|
"Transcript
- Advantage of Representation "
|
Brian
Therrien: Good day everybody.
This is Brian Therrien here with Barbara Mountain. How
are you today, Barb?
Barbara
Mountain: I’m
great. Thanks for asking.
Brian
Therrien: Good.
Thanks for coming out today. We’re going to talk
today about the advantages of using a Social Security disability
representative and I just want to preface our chat today, Barb, with the
audience. Our strategy and what’s worked for the
Disability Digest members to help folks win their case in record time is
really to clearly understand both options that you have to either apply or
advance a case. Which, is simply - use a mini course to go
through and understand how to advance your case on your own, interview a
qualified Social Security disability representative about your case and then
compare both options and move forward. So what we’re
going to do is kind of dig into some of the advantages of using a
representative today and I think you’re very qualified to do this because of
your background.
Barbara
Mountain: Great.
Brian
Therrien: And
you’re not a representative, right?
Barbara
Mountain: I’m
not, no.
Brian
Therrien: So
here’s why I -- for
those of you who don’t know Barbara, your background and I think that
you’re a perfect fit to do this is; you began your career actually working
for the Social Security Administration, right?
Barbara
Mountain: Right,
yeah.
Brian
Therrien: But
working with disability claims.
Barbara
Mountain: That’s
right.
Brian
Therrien: So
you saw how claims went through the application part and what worked and what
didn’t and built the base there. Then from there you went
out and worked for a long-term disability carrier and had similar exposure to
watching long-term disability claims be processed and go and apply for Social
Security disability. So now, you are working for a Social
Security disability representative but still are not a representative.
Barbara
Mountain: That’s
right.
Brian
Therrien: So
that’s what intrigues me about this so I think it’s good, I thank you for
taking the time and helping our audience better understand. So
how about this for a way to start. A lot of people, when
they think about Social Security disability representatives and they use that
term because there are different types of representatives and I think the
general consumer public thinks that a disability representative has to
actually be an attorney. Could you breakdown the
differences for us?
Barbara
Mountain: Sure.
Any person out there has a right to appoint a qualified individual to
represent them when doing business with Social Security and Social Security
does not require that it be an attorney. So there’s
different types of representatives out there. There are
non-attorney groups, which where you’re not an attorney. These
folks are usually -- it
could be a paralegal or they could be pretty much anyone with any background
that has an interest in Social Security and has learned the rules and
regulations. For that matter, you could ask your neighbor
to be a representative. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend
that unless that’s what they do, but it does not have to be an attorney and
that’s non-attorney group.
Then
there are attorneys. There are attorneys that have gone to
law school and have passed the bar and now they are practicing in the Social
Security arena, so you can choose an attorney.
And
lastly, there’s some free legal aid and these are groups that will provide
services to you pro bono and they may be a mix. There may
be non-attorneys in this group; there may be some attorneys in this group.
So they would be one of the two above, but they are willing to offer
services at no charge. I don’t have a lot of experience
with these groups other than knowing that they usually tend to have high
caseloads and they’re pretty busy as you’d imagine.
Brian
Therrien:
Yeah. The word free always comes with a catch.
Barbara
Mountain:
Right. Now the appointment must be in writing so you
do have to fill out a form with Social Security and you need to file it with
Social Security so that they know who this representative is. That
gives them permission to share information about your case with the
representative. Social Security also must approve the fee.
No matter who your representative is, they do not have the right to
charge you anything they want. Social Security actually has
a say in that to say if it’s a reasonable amount that they can charge.
Brian
Therrien:
That’s good to know. So there’s non-attorney,
attorney, then free legal aid and it really -- we’ll go through some tips
today to kind of help people ask the right questions and see where they feel
comfortable and what’s best for them.
Barbara
Mountain:
Right. And if they were looking for free legal aid,
your local Social Security office should have a list of people that would be
willing to do that for you.
Brian
Therrien: Let’s
start with somebody that’s applying for the first time. There’s
this term that I’ve used out there called full-service because I’ve seen a
difference between folks that do this work, attorney, non-attorney, that I
call full-service versus non-full-service. And what I mean
by full service is they actually do all the paperwork in that. So
what I would like to hear from you, from the experience that you have is
what’s the difference and what are the advantages of having a representative
that will actually do all the paperwork for you versus somebody could say well
I know my condition best and maybe I should just actually do that application?
