disability hearings again

Not sure if I should even post this but it's really interesting. A friend found and showed it to me. Not very heartening for people with hearings scheduled. It gives statistics of judges decisions in disability hearings. Some of these judges seem very harsh.

Houston Bissonnet, Texas ODAR Office
There is a nationwide database as well: Disability Judges | ODAR Offices | All States

Well at least it is better than the national average, not by much. There are a few of those judges that I wouldn't want to hear my case. lol!

That is interesting. Thanks for sharing this.

It doesn't surprise me much

Here is another possible resource.
SSDFacts: Social Security Disability Support, Forum, Statistics, Forms, and More! | ssdfacts.com
It's been 12 weeks and I haven't heard anything from anyone.

Thank you for that info.

It looks like Hawaii and Puerto Rico are the places to be.

I got the notice of award letter I've heard people talking about. It cleared up some things I was confused about and may be informative to others. I have a pretty good aptitude for understand legal and business documents but SSA letters can be very confusing. I was thinking that the back pay thing was capped at 12 months. It isn't. The judge declared my disability began in 2008 but they are paying me from September 2011. That was when I filed for SSDI. A few amusing and confusing bits from the 2 letters I've gotten recently.
The first letter, from SSD ODAR and written by the ALJ was basically the judge's decision and the information he used to form his opinion and make a judgement. I felt pretty crazy after reading it
It also informed me that I was covered by medicare as of 2013
That was kind of cleared up in the new letter. I can get coverage for 2013 if I pay the 10 or so $104 monthly premiums dating from my coverage eligibility... think I'll pass
There was a monetary figure that seemed to be back pay that was exactly equal to 7 months pay. I thought I'd gotten the old 5 month deduction thing. Apparently not. In the Notice of award was a much better monetary figure.
Another odd thing was the amount of back pay due me was in the "Information about Representative's Fee" paragraph.
Then 5 pages later there was a paragraph entitled "Why We Cannot Pay Past Benefits." Benefits due for September 2011 through June 2014.... $.00
Then a really odd sentence. Amount we must subtract because of
That's it... it just stops there. Under that is typed "This equals........ $00.00"
Odd hmm? I called SSA and waited over an hour to talk to a rep.
He told me that according to their records the figure mentioned in that first para is correct but he would put in an inquiry
I also asked the obvious question... when do I get it
He told me the average time is 45 days after you receive your first monthly payment.
If this isn't informative in a helpful way it will at least give the uninformed an idea of how confusing the whole thing is. I suppose part of that is due to the enormity of the system. One of the endlessly repeating messages while I was on hold was "we're sorry for the wait but please remember that we are serving fifty million people

George, congratulations on qualifying!

This is cynical of me, but I some times wonder if government aganecies make this stuff so hard and so confusing hoping people will just give up in frustration.

Good work, George.

Princess was fortunate in that it was all pretty straightforward and had a Representative who handled the appeal process.

Additionally I must say that I have found Social Security to be most helpful to clarify/interpret 'the gobbledygook-speak' for me both on the phone and in person. That is simply my own experience.

lizardlady,

Princess thinks you have hit the mark with your comment.
I am convinced that the gobbledygook language/terminology/phrasing/ infinity hold/ runaround, etc etc is aimed to simply not have to deal with the majority of us requiring 'clarification' of what was never written to be comprehensible in the first place.

Furthermore it seems to permeate any bureaucracy, corporation, insurance, or business with whom we must deal in everyday life of simple taking care of the bizness of life anymore.

Whenever I encounter this nonsense of which we all here speak, I am forever
given over to the thoughts of " Geesh. What if I were a lesser capable, lesser educated, lesser minded, lesser 'well' person? Would they not just give up in the exertion of sheer energy expenditure, frustration and no clear answers? This is just plain wrong." And I do feel for the more faint of heart and lesser persistence. Hrrmmph.

I think you're both right about SSA although I'm sure they do the best they can. Maybe
I'll just repeat a few things here for people who may read this thread in future. Long ago I was being treated for severe depression/agitated and severe anxiety. I was lucky enough to have twice a week therapy with a pdoc and therapist and had a good MD as well. I applied for SSDI at the urging of the pdoc and therapist. Obviously I had full support and assistance from all three with the application process. Denied. The pdoc told me almost everyone is denied initially and strongly ( I do mean strongly) urged me to appeal. I couldn't. I was in no shape to go through any appeals process or hearings. Advice: follow through... go beyond what you think you are capable of. If you fall apart/break down in the process it probably helps your case. You can always put yourself back together later... it isn't as if you'll be that much worse off in terms of your illness.
This time... the ALJ based his decision on physical ailments as well as depr/anx. Much as I try not to believe it, I am not well and may never be again. I do a little lawn service work to make some money. On the days after I work I am physically done. I spend the next day or two recovering. There is no way I could actually earn a living this way. Okay, some cheese to go with that whine Don't give up and if you have physical ailments, make them know if you are trying to get SSDI.
There may be more I could say to help and if I think of more later I'll update.
As for me... I'm taking this small windfall and after paying off bills and debts I will purchase a cremation policy, put a little aside for a cat fund, and buy a cheap sporty type car. The light at the end of the tunnel is indeed a train. I plan to meet it with the top down and the stereo blasting

I LOVE this attitude George!