From WIVB:
Due to a lower back injury, Melvin Sanders' says he has been unable to work since 2013.
He initially filed for Social Security Disability. However, because it could take a long time to get those benefits, he was approved for Social Security supplemental income. ...
Social Security officials put Melvin's case to an administrative law judge in Manhattan, via satellite, in December 2017. The judge ruled in Melvin's favor a few days later.
As of last week, Melvin had not received a dime of his benefits, "the wait has been very long, the pain has been terribly excruciating, seeing that my life has been in limbo for quite some time" ...
Sanders received a check for $4,300 last Friday.
The check Melvin got in the mail last week works out to a small downpayment on what he is actually owed. When his claim was approved by the judge in Manhattan, it was retroactive to when Melvin was ruled to be disabled in 2013. ...
12 comments:
Not a billionth as bad but my son who is on SSI filed for DAC on his mothers account in Dec 2019. On 1/18/2019, the DDS called, updated info and said that yes, he remains disabled and they will send the decision back to the FO. It's a month now with the T2 claim still "processing". Even with windfall offset this kind of a claim used to be a quick allowance to bolster the stats. Seems not so much now.
boy, wouldn't it be great if you could read even a brief news story or article involving SSA where there isn't some glaring incorrect/nonsensical/etc. assertion or information given about rather basic facets of what they are covering?
Good Lord, call up some agency employees for background. There's only 60,000 of us currently and probably that many or more still alive who've been here and left. Gracious.
So many possible explanations. Like a large workers comp or VA non-service connected or an LTD carrier offset. Not everyone who wins SSD gets to keep that money.
It could be SSI and they let him have the first two installment payments simultaneously?
To 3:36, the problem is that most of the 60,000 SSA employees aren't supposed to talk to the press and the office of external affairs' press office won't say anything except "we are committing to providing world class service blah blah blah..."
@11:12
The article stating SSI was awarded first because DIB "could take a long time" is just flat wrong. My guess is he got SSI immediately due to an onset being determined by the state agency, post-dli. The fight was likely over whether he was disabled pre-dli. As to why the first check was for $4,300, my guess would be that was six months of SSI benefits.
I'm curious if he was represented, and assuming he was, whether the representative attempted to seek expedited payment. Unless the delay was at the PERC level, that should have resulted in payments beginning at least as of ~100 days.
These one sided heart tugging stories always seem to leave out obvious information. SSA/SSI is a juggernaut. 65 million receiving monthly payments. Tens of thousands pending, filing, dying, status changes, etc. In a perfect world of full staffing, which is unlikely to ever happen, mistakes would still be made by the Agency, the public, judges and reps. Cases would still fall through the cracks, maybe a few less but it would still happen.
How about this 1009, we accept that mistakes are inevitable and SSA agrees to reacts to those mistakes with compassion and transpatency instead of the culture of denial and treating the claimants as an afterthought. See it is not so much the actual mistake, it is the harshness with which SSA reacts when it gets caught with its pants dowm.
In the dark ages, when I trained to be a CR (after SSI, before 1980), we were taught (and repeatedly reminded) that the cases in our file drawers were not just cases. They were people, people like our parents, neighbors and friends. We could find them lovely, disagreeable or anything else but what we could not do is forget that they were people and deserved the best service we could provide. Didn't mean we didn't apply the rules, nor treat anyone different or special, but we needed to remember that they were people who should be treated like we would want ourselves or family to be treated. Fairly, promptly, accurately.
It's really not the current employees fault if that message no longer is out there or believed in because it is management's duty to make it important. I'm guessing decades of too much work, not enough resources has dimmed that customer-centric perspective to people merely being the ubiquitous "them", cogs, numbers, strokes in tallys whose humanity is no longer remembered to be a key principle of service.
10:09 again. 2:47, your comments are very cynical and do not represent my experience at many levels of SSA over 36 years. Most problems are corrected in a timely manner and with compassion within the rules. Any "culture of denial" is a perception that is not accurate in the Agency. Folks who have had a bad experience understandably are jaded but your outlook is a little over the top. Just my opinion.
Actually, it is less cynical and more realistic to believe that since we get most things right, the ones we don't are OK. Nothing is perfect of course but as was stated, it's how you react to when failure happens that is the measure of an organization. And too often it's a reaction that is inward looking (at the organization and process) rather than outward looking (at the customer). 2:47 isn't being cynical as much as calling out the fact (and it is a fact) that too many SSA employees (and especially managers) have a hard time honestly dealing with the fallout when a mistake or mishap occurs. Too often the reaction is "well we have thousands of (fillin the blank) and we get (fill in the blank) right." As if that should be a satisfactory response. We expect SSA to get those and more right and to address mistakes remembering that there is a human in need attached to it, that it's not just a folder in a stack of folders to be gotten to when time permits.
1009/1050 What makes you think I don't work for the Agency? Like another poster mentioned we used to be encouraged to put the claimants first, at all levels. Now as another poster said no one wants to admit mistakes or stick their head up and make waves. I know the truth 1009/1050 and on some level you must too. I am not cynical but I am disgusted and am literally countimg the months until I can get out of this dystopian landscape that I no longer recognize as the pride of public service that I entered all those years ago. What the heck are you doing there after 36 years? You must be in management. Just my opinion.
You think that’s a problem. Try paying bills after federal check being garnished for none receipt. Lumps sum payment never received my Attorney got payed twice from Ssa. Notice of Award says I get 651.00. But Ssa said they process a 54 thousand dollar check. Ssa sweep under the rug. So now I contacted Georgia Senator.
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