The Complexity Of Social Security Disability For New Yorkers

Social Security Disability, also commonly known as SSD, impacts many different individual circumstances, across the board. The complexities of SSD requires the assistance of a highly competent and skilled New York Social Security Disability Attorney, and to do no less is not a wise course of action.

According to well-known New York SSD attorney Harold Skovronsky in Brooklyn, New York, SSD regulations are frequently difficult to navigate, especially when an individual’s requirements are probably not exactly like someone else. Since no one size fits all with SSD needs, a skilled attorney in these matters is an essential asset.

Harold Skovronsky points out that the SSD application process can be difficult. The rules are complex and the paperwork can be overwhelming. The government, leaving claimants frustrated and confused, rejects most disability claims. His office has handled tens of thousands of disability cases over a span of 35 years, and daily assists clients at any stage of the claim process, from initial application through appeals to the highest courts.

How It Works

The Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability programs are the largest of several Federal programs that provide assistance to people with disabilities. While these two programs are different in the Social Security Administration administers many ways, both and only individuals who have a disability and meet medical criteria may qualify for benefits under either program.

Social Security Disability Insurance pays benefits to you and certain members of your family if you are “insured,” meaning that you worked long enough and paid Social Security taxes.

When you apply for either program, Social Security will collect medical and other information from you and make a decision about whether or not you meet Social Security’s definition of disability.

Harold Skovronsky observes that claims for Social Security and disability benefits have grown in recent years, the result of baby boomer retirements and high unemployment. The Social Security Administration received 10 million new claims in 2009, up from about 8.2 million in 2004.

With 65 percent of new disability claims initially denied, appeals began piling up, and administrative law judges who hear these cases were overwhelmed.

By August 2008, an appeal took an average of 532 days to resolve. The agency hired judges and support staff to speed up the process, and by last year the average appeal took 390 days. There was still a backlog of 705,370 pending hearings.

Unfortunately, the Social Security agency has suspended efforts to open eight planned hearing offices to process claims in Alabama, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, Montana, California and New York, spokesman Mark Lassiter said. Overtime has been largely eliminated, and a hiring freeze has blocked new staff to process appeals.

The extended stopgap measures have “made it much more difficult” for the agency to reduce the backlog in disability claims, he said.

“We have many high-traffic offices where all day long, our employees interview people filing for benefits,” said Witold Skwierczynski, president of the union representing local Social Security field offices. “Then they have to process a case. That takes time.”

The agency pays out more than $800 billion in benefits every year to retirees, their spouses, dependents and survivors, low-income disabled adults and children, and some low-income World War II veterans.

The government cutbacks of field offices potentially affecting efficient processing of SSD is another reason that Harold Skovronsky says a New York SSD lawyer’s assistance is so critical to an individual’s interests and needs.

Additional information is available at http://www.completedisabilitylawyers.com or by calling 718-336 8886.