Barbara
Mountain:
Well, like you said, there really are two schools of thought on that.
You’ll talk with some attorneys who will say go file on your own and
if you get denied and get to the hearing’s level, then we’ll represent you
and then you have the others you refer to as a full-service rep who really
will take it right from the beginning.
The
full-service rep is going to complete all of the forms with you. The
initial application and anything subsequent that may come out, work reports or
activities of daily living, things like that. The reason
why that could be really important is when you’re completing an application,
you, as the claimant -- you may write something and not realize that
vocabulary is really important and something may come off in a way you
didn’t intend for it to come off. And that can then come
back to haunt you as it’s something that maybe has to be overcome in order
to get you awarded. So by having a representative do the
application with you, they’re going to make sure that every question is
answered appropriately, in a manner that’s going to help you get awarded and
it’s also going to help Social Security to see why that medical condition
and how that medical condition is preventing you from being able to return to
work. A lot of things that can be lost when you’re
completing the application on your own is forgetting that it’s not just
about explaining all about your medical condition, it’s really being able to
apply how those restrictions and limitations are preventing you from being
able to go out and work and find a job that’s going to allow you to earn
enough that Social Security deems you could either be disabled or not be
disabled.
Other
things that are important, a lot of the questions that you ask on an
application, they are lead questions. What they’re doing
is leading the Social Security employee to other benefits that you may be
eligible for or other family members may be eligible for. So
it’s just important to make sure that you’re answering those correctly.
Date of disability, for example, is an extremely important date and
Social Security is going to state what was the last day you worked?
But there are circumstances where you can take that date of onset and
move it in the past. If you were out of work for a period
of time and you went back to work and it didn’t work out because of the
disability, you potentially can move that onset date back to when you
originally went out and that’s something called an unsuccessful work
inhabitant. There’s some rules around it and there’s
some additional forms that need to be filed, but that’s important and
that’s crucial because the earlier you can get that onset date, the earlier
your benefits are going to begin for you. Those are the
sorts of things that a full-service representative is going to be able to do
for you. They’re also going to make sure that they’re
completing everything timely and they’re going to be involved. If
they’re representing you, Social Security’s going to be sending them any
new forms and any letters and so they’re going to make sure they’re
responding to everything with your input and getting it back. So
it’s kind of taking a burden off of you and at the same time, making sure
you’re putting your best foot forward.
Brian
Therrien:
So back to somebody filling out the application and maybe not
communicating their condition correctly. Would a situation
like that be if somebody is asked why they can’t work and they say well I
have fibromyalgia and depression, where they would actually need to
communicate well, I can’t work because I can’t sleep and I can’t
remember what I did yesterday, let alone today. I can’t
sit for more than five minutes.
Barbara
Mountain:
Exactly. Showing how it applies. I
mean the diagnosis is important. They do need to see the
diagnosis, but then you need to show what type of symptoms you’re having and
how those symptoms are affecting your ability to basically get around in a
typical day. And giving examples such as I can only stand
for 20 minutes at a time, specifics like that are very helpful.
Brian
Therrien: And
the onset date is really newfound money if you can just roll it back even six
months. It’s for an average check at $1,000, that could
make quite a difference.
Barbara
Mountain:
Absolutely. That’s extremely important and most
people don’t know that. They don’t realize that there
is a provision called the unsuccessful work attempt. There
are, again, some rules and regulations around it but there are a lot of people
that, probably have some guidance, would be able to move that date back.
Brian
Therrien:
So if you’re listening for the first time and this example and your
check is $1,000 and you discover that you can go back an extra six months,
that could potentially be an extra $6,000 that you would get when you get
awarded, so great information. You said one thing that was
interesting which is, I don’t know if you used the word stress or not, Barb,
but one thing that really gets to people about working through this process on
their own is it really compounds the stress issue for a lot of people, doing
this paperwork. So if a full-service representative was to
take the case, it’s one less thing that somebody would need to worry about?
