Disability 180

Social Security Disability Non Attorney Claimant Representative / Disability Advocate Provides Help for You to Win Your Social Security Disability & SSI Benefits Claim

Loretta Crosby, Disability Consultant 

 

“Discover how putting an ex Social Security Disability Claims Examiner to work for you as your advocate / representative can increase your chances of winning your disability and SSI benefits. No more guessing what Social Security needs in order to approve your claim and grant you benefits. With a skilled Disability Consultant on your team, it's full speed ahead for getting an accurate decision in the least amount of time. Plus, there are no out of pocket expenses for you to worry about or come up with as we develop your claim. If you don't get paid, Disability 180 doesn't get paid! How's that for giving us all the incentive needed to get you the disability benefits you deserve--and to get 'em fast!”

You probably never dreamed that winning your Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits would be this hard.

You can no longer work due to your physical and/or mental impairments and your doctor has already sent in all your medical records to the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Disability Determination Services (DDS) office to prove it.

Yet your application for disability benefits has been denied. And when the denial letter came, you could hardly believe it.

Well, you’re not alone. As you will note from the chart below, in 2001, statistically, only about 40 out of every 100 people who applied for disability benefits received them the first time around. That means 6 out of every 10 people were denied benefits as a matter of course by the SSA.

And the chart for 2004 gets even worst (see below), indicating that only 37 out of every 100 people who filed new claims for disability were granted benefits.

Well, charts and graphics aside, your question remains:

“What will I do for money now that I can not work? How will I care for myself, how will I provide for my family?”

So you read the denial letter from Social Security a second time and this time notice the part that says you can request a reconsideration of your claim if you think you have been denied in error or if your condition has gotten worst. You can request a reconsideration if you do it within a certain amount of time.

There is no decision to be made. You have to have your claim reconsidered because it is obvious you can no longer do any work, at least for another year, or at least until your condition gets better, or maybe you might never work again due to the severity of your medical problems.

 

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein

So how will you proceed. You've already given SSA everything they asked you for. So what exactly will you be doing differently this time so that you can get a different decision?

At Disability 180, we can help you obtain a different result from the SSA; we can help you get the benefits that you deserve in your time of need.

It May Be the Same Story … But We'll Show SSA Your Medical Conditions in a Completely Different Light

Yes, our goal is to get the SSA to do a 180 degree turn around on your claim. That means turning that “No, this person is not disabled” into a “Yes, this person is clearly unable to work … In fact, give him all the back benefits we owe him for making him wait so long.”

But wait…isn’t that the goal of every disability lawyer or attorney or claimant advocate or representative who offers their services to assist you in winning your claim?

So why should you choose an advocate from Disability 180 over those other guys?

That’s an excellent question and one we will let Loretta Crosby answer as your prospective North Carolina Disability Consultant / Advocate. In association with Disability Advocates of America, Ms. Crosby handles claims in most of the eastern counties of N.C.

Dear Disability Applicant:

Whether you have just applied for Social Security Disability benefits or SSI Benefits or have already gotten that first or second denial letter, I want to show you why choosing Disability 180 to handle your disability claim and help you win the benefits you rightly deserve is a no brainer.

Forgetting about social security and the disability claims process--for just a second--let me ask you to imagine that you are still working, and relatively healthy, but that you have had it up to your neck with your employer and your boss and all the bureaucratic nonsense and stress you have had to endure over the years.

So you have decided you would really rather venture out and do something on your own, maybe even open up a small home based business and be self employed.

But to do this, you realize that you will need a little bit of “capital” funding to get started.

After a little research, you discover that the Small Business Administration (SBA) will, in effect, be a co-signer for a loan to help you realize your dream of being your own boss and creating a lifestyle that you can be successful in and prosper in on your own terms.

But there is one small catch. The bank loan officers that the SBA referred you to all require that you let them look at your business plan before they will even consider looking at your application, let alone lending you the money.

“What the heck is a business plan?” you ask out loud, “And who can I get to help me write one that will get me the money I need for my small business?”

By this time you have gone to the library or a local book store and taken a look at the thick books that tell you how to write a business plan on your own, but life experience has taught you that nothing is as easy as it initially seems, and you could waste a lot of time trying to figure it all out on your own. Plus, there is just too much riding on the outcome of getting that loan.

