From a Richmond, VA television station:
Earl Barry is frustrated with what he said has been a "demoralizing" experience navigating the process to apply for disability through the Social Security Administration (SSA). Barry told CBS 6 he has been going back and forth with the SSA on claims for more than a year.
"It's been very difficult and I am under-- I had to seek therapy because I was considering suicide," Barry said. ...
In October 2022, Berry applied for disability and was denied.
He reapplied in December 2023, but again was denied. ...
In March 2024, Barry said the company Premiere Disability filed a reconsideration request on his behalf. It's currently taking SSA seven months, on average, to respond to reconsideration requests.
Barry said Premier Disability recently informed him there could be a further delay.
"The representative found out that our appeal that we filed was not handled properly by SSA in March when they were supposed to have done it. They didn't transfer the file from the person who had it, the auditor, to the office for the appeal," Barry said.
But Barry said he can't afford to wait for assistance, should he get approved, any longer.
He said his savings have run dry and his Buckingham County house has now been foreclosed on. ...
Earlier this month, CBS 6 shared Ed Heavener's story, a Henrico County man who spent a year and a half waiting for disability and only got his money after our investigative reporters got involved. ...
After the story aired, CBS 6 newsroom was inundated with messages from people across Virginia and beyond, including Barry, complaining about customer service issues with SSA. ...
This is the same story for 80% of my clients. And for those who do eventually have their claims approved, the payment process is even more demoralizing.
ReplyDeleteThat article deserves another O’Malley video special …..problem solved!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if a third party iclaim was filed and the signed application was never returned? We see this so much in our office. I really hate the third party iclaim process. It is so confusing for claimant because they think they’ve done everything through their rep so they don’t sign the app or they just return the signature page of the app and not the entire app.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the underfunding of SSA is the main contributing factor…not enough staff to hand hold claimants through this process nor enough staff to have sufficient appointments on the calendar.
"only got his money after our investigative team go involved." Yeah, right. Reminds me of the clients who complain and protest fees when they contact their congressperson, who sends a letter, and then an award letter is later issued. It was the congressperson who who got the case paid and nothing the attorney did...
ReplyDeleteI think the stats that SSA releases are very misleading. I seldom see any initial cases decided in less than 1 year and reconsideration takes even longer here in Louisiana. One of my client is a paralyzed 62 year old cashier and we are still waiting. I think SSA packs their stats with quick initial denial of PPL that are not insured or over the resource limits for SSI in order to arrive to an average processing time of 260 days.
ReplyDeleteYes, the average includes quick technical denials (and, to be fair, the quick awards through QDD and CAL and TERI and the like--I know a claimant with ALS whose award took about 2 weeks from the date of application). The chunk of cases in the middle that need more development take much longer than the average.
ReplyDelete@11:56am,
ReplyDeleteExactly. My record approval by our DDS was 45 minutes for a grade IV glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor case where the claimant provided all the evidence. Had several other 4 hour to one day ones, and well over a dozen that ranged from 1 day to 2 weeks during my career.
As a result, the average processing times provided by the agency would be skewed significantly worse if short time denials and QDD were excluded from consideration in the averages.
This claim is in Virginia. They left out the part that Mr. Barry's initial claim was denied for failure to cooperate. Claimants need to tale SOME responsibility.
ReplyDelete6:03, how do you know the reason for his denial? If you accessed his case to post that, it's a big violation. The article said he was given a medical reason for the denial. And lots of people whose claims were denied for failure to cooperate never received the form the DDS allegedly sent, or they sent them back and SSA or DDS lost them, failed to profile them in Worktrack, or any number of other problems that aren't the claimant's fault.
ReplyDeleteI did notice from the video that he was denied SSI (which may make sense if he's over resourced) but it looks like the recon request was for DI, so at least his rep straightened that out.
The problem is the case is not an RZ/LI or an initial claim or a phone call. Nothing else matters. All of the focus is on these areas only. You try to work on something else you get in trouble because it’s not one of the 3-priorities.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to him in keeping his case out of POST for less than a month. Updated records probably won’t be requested until two weeks before his hearing.
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