SSDI application APPROVED!!!

[Guest guest]

Hi all

I have been in the " final " review stage for my SSDI application, originally

submitted so long ago that I need to look at my notes to remember what YEAR

it was. I finally hired a lawyer, on the excellent advice of several

including members here. She led me to believe that it could be as much as a

YEAR before I would get the usual hearing with an administrative law judge.

But after doing what appeared to be nothing (except forwarding yet another

multi-page form that I filled out, i.e. the official request for hearing),

she did eventually, in early August, file a request for an " on the record "

decision. This is some kind of pre-hearing evaluation, used for what seems

to be cut and dried cases that should have never gone this far in appeals

anyway. Because SO much of the rest of my life has been going so poorly,

with vast unreasonable denial and delays and further declining health, I

tried not to hold out much hope for this decision (or even that it would

occur).

So imagine my surprise when I opened the letter yesterday, from the SSA. In

bold letters on the top of the first of many pages, it says " NOTICE OF

DECISION--FULLY FAVORABLE " . It then goes on to say in considerable detail

just exactly how much this particular judge officially agrees with my

doctors and me, even to the extent of declaring my disability to have

existed " far " into the past, namely to the day after I left the last job I

worked! Apparently they were swayed by my doctor's comment that the

gradually worsening conditions typically exist a long time before definitive

diagnosis. Unfortunately, any actual award of back payments (notice of which

is due sometime in the next 60 days) can only go back one year before my

application date. I knew this already, and this fact plus the likely long

process should serve as a wakeup call to others, to start the process and

get a " protected " date immediately if you've become unemployed.

So could everyone sort of collectively DANCE IN THE STREETS (or air dance in

our chairs) with me? I know, this has only happened to me, but it's still

one more little victory for all of us, in some ways. A few more neuro docs

have seen yet another mito case and learned more. One more SSA judge has

seen a complicated case and ruled reasonably. I've read (this summer?) that

SSA will be (VERY slowly of course) re-working their regs to somewhat

streamline cases like mine/ours. I gain new determination to help others

stuck in the SSA morass. My wife and I gain (albeit only a little) a

financial resource to help us (she is about to complete M.Divinity

graduation and ordination in the UCC, and we are both dedicated to ministry

to unchurched and/or " marginalized " people, which sometimes includes the

disabled).

And everyone please accept this HUGE THANK YOU from me, for all the

listening and support, as I've gone through this process. Health problems

continue of course, but I am for the moment so RELIEVED I could burst. I

sincerely hope that you will all feel a bit buoyed by this as well. If

nothing else, at least this will cut down somwhat on my whining/vents here,

for now, anyway, until I run into some other wall :-).

Steve D.