When you apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, you have to complete a complex application form to submit to the Social Security Administration (SSA). The application allows you the opportunity to provide evidence to the SSA that will support your award of SSDI benefits.
Your applications includes such information as your educational and training history, the type of work you have done, and detailed medical evidence of your disability. Many applicants have their applications for SSDI denied because they incorrectly fill out the form or fail to supply the necessary medical documentation of their condition.
However, the application has a great many moving parts and sometimes the mistakes are the fault of the SSA. A woman in Dayton, Ohio had the unpleasant experience of having her SSDI benefit payments stop. She inquired at her local SSA office as to the problem.
Turns out a workers’ compensation payment that she had received prior to applying for SSDI had been reported on her application. The SSA had coded the workers’ compensation payment for a follow up, but after her SSDI benefits had been approved, the code had not been changed or removed.
This caused the system to eventually stop her SSDI payments. She attempted on her own to have the error corrected, but without success. She turned to the local newspaper for help. They asked SSA about the problem and two days later, they had word from the SSA that her benefits had been restored.
The SSA handles thousands of SSDI applications every month and mistakes are inevitable. Many applicants seek assistance from attorneys, who can help with the many details that make up the SSDI benefit process, and can help ensure applications are complete and know how to work with the SSA to rectify problems for applicants.
Source: Dayton Daily News, “Woman’s Social Security Disability benefits restored,” April 2, 2014