Barbara
Mountain: Right,
exactly. They should be completing the application for you
and mailing it to you for your signature if need be or submitting
electronically. But actually completing it and it can be a
lot easier when someone else is just asking you the questions and then
completing it and going forward. Unfortunately, the Social
Security process isn’t easy and it is extremely frustrating especially given
the timeframes involved. So if you can take some of it out
of your hands and put the trust in somebody that you’ve hired, I think that
can certainly help quite a bit.
Brian
Therrien:
So from an increasing the odds of winning perspective, I mean I know
it’s probably difficult to pinpoint any figures and I don’t know if
there’s industry figures, but if somebody takes the application at the very
beginning and does it right, I mean is it just as simple as doing it right the
first time that will increase their odds of getting approved? Does
Social Security have any statistics on that?
Barbara
Mountain:
Well, actually there are some statistics out. They
are from what’s called an NOSSCR which stands for the National Organization
of Social Security Claims Representatives and they put out the statistics a
couple of years ago that showed the award rate of the initial level was right
around 38 percent nationally. So only 38 percent of people
get awarded and when you have a representative on the case, it does increase.
It’s roughly 62 percent. Now that was coming from
an organization of claims representatives, where that statistic comes from but
it does show a pretty significant increase and really what it means is not
only is the application being submitted and everything’s being answered
correctly, but also all the medical is usually being supplied at the same
time. When you file on your own, it is Social Security’s
obligation that if you list medical sources, that they go out and get the
medical records for you. However, if you can supply it
yourself, you know what they have, you know they have everything, also can
increase the timeliness because they’re not then going to wait that delay
and it can take awhile to get medical records. Even if
you’re getting them yourself, you’ve probably experienced that.
So those are things that also can help your case.
Brian
Therrien:
Well, that’s 38 to 62. That’s a powerful
difference.
Barbara
Mountain:
It is.
Brian
Therrien:
Even if it was cut in half from -- well, I guess that wouldn’t work
either but still it’s a big difference; interesting. So
let’s talk about this, Barb, as far as selecting an attorney or non-attorney
representative, there’s some questions that we have that we provide our
members in one of our lessons to do that, but I’d like to hear from you.
What tips could you provide, there are questions to ask or things that
people really need to know but they just don’t know how to ask the right
questions to determine if somebody’s capable of handling their case?
Barbara
Mountain:
I think experience is important. I mean, the first
thing I’d ask is this all you do, Social Security law, or do you do other
types of law? I think you want to know how long they’ve
been doing it, how long they’ve been practicing. I think
you’d want to ask them, get a feel for their perspective on the process by
saying what are the most important factors in getting my claim awarded?
What do they feel is most important and then if you gave them specifics
about your case, what do you feel my odds are? What do you
think is going to be important for me to show in order to get it awarded?
I definitely think it’s important that you ask them what their
expectations are of you. You’re going to say, okay,
what’s my role in this process? Tell me about what
you’re going to do and tell me how I fit in? How often do
you communicate with me? And don’t shy away from asking
the question about fees. What does your fee structure look
like? What does he charge for?
Brian
Therrien:
Good points. You know a lot of the members that we
have, the biggest frustration comes usually from choosing a local attorney and
there are -- there can be good local choices but often what they do is
they’ll just choose a local attorney not knowing that this attorney does
several different things because a lot of rural places in the US, attorneys
have to. So their case gets in there and it gets stuck and
all of that and they’re frustrated. But what do you have
to say to the audience that’s out there about the comfort level of choosing
a representative that meets the criteria versus somebody that’s local?
I guess can they be from anywhere?
Barbara
Mountain: I
would say geography is not important. I think it’s a
common assumption that if they’re just down the road, they’ll be right
there; I can go see them whenever I want. The reality is
you really don’t need to see your attorney or your representative
face-to-face. Most everything is done via phone, via phone
and mail. So all the applications, all the questions can be
answered, it can be done in that manner. I think it’s
much more important the quality of the person that you’re choosing.
How much experience they have with doing this and what their award
rates look like and the comfort level you feel with them. Trust
is an important thing. If you are selecting someone to
represent you, you’re going to need to listen to them because they’re
going to be the ones preparing you for the hearing and so you need to have a
trust in them so I think gaining that is much more important than geography.
