SSDI, Law + waiting

March 17, 2000

For anyone who's interested in SSDI applications, been turned down, or

have to appeal and wait forever, the following info. might be

interesting. The site is alot of legal speak, but the Associated Press

article right below is clear and straightforward. It is just such a

shame people have to go through this.

Gretchen

97-5737 U.S

Supreme Court Rules on SSD Case from the AP releaseWednesday, June 17,

1998 On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in the case of

K. Forney, a woman from Bend, Oregon who was forced to quite her

job in 1991 because of muscle pain and depression. Ms. Forney applied

to the Social Security Administration for disability benefits and was

turned down.

Many people have been through this process with SSD/SSI: you apply, you

wait a couple of months and then get turned down, you file for a

reconsideration, you wait for another six or eight months or a year for

the hearing date ... it isn't unusual for the process to take two or

three years. Ms. Forney was not willing to wait for SSA to get around to

ruling on her request for reconsideration. she went to federal court

and asked the judge to order Social Security to give her case immediate

consideration and to grant her request for disability benefits. The

federal judge ruled that she had a right to request a hearing from SSA,

but did not grant her request to order SSA to give her disability

benefits. Again she was told to go home and wait until SSA reconsidered

her case.

Again Ms. Forney refused to wait. She appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit

Court of Appeals. That court simply dismissed her case. So Ms. Forney

went to the United States Supreme Court.

Today's Supreme Court ruling says that any person seeking Social

Security disability benefits, whose case is not immediately ruled upon

but is deferred " for further study " , has the right to seek immediate

help from a federal appeals court. " The court of appeals should have

heard Forney's appeal, " wrote Justice J. Breyer on behalf of the

Supreme Court.

It remains to be seen what effect this ruling will have on future

applicants for Social Security Disability benefits; but applicants have

now been granted a form of recourse for those long, long waiting

periods.

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