(REMASTERED) Q&A: Social Security Disability Today, 9.4.2011

0:18 Good day everyone, and welcome back again. For those of you who are watching this video, I want to wish you a happy holiday because of course this is Labor Day weekend. And as always you know that my name is Anthony Reeves. I am a suchial security disability attorney, and welcome to another edition of Q and A Social Security Disability Today. Got a couple of questions here, Let's go ahead and get this thing shaken and baking. Someone asked me because they got a letter in the mail that said their disability is going to be under review, and they wanted to know what does that mean? Under review? Okay, when you apply it to social security disability, but if it's you've gone through the process and then boom, you've

0:57 gotten approved, probably doing the happy dance. You're good with the world. But one of the first things that I tell people all the time after they've been approved is be aware you're not going to get some security forever. The process was not ultimately designed for you to give disability benefits for the remainder of your life or into retirement age. The idea is that the disability benefits were designed to provide you some modicum of compensation during the time period when you are unable to work, with the idea that hopefully your condition will improve to the point where you're able to return back into the workforce. Now, let's be real here, there are going to be some condition that just aren't going to improve with time, and

1:36 Social Security recognizes that. However, they do take it upon themselves to do what they call a continuing disability review. That means every three usually about every three to five years. There's no set time period in there, but every three to five years, Social Security will pull your case back up to determine whether or not they think you are still disabled. Well how do they do that? Well, pretty straightforward. First, they look the benchmarks as being when were the when were you determined to be disabled? And then they look at today. So let's say you were found disabled back in two thousand and six. Your review is now, So they're going to look at your condition in two thousand and six, and they're going to look at your condition

2:17 now to see if they are the same, if they're worse, and if they're better. How do they do that? Well, what they're going to do is they're going to do almost the same thing like they did for you before. Now what they're going to do is they're going to start asking your friends, your contacts, They're going to start reaching out to your doctors, and so they're going to be looking at the period of time from the time you became disabled, which was six for this example, all the way to twenty eleven. Now, I know some people say, Wow, it was real bad, and you want to go back to the time period before two thousand and six, because that's what really caused you to have your problems. No one is disputing you were disabled in two thousand and six.

2:51 No one's disputing your disabled in two thousand and seven, two thousand eight, two thousand and nine, two thouy ten. They're staying in twenty eleven. We want to see if your disability has stopped or should it still continue. Now, Usually one of two things happen. They get all your medical records, they review your file, and then they make a determination that either one you are disabled and they just keep on going, and or two you're not disabled, at which point in time the appeals process kicks in. Now, first and foremost, keep this in the back of your mind.

3:19 If they find that you're disabled now and let's say for some weird reason. You know, you're still relatively young, you're in your forties or your fifties. Does that mean you're not gonna get another review? Absolutely not. They keep doing them on a regular basis. So what ultimately will happen is about another three to five years. Guess what, they're going to have another review. Now with the next review, they're not going to go back to two thousand and six, They're going to go back to twenty eleven. So let's say this was two thousand and sixteen. They're going to go back to the last time they determine you were disabled, which was twenty eleven, and that eleven and that will be their benchmarker. Now here's where it gets a little weird.

3:55 If they make a determination that you are no longer disabled, what or do you have available to you? Well, you can do one or two things. One you can say okay and ride off into the sunset, or two you can appeal it. Now, typically within your letters of appeal, they'll tell you if you want to appeal, you have a right to ask for your benefits to continue. Here's what you need to understand. If Social Security makes a determination at some particular point in time, Usually, if you get denied by a judge, now a disability hearing officer, but a judge that that you are no longer disabled as of the date that was determined, you may have to reimburse those Security for all that money that you receive during the time they were doing a review of

4:38 your case. So how does that actually work. Well, let's say, for instance, they tell you, yeh, you're no longer disabled as a September one, twenty eleven. So you decide, I'm going to appeal that sucker, and I want to still keep my benefits going. So during that process they do a review, it's probably a reconsideration appeal, and what they're going to do is they're going to have what they call a disability hearing. That means you're going to go depending on how the state works, but usually what will happen is you'll go to some disability determination office, one of the medical providers that Social Security works with office.

5:10 You'll probably sit in a room, You'll talk to one of the state workers who will ask you a series of questions. They'll give you the opportunity to review your file to make sure that they have everything in there that they're supposed to have. They'll give you a chance to basically make your argument about your condition, and then they'll make a determination. If they determine that you are no longer disabled, you then can appeal to go before an administrative law judge. At that time, you can still ask for your benefits to still continue. Then you go through the process and you will actually go and vote.