In addition, some might say well, if I choose a local attorney,
they’re going to know the judges and they’re going to know them well and
know what they need to show. That may be true, but
there’s a flip side to it. If you have a local attorney,
they deal with that judge all the time. They may be less
inclined to really push a case and become confrontational with that judge if
they need to knowing that this is the person that’s going to be hearing all
of their cases. Where if you hire a national
representative, they’re probably more willing to go in there or I know
they’re more willing to go in there and basically push it and do whatever
they need to do to get it awarded. If that means getting on
the bad side of the judge, that’s what it means. So
that’s one thing to think about and there’s two schools of thought on
that. I think it’s much more important to just get the
most qualified person to represent you; a person that you trust will do a good
job just versus just because they’re in your local area.
Brian
Therrien:
Well, the other side of that is if you’re an initial applicant, if
you get the right person from the beginning, ideally you’re not going to be
going to trial.
Barbara
Mountain:
Absolutely and actually that brings me to another point. When
you’re talking to the possible representative, you want to probably ask them
if they attempt on-the-record decisions and what that means is when you are
going for a hearing, you have to wait for a hearing and hearings can take 12
months or more just to be scheduled, so they can take a long time.
However, a representative does have an option of trying to get what’s
called an on-the-record decision and what that means is they write up a legal
brief stating all the facts of the case and why they think the claim should be
awarded without the need for a hearing and a lot of those can be awarded and
when they’re awarded it means nobody had to go to a hearing. So
that’s an important statistic because, again, it’s a sooner decision for
you. You’re also not going to have to go into a court of
law to have a case heard. You want to ask your attorney
about that and once again, a lot of people get those awarded. Again,
another opportunity where you wouldn’t even have to see, face-to-face, your
attorney. But you do want to make sure that whoever you are
hiring as your representative is willing to travel to wherever you are to have
that hearing face-to-face if need be.
Brian
Therrien:
Good points. Let’s say that somebody’s gone
through and they’ve taken the questions that you’ve provided, which have
been great, they’ve used the ones that we have in the lessons and they
select an attorney. The next thing is, where I’m going
with this, is try to avoid the common complaint that people have about their
representative which is a communication plan or lack thereof. So
if I could, in your opinion, how should somebody set up a communication plan?
What happens if there isn’t one? I’m sure you
may know this. Is the client feels that they can call once
a week or once a day and that’s okay to check on the case. But
that’s not necessary. So what do you feel is?
Do you have tips for that?
Barbara
Mountain:
Yeah. I mean I definitely agree that one of the
things you probably should do up front, when hiring someone, is ask about what
their communication style is like, how do they communicate? How
responsive are they? If I call you or send you an email
when can I expect that you’ll respond back to me? What’s
typical? What’s the expectations of your office?
But more than that is I think you’d ask him at the initial level.
At the recon level, at the hearing level, how often do you update me?
There needs to be an expectation on the side of the claimant that
Social Security is, unfortunately, a slow process and a lot of times the
attorney may have already done everything they can do at that point and
they’re waiting for Social Security to act. Now, that’s
not okay for the attorney to then not contact you for six months, in my
opinion. But there is some reasonableness to when they
contact you and I think knowing that up front should play into, if you’re
comfortable with their answers, whether you decide to use them or not.
For example, my company, at the hearing’s level, it can take a year
to get that hearing date, but we’re going to at least give you an update
every 90 days and of course we’re going to respond to you and our protocol
is that we respond within 24 hours. Others may be a week.
But knowing this is going to take a lot of that stress, anxiety and
frustration out of it. If you haven’t set something up
before you hired him, probably is a good time to bring it up now. Say,
hey, going forward, what’s reasonable? Because they want
to set expectations with you, too. Because as you said,
getting a call every single day on a claim in which you know it’s probably
going to be six months before Social Security acts on it isn’t reasonable
because they’ve got other claims that they need to be working on.
So there needs to be a balance on both sides of the house in the
understanding of how the communication is going to work.
Brian
Therrien:
Yeah, yeah. And that will smooth out the
relationship, yeah. Because it is a long process especially
if you’re waiting for a hearing.
Barbara
Mountain: Right.