When given a choice between getting help from someone who knows a lot of theory and someone who has "been there, done that", always go with the person who offers experience.  It has often been said that those who fail at doing teach theory, and those who succeed at doing provide services and show others how to do it.

So here are the choices it has all boiled down to in this SBA analogy:

A. You can hire a business plan writer, Mike, who is fresh out of a prestigious MBA school, and who knows all the theory behind the components that go into writing a successful business plan.

B. You can hire a former loan officer, Jeri, who has had years of experience approving and denying loan applications that he has received from Small Business Association applicants. These approvals and denials were based in large part on the strength of the applicants’ business plans and their presentation of the plans, much moreso than on the applicants' credit histories because the SBA allows different requirements for persons who qualify for their program.

Now, all things being equal in terms of how much each consultant would charge for his services, tell me, who do you think you should hire to help you get that crucial SBA loan?

Most people would hire Jeri. Why? Because even if Jeri has never taken a business plan writing course in his life, he knows inside and out what you need to present in your business plan to have it approved by the loan officer. He knows because he has been there, and done that for many years.

And you hire Jeri because he knows the “banker” community's mindset and what they will and will not accept in your business plan.

You hire Jeri because of his skill set... Because unlike Mike, Jeri has already moved from theorizing about how to best secure your loan to telling you exactly what you need to do to get that loan. Jeri will save you time in creating and presenting your application. Jeri will show your loan officer what your loan officer expects to see.

But you are not looking for a small business loan. Instead ...

What you need right now is an advocate or someone to help you win your disability benefits so you can get on with financially providing for and caring for your self and your family, or so you can get the medical assistance you may need for your recovery.

So halfway impatient, you ask again:

"Why should I hire you to handle my claim when I can hire the attorney across town that has certified paralegals working on all his disability cases?"

Ok... Just one more tiny little story and then I promise to tell you why you want me in your corner as you apply or re-file for disability benefits--insurance benefits you most likely have been paying the premiums on to the government for years.

You may or may not know that I am an ex Social Security Disability Claims Examiner who has made decisions on more than a 1000 applications from claimants just like you who were seeking SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and SSDI (Social Security Disability) benefits, and I hold the extra designation of being what DDS calls a “Single Decision Maker” (SDM), meaning my case decisions and legal summaries did not require a medical consultant's signature before claims could be allowed or denied.

Well after I left working for the Disability Determination Services (DDS) in August 2005, and before I became an independent Disability Consultant / Advocate, I had the privilege of running out of money, and in a moment of desperation, I decided to apply to work as a disability paralegal for an attorney in an adjoining state.

I figured no need to waste the five months of full time medical, vocational and legal training I had gotten as a disability examiner (DE) for DDS. And realizing the complexity of the SSA disability claims process--and actually enjoying the work--I decided I wanted to stay in that line of service.

So I was offered, and attended a job interview, and when the attorney who interviewed me had finished asking his questions, he asked me if I had any questions. Of course I did. You see, in my middle-aged maturity, I have come to realize that job interviews are really an opportunity for both parties to determine whether they are a “fit” together. So one of the questions that I asked the attorney was, “What is the average size of your paralegals caseload?”  Since I would fill that role for this attorney, I wanted a clear picture of what the expectations would be. To my surprise, the attorney responded, “Currently at 200 cases.”

After I reached down on the floor to pick up my lip which had dropped to that level, I asked a few more questions of the attorney and the interview was soon concluded.

Friend, I have to tell you from experience that a paralegal who is charged with handling 200 disability cases on an ongoing basis can not give you or the SSA the attention that will be required to efficiently and effectively manage your claim. I suspect that at that level of cases, it becomes a numbers game for the managing attorney, so that the percentage of cases that attorney wins goes up, not necessarily from the service he provides to claimants, but from the fact that a certain number of cases will be won and allowed just because the claimants conditions have gotten worst as s/he waited to attend an administrative hearing.

 

So, why has the system made it such that you need someone to help you win your disability case in the first place?

I suspect it is partly because, like that paralegal working at the attorney’s firm who is forced to manage 200 cases, the disability examiners at the DDS offices are also overburdened by having to manage upward of 200 cases, even though their supervisors get jittery when the DE's caseload gets above 100.

