But It's Only Been Six Months! Maybe If We Wait Longer He'll Get Better

    From some television station in Atlanta that likes to hide its call letters:

...  For the Dickens, the unthinkable occurred in January when James had a stroke, his wife Schantalyn told 11Alive. The couple had only recently married in November 2023. 

"You plan on getting married, and after getting married, you plan on a happily ever after," Schantalyn shared. "It was so unexpected. We didn't know that the morning of January 5 at 3 in the morning, James would have a massive stroke."

Since his stroke, James has been recovering in a nursing facility. Meanwhile, Schantalyn continues to check in with eligibility officials to see whether her husband's disability claimed has been reviewed and approved. ...

[T]he time it takes to process cases varies widely. The national average for making an initial disability determination is 187 days, while in Georgia, the determination takes an average of 287 days. South Carolina tops the list for wait times, with 325 days for initial determination. SSA attributes much of the delays to staffing challenges.  ...

This Looks Awful

     From WFTV in Orlando:

Jennifer Groover has received Social Security since she was 6 years old because she has Down Syndrome.

But 38 years later, the Social Security Administration has taken away those benefits, her only income, because they said they had no evidence or documentation right now saying she has the disability.

“We’ve got one letter that she needs to go to work,” Cynthia Groover, her mom, said. “Yeah, they said we’ll help her get a job. She can go to work. She can barely walk. Her legs and feet are so bad. She’s so full of arthritis, and there’s no way she could walk. No, she can’t. She doesn’t have the mentality to hold the job.”

In July of 2023, the family received a letter giving them 10 days to respond.

If not, the SSA said it may have to make a “finding of not disabled because of insufficient evidence.”

Notes from the Groovers said they could not get anyone to answer after they left 16 messages. ...

But on July 15, 2023, her benefits stopped after they decided “she was no longer disabled.” ...

In that year, they were evicted from their home and have struggled every month to pay their bills. ...

There has been some movement in her case.

The Groovers tell Channel 9 that Social Security wants them to get a blood test to determine if Jennifer has that extra chromosome, which has not happened yet. ...

    In case you don't know the law, the Groovers don't have to produce any evidence whatsoever for their daughter to stay on benefits. The burden is squarely on Social Security to produce evidence that this young woman has improved. The agency's inability to find its old file isn't reason to cut her off benefits. 

    You would think that anyone would realize that Down Syndrome won't go away or get better with time but you never know just how foolish these things can get. I've had a client with retinitis pigmentosa denied because there was no recent evidence that she was blind. The old evidence wasn't enough. If you know anything about retinitis pigmentosa, you know it's a one way trip. Once your vision is gone, it's gone for good and there's no more point in going to an eye doctor.

Telephone Hearings Predominate -- Is That A Good Thing?

     From a recent presentation by the Commissioner of Social Security:

Click on image to view full size

    What if I told you that claimants who show up for in person hearings with an attorney win 5% more often than represented claimants who have telephone hearings? I can't tell you that because I don't know. I've seen no stats on this. Maybe there's some difference. Maybe there's not. You'd think that Social Security could generate those numbers but if they've compiled them, they haven't released them. And don't give me aggregate numbers on telephone hearings. We all know that unrepresented claimants with in person hearings lose most of the time because they couldn't find an attorney to represent them and either didn't show up or show up and lose because of the same problems that made it hard for them to find an attorney.