And even at the initial level. Once you’re
submitted everything, on average it could be three to six months to get
awarded and once everything is in, they have all the medical records, all the
forms have been completed, there isn’t really anything for anyone to be
doing other than waiting at that point. However, there are
times when it’s appropriate to push and to check with Social Security to
make sure that it is moving along and your representative is going to have a
timeframe of which they think it’s appropriate to make that follow-up call
and to make sure that it is continuing to move through the process.
Brian
Therrien:
Good point. Let’s talk about the fees.
People are often, they go it on their own typically. I
don’t think people go it on their because they think they can do it better.
They go it on their own because they want to save money. Well,
I can certainly respect that. But let’s talk about the
fees and what’s involved in those.
Barbara
Mountain: There
are basically two different types of fee options that attorneys can use.
Now with both of them, as I mentioned earlier, Social Security must
approve the fee. The first one is called the standard fee
agreement and this is the most common. It’s probably the
one you’re going to hear about 90 to 95 percent of the time. And
what that agreement states is that they can charge you 25 percent of past due
benefits up to a cap of $6,000. So whatever you’re due in
retroactive benefits, it’s 25 percent of that but the most they could get is
$6,000. That is standard when that is submitted to Social
Security, it’s automatically approved and it just goes through, no problem.
The other type is called a fee petition and that is typically used by
an attorney that maybe feels they’ve been working a whole lot on a case and
they’re entitled to maybe more than that. Now a fee
petition is they have to submit to Social Security what they feel they’re
owed and exactly why. The hours worked and what their
charge is per hour and any supporting documentation. If
they go for a fee petition you, as the claimant, should receive a copy of
everything that they’ve submitted to Social Security and you also have -- if
you have any questions about it or concerns, you can let Social Security know
what they are and you need to do that within 20 days of them submitting that
fee petition. But both circumstances, Social Security must
approve it. Now there are other fees that could be referred
to as hidden fees. I would hope they’re not hidden
because there shouldn’t be any surprises out there. You
should know up front, but there are fees the attorney can charge you that do
not need to be approved by Social Security. And that is
such things as medical records, the cost for obtaining medical records and the
cost of copying medical records; they can ask you to pay for that.
However, not everybody does. There are a lot of
representatives out there who do not charge for those sorts of things.
So those are questions to ask up front.
Brian
Therrien:
And there are some states where they’re not able to charge for it; is
that correct?
Barbara
Mountain:
I’m not familiar with that. I don’t know; that
may be true. But, again, that’s questions to ask up
front. If there’s anything besides the fee that you get
for getting me awarded that I might have to pay? And
remember, all fees are negotiable. So the attorney may have
a cap on what they can charge of $6,000, but maybe you can negotiate that
they’ll actually charge you less than that.
Brian
Therrien: Good
point. If we could do this, let’s go through an example
of a standard fee agreement and what the representative would get and what the
applicant would get when they get approved. So let’s use
the average check is around $1,000. So let’s say somebody
has been out of work for, say, 12 months. They haven’t
applied. And so they have a representative that says that
they’re going to take their case at the 12-month period. Now,
and let’s say it takes the representative six months to get that approved,
so there’s a total of 18 months and each month is $1,000, right?
So in that example, sorry to lay the heavy math on you, Barb.
Barbara
Mountain:
I know. Are you -- because I’m so technical here,
are you including the five month waiting period the person has?
Brian
Therrien:
That’s what I wanted to hear out here. So no,
I’m not. So if they’ve been out of work for 12 months
and there’s the five month waiting period, explain how that all works, if
you would?
Barbara
Mountain:
All right. Let’s do some dates to make it a little
bit easier. So if a person was out -- the last date that
they worked was January 15, 2008 and they filed for Social Security disability
let’s say in January of 2009 and they were not awarded until July of 2009.
Social Security makes their decision and says yes, you were disabled
back January 15, 2008. However, everybody who files has to
wait five full calendar months before they’re entitled to their first check
and that’s their waiting period. So for this individual
who was disabled on January 15th, his waiting period is February,
March, April, May and June. So July of 2008 is the first
month he’s actually due a check. So when he’s awarded
in July of 2009, he’s due back payments to July of 2008, so he’s entitled
to 12 months of payments in retroactive months and if they agree -- his
benefit was $1,000 a month, he’s entitled to $12,000 in back due money.
