I have read under other topics that there seems to be a number of my fellow fibros who are having difficulty with disability claims and need some advice. I am not an atty. I can only share my experience. First, are you applying for Social Security or Disability from an insurance company which would have been one of your benefits under contract with your former employer? I had both. The disability from the insurance came first. I was eligible to begin receiving benefits if I qualified 6 months after I became disabled and could no longer work at my previous job (I was a teacher). This process was not difficult at all. Timeconsuming,yes,but not difficult. I would be eligible to begin receiving benefits in July, so I began the application process in April. Naturally, there was a lot of paperwork involved, with a lot of personal questions to be answered. It is necessary to be as thorough as possible. All of my physicians had to submit my medical records and the insurance company paid any fees. I was interviewed over the phone by one of the agents. An examination by one of their physicians could have been a requirement, but in my case, it was not. Everything went smoothly and I was notified that I had qualified to begin receiving benefits.
Then the fun part began. I was told that I was required to apply for Social Security Disability Benefits. It is not that it was that hard to do, it was just a whole lot of more paper work. My physicians did not seem to mind as they had been down this road before with other patients. The way SS works, your first application is almost always turned down. So, then you apply a second time to have it reviews. Usually the second time is also turned down. Then you apply a third time. This is the level at which you appear for a hearing. An atty. was assigned to me by the insurance co., but the atty. really didn't do anything. I showed up for the hearing, was asked questions for an hour by an Administrative Judge. Also present was a court recorder and a vocational specialist. At the end of the questioning, the judge, based on what she had gathered I could do and under what conditions, asked the vocational specialist if there were any such jobs I could do. The vocational specialist replied no to everything and I was dismissed. The atty had just sat there and never said a word. A short while later, I received notification that the determination of the case had been found favorable in my behalf. This whole process took three years. It did require a lot of patience and a lot of paperwork, but it can be done. You just have to be thorough and report everything. If you have a hard time remembering everything, keep a notebook and write everything down, such as dr. visits, symptoms you have, difficulties you may have doing everyday tasks, fatique, all medications you have taken, etc. Don't leave anything out. Personally, I don't even see why the atty was necessary. I never met with her except for about 15 minutes before the hearing. If you have trouble filling out all the paper work, try to get someone to help you. Often your local Senior Center will have an advocate employed who will assist people with Social Security issues.
Don't loose heart and give up. You are entitled to receive benefits. That is why they are there. Unfortunately, there are people who try to take advantage and commit fraud. They are the ones who make it difficult for the deserving ones like us who really rely on the income the benefits would give us.