Having a high caseload results in the extra phone calls that need to be made to you to clarify your work history, or to your doctor to get him to provide a more “objective” opinion statement, it means those calls never get made by your disability examiner.

So bad decisions sometimes get made as a result of this, not because of the claims disability examiner's  intentional desire to deny your claim, but because SSA has not allocated the resources necessary to allow them to efficiently "approve" your claim. In other words, it becomes easier to deny a claim because sometimes extra investigation is required in order to approve a claim, especially in borderline situations.

What Disability 180 brings to the table when you hire Loretta Crosby to advocate on your behalf and assist you in the SSA administrative review process is an experienced disability adjudicator who has judged thousands of cases and issued thousands of claims decisions.

As your Disability Consultant / Advocate, I provide:

Small caseload size for individualized attention and focus on getting all the information needed to win your claim

Intimate and specific hands-on knowledge of all factors involved in the approval and denial of benefits, having worked inside the SSA office approving and denying claims for three years.  This means no time is wasted “theorizing” what will or will not work to win your claim. I know what the disability unit and your DE needs to allow a claim, and give it to them at the earliest possible time.

Proficiency in judging disability cases, in summarizing medical and vocational evidence, and in collecting all such evidence necessary to prove disability.

Experienced at writing legal summaries highlighting case factors SSA uses to decide your eligibility

A respectful, trustworthy and customer oriented environment, having had many years of experience assisting persons in obtaining public benefits, including services for the disabled, the economically disadvantaged, and social and legal services. 

Take a look at some other benefits you get with this experienced disability advocate at your beck and call:

A certified disability determination specialist with SSA training in medical, vocational and legal analysis

A skilled researcher of  SS databases, knowing where to find specific information needed for your specific medical conditions

A knowledgeable “coach” when it comes to getting your medical doctors to write useful objective medical summaries of your condition and the limitations that keep you from working

Let Disability 180 take you by the hand and lead you step by step through the Social Security Disability Determination process, and to a favorable decision.

Did you know that statistically more people win their disability claims that have a representative than those who do not. So...

No matter who you engage to help you win your Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits or Your Supplemental Security Income Claim, make sure they can offer you these four advantages: --They know specifically what Social Security needs to “allow” i.e approve your claim --They know how to present that information in a form that Social Security understands --They understand the complex rules and regulations the SS disability program is subjected to, and that these rules are subject to interpretation, and therefore a good representative must necessarily be skilled in case analysis and policy interpretation --They have good people skills and know how to coach your doctors into writing medical summaries of your functional limitations so that SS can see the real picture of your impairments. Since medical evidence is the backbone of your claim, this area is critical to the success of your application for benefits. These are just a few more reasons why having an experienced representative from Disability 180 manage your claim can help you win your case.

One of the things I used to dislike about my job as a disability examiner was the fact that I was not able to tell claimants up front what their odds of winning their claim were, especially in the cases where you might have a 28 year old with a broken arm who has come in to apply for benefits, with no mental problems or other impairments. Having that individual wait 90-120 days to get a decision seemed a total waste of time  since he obviously would be denied benefits (i.e. condition not severe, not expected to end in death or to last for at least one year).

The Commissioner of the Social Security Administration is calling for major changes in the way SSD does business with claimants. And she is creating quite a stir. Some of the change she is implementing and proposing seems good, some not so good. But much of it is creating mass confusion among DDS directors and co-directors. Some don’t have the vision of foresight to anticipate the impact these changes are having on their agencies. And guess who suffers?

But you don’t have to be the one to suffer alone through it all.

Contact me for a free consultation. You will get straight answers about your claim and what services we can provide to help you achieve your goal.

No, you shouldn’t have to need representation to get the benefits you are rightly due, but …that’s why I'm here to help.

My goal, and the task of Disabilty 180, is to give you fast and courteous service and to get you all the benefits you are due from the SSA--in the least amount of time.

And unlike some firms who only accept cases after you have been denied a couple of times, Disability 180 accept cases at all levels because the quicker we can get you your benefits, the sooner you can get back to your life.

Thanks for listening...and if you are interested in our services, please read on to sign up for your Free Consultation.

You have my

Best Wishes Always,

Loretta Crosby

Disability Consultant

Disability 180 …Getting You an Accurate Disability Decision in the Least Amount of Time.

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