Now, the representative’s fee is 25 percent of past due benefits up
to a cap of $6,000 and 25 percent of $12,000 is $3,000. So
their fee is going to be $3,000 and the claimant is going to receive $9,000.
Brian
Therrien: Great
example. So we talked about that, what the different fee
structures are, hidden fees. Let’s move on to -- from
your perspective and you’re talking to an audience of people that have
applied or are not represented. What are some of the
advantages, in your opinion, of interviewing a representative?
Barbara
Mountain:
Well, I think the most important thing is you have to have a comfort
level with them. I mean you’re putting your future in
their hands. So you need to trust them because as I
mentioned earlier, they’re the ones that are going to be telling you what
you should do and preparing you to go to a hearing and representing you.
You need to be able to trust them and if you don’t trust them and you
don’t want to listen to what they say, then you’ve got a problem and
you’re not working together as a team. So I think the
most important reason to interview is to make sure it’s somebody that
you’re ready to put your faith in and that you’re ready to really put your
future in their hands.
Brian
Therrien:
And what expectations could somebody come away from the interview with?
What’s the value that they would learn from your opinion?
Just going through the interview, rather than not doing it.
Let’s say well listen, I don’t want to do the interview.
I’m just going to go and I’m just going to file but if they were to
interview, what might they learn?
Barbara
Mountain:
Well, they might learn that this person has some great tips for them.
Even if they went on their own, by interviewing a representative, they
might actually gain some knowledge that will help you in going forward on your
own. I think you would certainly learn maybe some words in
terms of how to communicate your medical condition just based on the way maybe
the representative is asking you questions back based on the questions
you’re asking them. They’re going to talk about the
focus on the importance to show how your disability impacts your ability to
work and you’re going to learn something just in your own sake not only
about them and the way they represent you but probably about your case and the
it should be presented.
Brian
Therrien:
Very good. That’s valuable information.
Barbara
Mountain:
Now, they’re also probably going to tell you if you have a strong
case or not. I think that’s important, too. They
may tell you --if you have a representative who’s saying go file on your
own, that maybe because they think you’re going to get awarded on your own.
They may think that, you know what; this person’s got a pretty good
case. If they feel you may have to go through the appeals
process, they should let you know that, too. I think it can
help you with expectations because you’re -- if you’re sitting out there
and you have a disability and you need to get on Social Security, like I said
it’s a stressful, long, frustrating process. I think if
you have an expectation going in of what you can expect maybe at those first
couple of levels, that can also help.
Brian
Therrien:
My concern about people that are not well and don’t have an advocate
to help them and they go to somebody that interviews them and they say, okay,
well go file on your own. I’ve seen too many stories
where people don’t know how to file on their own properly and although they
might have the condition, but they don’t communicate it so guess what
happens?
Barbara
Mountain:
Right, yep, exactly.
Brian
Therrien:
So if that does happen to you, ask some questions. What
are some of the key ingredients? If you were to list the
top say three key ingredients to really get a case through and approved, what
would they be?
Barbara
Mountain:
Well, number one medical records. I mean you have to
have the medicals to support your claim of disability. Something
that is able to show your researches and limitations because that’s what it
comes down to. Let’s show how your researches and
limitations prevent you, given your age, your education, and your work
history, of why you can’t work today.
Brian
Therrien:
So if you have a condition that’s not clearly diagnosed that could be
a challenge?
Barbara
Mountain:
It could be a challenge, but diagnosis isn’t as important as the
symptom. If your doctor could say what is preventing you
from being able to do, that’s what’s important. In some
cases, diagnosis is great because then it’s really easy to show, okay, based
on diagnosis, this is what the results are and this why it prevents you.
But if you can clearly say we don’t know exactly what it is but we
know the person has the inability to do X, Y and Z, then that can be applied
to why the person can’t work.
Brian
Therrien: What
about being treated?
Barbara
Mountain:
That certainly helps. I mean, showing ongoing
treatment, following your course of action from your doctor is huge; that
you’re doing what they’re prescribing for you to do is important.
