SSR 11-1p, which is effective today, SSA “will no longer process a subsequent disability claim if you already have a claim under the same title and of the same type pending in our administrative review process.” This SSR does not change SSA’s policy where an appeal is pending in federal court. In those cases, the claimant may file a new application while the court case is pending. According to SSA, SSR 11-1p will not apply to subsequent applications that were filed before July 28, 2011.

Key provisions of SSR 11-1p:
A claimant who wants to file a new disability claim under the same title and of the same benefit type will have to choose between continuing with the administrative appeal or declining to pursue administrative review and filing a new application.
If the choice is to purse the administrative appeal, SSA will not accept the subsequent application.
Additional evidence reporting a new medical condition or a worsening of existing medical conditions can still be submitted. If submitted to an SSA Field Office, the evidence will be forwarded (in most cases, electronically) to the office handling the claim, e.g., the ODAR hearing office or the Appeals Council.
If the claimant decides to pursue the first claim and it is pending at the Appeals Council and additional evidence is submitted, the Appeals Council will first determine if the evidence relates to the period on or before the date of the ALJ hearing decision. If it does relate to that period, the Appeals Council will consider it with the rest of the record. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.970(b) and 416.1470(b). In Region I states, see 20 C.F.R. § 405.373.
If the new and material evidence relates to the period on or before the date of the hearing decision and “shows a critical or disabling condition, the Appeals Council will expedite its review of your pending claim.”
If the additional evidence relates to the period after the date of the ALJ decision, the Appeals Council will return the evidence to the claimant per 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.976(b) and 416.1476(b).
The evidence will be returned when the Appeals Council takes action on the appealed claim. The notice from the Appeals Council will inform the claimant that “under certain circumstances,” SSA will consider the date the request for review was filed as the protective filing date for the new claim. To be covered by the protective filing date, new Title II applications will need to be filed within six months of the date of the Appeals Council notice; new SSI claims will need to be filed within 60 days of the notice. Id.The new application can be filed only after the Appeals Council completes action on the request for review of the first claim.
If the claimant decides not to pursue further review of the pending claim, a new application can be filed. However, the claimant will need to withdraw the request for review. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.971 and 416.1471.

This policy change is obviously terrible for claimants whose conditions have deteriorated and have even become terminal. The change means that representatives will have to stop advising clients to file new claims, even if a new claim would likely be allowed. Instead, representatives will need to discuss with their clients the benefits and drawbacks to pursuing the appeal without filing a new claim, or dropping the appeal and proceeding with a new claim. Clearly, this policy change will hurt many claimants. This is a very unfair choice to force claimants to make.

We also are concerned that this new policy is even more harmful to claimants than the pre-1999 policy. Under the pre-1999 policy, SSA would take the application and forward it to the Appeals Council where it would be joined with the prior claim, even though the DDS would not develop the new claim. That policy was not so harmful to claimants, as the claim could be filed, even if it was not processed. In contrast, it appears that, under SSR 11-1p, SSA will not even take the new application if a claim is pending at the Appeals Council.

There are many unanswered questions about the procedural aspects of the policy change. The SSR provides few details of how the new process will work. SSA has announced that an “Emergency Message” will be issued on July 29 and that will be posted on the SSA website. Emergency Messages are available at:

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/public/reference.nsf/instructiontypecode!openview%26restricttocategory=EM.

Share this article with

Today’s CBS Money-Watch article has a good discussion of the implications of the debt deal for Social Security. These ideas apply equally to disability payments:

“The devil’s in the details of the debt deal. Say that three times fast and your tongue will get just as twisted as our politicians’ did in recent weeks.

“The recent debt compromise calls for a bi-partisan committee to make recommendations to Congress by Thanksgiving for reducing entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare. These programs are protected, however, from the automatic reductions in entitlements that will go into effect if the bi-partisan committee doesn’t come to any agreement, or if Congress doesn’t adopt their recommendations.
See full story here:

Share this article with

Recently Social Security decided to stop mailing out annual statements with information about benefits. There is an online source, easy to use, that will give you the amount of your retirement benefit, which is usually identical to the amount you would get if you became disabled. Check this article and follow the link to the site:

“As President Obama and congressional leaders continue to fight over how to reduce the federal deficit, people are rightly concerned about what they can expect to get from Social Security. Right now, you can take an early payout at 62, but you get a reduced monthly amount. If you wait until your full retirement age, you get more in your monthly benefit. Wait even later, until you’re 70 when you qualify for the maximum payout, and the monthly check is even higher.

“More than half of those claiming retired worker-benefits in 2009 elected to receive them as soon as they turned 62, according to AARP.

“The budget talks have certainly made what was always a complicated decision even harder. People are increasingly asking if they should claim their Social Security as early as possible, fearing future payouts won’t be what was promised.

“But since we can only deal with the now, let me suggest you try a new online calculator (www.aarp.org/socialsecuritybenefits) created by AARP. It helps estimate your benefits and then shows you the best time to claim Social Security.

“Right from the start, AARP says it pays to wait. But there are situations where it’s wiser to collect early. You’ll have to enter some personal information to find out which category is best for you.”

Read more:

Share this article with

Here’s a good article about how Social Security Disability can help when Heart Disease strikes:

“Despite efforts to educate people regarding cardiovascular and other heart-related diseases and conditions, risk factors, and preventive lifestyle changes, heart disease is still the number one killer in the United States.

“While the goal is obviously to prevent heart disease from happening in the first place, many people continue to suffer premature death from heart disease, and others are left disabled as a result of their heart-related conditions.

“Unfortunately, some people with heart disease are impacted to the point that even the simplest daily tasks may become seemingly insurmountable obstacles. This interferes with their quality of life and sometimes leaves the heart patients unable to work.

“What do you do when you find yourself suddenly unable to work due to heart disease? Many who find themselves permanently unable to do the work they’ve done in the past seek financial relief from the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the form of Social Security Disability Insurance, also referred to as SSD or SSDI.” See full story here:

Share this article with