The Buffalo Law Journal reports on how difficult it is to make a living representing Social Security disability claimants. Of course, it's a lot tougher being a disabled person filing a claim with Social Security.
I know, we have reps with 100's of cases and they have to reschedule because they have conflicting hearings in different offices. One rep has a home in Atlanta and one in Colorado and has to fly back and forth for the hearings. Life is so tough, Ask Mr. Conn, he hardly made a decent living in the business.
That's an interesting take on the article, since it doesn't really discuss whether it's "difficult it is to make a living representing Social Security disability claimants." Rather, the article focuses on the hardships for claimants experiencing the current backlog. Like a previous poster mentioned, the representatives in my city are doing very well. The decrease in pay rates is more than offset by the number of claims being filed as they advertise free money on TV and flood the system with claims. So maybe I'm a bit jealous of the vacation homes and leisure boats that the reps boast about, but let's not pretend that the profession doesn't pay well.
2:24 - wrong. Applications started to decrease around 2011-12, presumably because the economy picked up. Applications are still higher than they were before the great recession. Likewise, award rates as a whole are still about the same or higher than before the great recession (but less than the peak). ALJ award rates are lower, so I guess the statistics mean that the award rates at the initial level must be higher.
I know, we have reps with 100's of cases and they have to reschedule because they have conflicting hearings in different offices. One rep has a home in Atlanta and one in Colorado and has to fly back and forth for the hearings. Life is so tough, Ask Mr. Conn, he hardly made a decent living in the business.
ReplyDeleteOne each, can of worms, open.
ReplyDeleteFeelings will be hurt.
That's an interesting take on the article, since it doesn't really discuss whether it's "difficult it is to make a living representing Social Security disability claimants." Rather, the article focuses on the hardships for claimants experiencing the current backlog. Like a previous poster mentioned, the representatives in my city are doing very well. The decrease in pay rates is more than offset by the number of claims being filed as they advertise free money on TV and flood the system with claims. So maybe I'm a bit jealous of the vacation homes and leisure boats that the reps boast about, but let's not pretend that the profession doesn't pay well.
ReplyDelete@10:51, the number of claims filed have decreased each year since 2009. So have the number of favorable decisions.
ReplyDeleteIn America, everyone thinks that everyone else has a pot of gold buried in the back yard.
ReplyDelete2:24 - wrong. Applications started to decrease around 2011-12, presumably because the economy picked up. Applications are still higher than they were before the great recession. Likewise, award rates as a whole are still about the same or higher than before the great recession (but less than the peak). ALJ award rates are lower, so I guess the statistics mean that the award rates at the initial level must be higher.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/dibGraphs.html
Award rates at the initial level are still almost none around here, and ALJ award rates seem to be going down.
ReplyDelete