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  Beginning on March 1, 2011, Social Security checks will no longer be mailed out to new recipients of disability benefits. The Treasury Department recently announced that all United States Government benefits payments will be made electronically to beneficiaries via direct deposit or onto a special debit card. Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income claims allowed on or after March 1, 2011 will be affected.  https://askcompetentlawyer.com/   Those whose claims were allowed before that date will have until March 1, 2013 to make the conversion if they are receiving their checks in the mail. For those who do not have a bank account into which the benefits can be deposited, the Treasury Department has a Direct Express debit card to which payments will be made. That same card also accepts payments of Veterans benefits, Unemployment benefits, and Railroad Retirement benefits. The move to paperless transactions is hoped to improve government efficiency and reduce costs no

  I read with interest a report that conducting video hearings is a new measure to help reduce the backlog of claims pending a Social Security disability hearing. I have been participating in video hearings for a number of years, and have found that the effort to farm out hearing to other offices and do them by video has had mixed success vis a vis the hearings backlog. The problem is that very often, cases get shipped from one hearing office to another where each time they are put in the end of the queue for a hearing.  https://askcompetentlawyer.com/business-commercial-litigation/   This means that a case that sat in office #1 for 8 months and was then shifted to office #2 to help ease backlogs in office #1 will be find itself behind newer cases that were referred to case #2 for a 'live' hearing. Furthermore, nothing is necessarily gained using a video hearing for claimants who have difficulty traveling, since these hearing can still only be conducted at a Social Security off

  The central question in a Social Security Disability case is whether the person seeking benefits can still work. As a recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in   Kuczewski v. Commissioner  shows, this can often be a complicated inquiry. It requires considering a person's educational background, job history and physical and cognitive abilities, among other factors. Anthony Kuczewski suffered permanent back and leg injuries as a result of a 1977 car accident when he was 15 years old.  https://askcompetentlawyer.com/civil-litigation/  He filed a claim for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits in February 2009, asserting that he became disabled and unable to work due to the limitations imposed by his injuries. The Social Security Administration (SSA) denied the claims initially and on reconsideration. Following two hearings before an SSA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), the judge determined that Kuczewski was disabled under the applica

  First impressions mean a lot, especially when we as Disability attorneys are trying to determine the strength of a case the first time we meet a potential client. Many claimants come in with a family member or close friend who has taken on the role of caregiver to one degree or another. A recent incident involving my wife has given me more appreciation for those other people who come in and sit with the claimant, often answering many of my questions. My wife is a strong bicyclist, but she fell about two weeks ago when she hit a stretch of bad road. She suffered a mild concussion, stitches in her face, and bruising and road rash over her whole left side. She had to take a week off from work and I had to take her to the doctors plus take on the shopping and meal preparation (I wouldn't call it "cooking"). This week she's back to work but still not driving, so I take her to the train station and pick her up. She shouldn't have any permanent problems, but I have gai

  Often, victory in a Social Security Disability case comes down to how much longer than two hours a claimant can stand in an eight-hour day. In certain cases involving claimants over the age of 50, we as practitioners take advantage of the Medical-Vocational Guidelines to show that while an older individual may be physically capable of engaging in alternate work activity, his or her age, education, and past work experience make it impossible or unrealistic for that individual to adjust to that kind of work. In my experience, Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) frequently take advantage of the huge exertional differences between "sedentary" and "light" work - namely, the standing requirements - to deny claims under the Medical-Vocational Guidelines. The Social Security Regulations classify how strenuous a job is and categorize it as anywhere from sedentary (i.e. a desk job with little or no lifting) to heavy (i.e. labor-heavy jobs requiring heavy lifting and little to

  Sometimes, a person seeking Social Security Disability benefits is unable to work due to one single physical or mental condition. Other times, a claim may be based on the combined effects of an array of impairments on the claimant's capacity to continue working. In these cases, as the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York explains in   Laframboise v. Commissioner of Social Security , the Social Security Administration and its judges must consider the effects of each and every impairment on the claimant's ability to work. Mr. Laframboise filed a claim for disability benefits with the SSA, asserting that he is unable to work due to heart disease as well as a lower back condition, carpal tunnel syndrome and knee pain. The SSA initially denied the claim and, following a hearing, an SSA Administrative Law Judge found that Laframboise was not disabled for benefits purposes. Although his coronary artery disease and related heart ailments were a severe impairment