Can you get awarded if you’re not being regularly seen? You
can, but it is more difficult. Because, again, the more
objective evidence you have the easier it is for Social Security to award it
and most definitely at the first two levels.
Brian
Therrien:
Got you a little off track there. What other tips?
Barbara
Mountain:
You’re doctor’s support. I mean, having your
doctor agree that you meet the qualifications to file for disability but just
saying that really doesn’t mean a lot to Social Security. Anyone
can say it. What they want to see is the proof.
So the doctor’s showing, based on the medical records, that it
supports your disability is important. Also your doctor
supporting you in responding to request for information. That
could be a tough part. You get a lot of places where it’s
even just have to get the medical records so your doctor supplying it and
filling out anything that they’re asked to fill out can go a long way
towards helping you claim. Work history. A
strong work history really helps your claim and really, honestly, because it
gives you credibility with Social Security. You’ve shown
that you’ve been a worker throughout your life and now you have something
preventing you from being able to work. That’s going to
help you out. The stronger your work history, really, goes
a long way. I think a lot of people don’t realize that.
Brian
Therrien:
So if you’ve worked 15 years in the same job doing the same thing and
you’re not doing it anymore, that’s a key ingredient?
Barbara
Mountain:
That’s a key ingredient because honestly you just need a lot of
credibility. Your statements are taken seriously.
It shows good faith, I think, on the part of Social Security.
Not that they’d ever readily admit this, but it’s something that
I’ve seen. I might add a few others. Again,
I’d say listen to your representative. You’ve hired
them to prepare you, you need to trust them and lastly, be honest and
straightforward with your representative and with Social Security.
You’re not going to fool the ALJ; you’re not going to fool the
judge. If you can’t work then there is something that can
be done to prove your case.
Brian
Therrien:
Great information, Barb. So let’s just recap here
briefly. We’ve gone through the advantages of a
full-service representative, what to look for, we talked about the geography,
local or nonlocal and how to pinpoint your back benefits. Make
sure you don’t leave any money on the table and really you gave some great
questions to ask when interviewing a potential representative and you also
gave information about how to really avoid the common complaints which is the
communication challenge and when you should be communicating. So
that’s been helpful. And the fees, we talked about those
as well. So is anything -- did I get it all? Is
there anything we missed?
Barbara
Mountain:
No. I think we did. I don’t
know. I think we skipped over a little bit the back
benefits. What a representative can do to ensure that you
get -- your award amount is appropriate? So just jump in
right there. One thing that any representative that you
have should be doing for you is once you’ve been awarded, reviewing that
award letter to making sure that all the dates are correct, making sure they
got the correct onset date. I mean, typos have been known
to happen but also Social Security has been known to sometime not award you at
the date you alleged, but move it up. What’s called a
partially awarded decision. But they’re also going to
look to make that they aren’t taking any incorrect offsets. For
example, worker’s compensation can be an offset Social Security and if
they’re doing that, is it appropriate? If you have
long-term disability, are they mistaking it for worker’s compensation?
Social Security does do a good job in pay. They pay a lot
of people and pay a lot of people correctly. However, I
certainly have seen mistakes made. So you want to make sure
that that’s part of the process and they’re reviewing that and making sure
that you’re getting everything you’re entitled to once you are awarded.
Brian
Therrien:
Okay. That’s a great point. Anything
else you can think of that would be helpful?
Barbara
Mountain:
No. I think that’s it. I just
want to stress the fact that I think you need to be comfortable with who you
choose because you are putting your future in their hands.
Brian
Therrien:
Sure you are, yeah, income. Okay. Well,
thanks again for taking the time. For those of you who are
listening to this, thank Barb for all this great information and there’s
more information on the webpage that you’re looking at and there is a form
at the bottom that if you want to request an interview with one of the
preferred representatives that we have met and gone through here at the
Disability Digest, just complete the form at the bottom of the page and put in
as much information as possible so that we can take a look at it and do the
very best we can to meet your needs. So just scan down that
page and you can see that. So Barb, thanks again for taking
the time today and providing all this wonderful information.
Barbara
Mountain:
Great. You’re welcome.
{end of the interview}
|