5:41 You'll get to a judge and either you'll be approved or be denied. Now, please, people keep in the back of your mind. One thing. The new Social Security ruling that just came down by a couple of weeks ago, basically says that if the judge makes a determination that you are no longer disabled, this goes with a new application as well as a continue one. I'm pretty sure of a continuing one. And you let's say, for instance, that you get denied by the judge and you want to file a new application based on the same allegations.

6:11 You can't do it. So it's kind of now I will tell you, with regards to a continuing it's going to be weird because with a continuing, if the judge says, up to this point you can no longer say you're not disabled, then this is what's going to happen. You have a choice. Under the new rules, you can only do one of two things. I know this might sound confusing, but follow me along. You can either appeal that judge's decision or you can value you a new application, but you cannot do both. You can you can file a new application because under the new rules you can't have both.

6:46 You can't file an appeal of the review and then file a new application if you're still alleging the same type of thing. This is one of those things where I tell people make sure you talk to a Social Security representative, non attorney report or an attorney rep because that is something that you need to be fully aware of. Also, you need to be aware of this. If you are denied by a judge and you've been receiving benefits during the time when they've been reviewing your decision, you may have to reimburse the federal government. So keep that thought in the back of your mind. Okay, all right. Second question, someone asked me why does Social Security get so fired up over unemployment benefits? Okay, First and foremost, I want

7:27 people to recognize there's nothing in the regulation that prohibits individuals from applying for unemployment benefits, and the fact that you receive them does not necessarily mean that you are not disabled. So social Security is not going to basically kank your case because you've received uneployment benefits. Now, there's technical aspects, so if you got to s aside the earnings portion, it is kind of weird. So we won't talk about it. We're talking solely from a disability standpoint.

7:54 But the thing is that Social Security has a responsibility to make a credibility determination, and when they use that, they're going to look at your situation and think about it like this. When you apply for Social Security, you're telling the federal government that due to your medical conditions, you are unable to work. When you apply for unemployment, you are telling your state government that you are able to work if work was available. Now, it's weird because what you're gonna find is that And I'm gonna tell you this right now because people always ask me this, well, how to judge you view this? And I always say, it depends on the judge, because let's be real, people, you know your bills ain't gonna stop getting paid just

8:36 because you apply for disability. You know that man will come out there and keep the lights on and say, hey, can you wait two years until my disability check? And I got you moved on the backside. It's not how it's going down. What's gonna end up happening is if you don't have money to pay those bills, guess what stuff gets turned off? And so people make difficult choices.

8:53 But Social Security is going to look at, especially a judge, at your situation. Its entirety in determining should the fact that you received unemployment or that you applied for unemployment be held against you with regards to a credibility determination. So if you find yourself in a situation where you've applied for unemployment, you're receiving unemployment for a period of time, and you're wondering if that's going to negatively affect your case, it's a case by case Peyton based the people because it depends on the judge. It depends on the circumstances by which you applied for unemployment. And if you say, what do you mean by that, well, think of it like this. Let's say that you got hurt, you apply

9:30 for unemployment, you still kept looking for jobs, and you got a job, and then you stopped and you got to unemployment again, and then all of a sudden you are like, you know what, I can't do it, And so you went and you apply for so secured. That's a circumstance that happens a lot. A judge may be sympathetic towards it. However, some judges may not be sympathy.

9:47 They may say, well are you still receiving unemployment that you tell them that you're not able to work me more, Well, no, well then why not. So it's important to understand that, well, an unemployment be taking in consideration. Yes, receive the benefits themselves. It is not necessarily going to be a death for your case, but it will be taking consideration in terms of creditibility, because in terms of credibility because of the value that most people who apply for unemployment are asserting for the government that they can work. But when you applied so security, you're saying you can't. This is why it's important to make sure you have a good representative to kind of help you understand how this may impact

10:22 your case, and especially one who's had the opportunity to go before judges so they can give you a good feel of how that judge wants to respond in a way but kind of keep that in the backum art again, everybody, I want you all to have a stay holiday. Make sure you'll let you take care of yourself and that's always.

10:41 My name is Attorney Anthony Breekings. This is another edition of Q and a period sty