1.Cessation of Disability: Usually a “cessation of benefits” occurs when you are not seeking regular and continuing treatment for the medical problems in the original determination for the grant of benefits. Also, if you are able to make enough money to pass above a certain threshold earnings amount, then you’ll stop getting disability benefits. For […]

Posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2017 at 6:48 pm and filed under Comments, News, Social Security Law.

NEW MENTAL LISTINGS Effective: January 17, 2017 After a revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), and thousands of public comments later, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has published significant revisions to its mental impairment listings.  SSA had issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making in August 2010, proposing what at the time appeared to be […]

Posted on Monday, January 30th, 2017 at 9:13 pm and filed under News, Social Security Law.

Service Cuts, Computer Problems Cloud Social Security’s 79th Birthday: The Social Security Administration should have reason to celebrate. After all, August 14, 2014, marked the 79th anniversary of the day when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, which ushered in the landmark entitlement program. However, the agency’s birthday was a less than cheerful […]

Posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2014 at 2:14 pm and filed under News.

The Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984 (“DBRA 1984”) was passed by a unanimous, bipartisan vote in the House and Senate (99-0) in September 1984. President Reagan signed the law on October 9, 1984, when it became Pub. L. No. 98-460. One of the main provisions required “medical improvement” before benefits could be terminated where […]

Posted on Monday, June 30th, 2014 at 5:54 pm and filed under News.

You should NOT have a non-attorney clerk at your hearing?  This seems obvious, but several Florida law firms and any company identifying themselves as “Experts”, some who are advertising on TV, are sending non-attorney clerks to Social Security Hearings simply because its cheaper for them to do so rather than have an actual attorney appear. How in […]

Posted on Thursday, August 22nd, 2013 at 7:01 pm and filed under News.

Continually we see claimants who have had a non-lawyer representative whose company boasts a 95% success rate when in fact it is simply not true. No lawyer website can ethically advertise with success rates in percentages because it is misleading and yes, unethical. Each claim is different and if it is to good to be true, […]

Posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2012 at 7:06 pm and filed under News.

  SSA has recently changed its policy regarding the availability of the annual Social Security Statement. Effective May 1, 2012, SSA will begin to provide real-time online access to the Statement with the release of the new “MySocialSecurity” portal, www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement. In March 2011, due to budget issues, SSA suspended the mailing of all annual Social […]

Posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 at 5:23 pm and filed under News.

Those engaging in self employed work while having an ongoing Social Security Disability claim have a greater burden of proving the work is not substantial, gainful actvity (SGA). In general, if a worker in the year 2012 makes $1010.00 (non-blind worker)(blind worker SGA $1690.00) or greater SGA will be assumed unless otherwise proven. See, SSR 83-24, 20 […]

Posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2012 at 9:59 pm and filed under News.

The outrage over Social Security benefits viability is warranted. It is clear the program faces long-run financing issues since 1983 and it was well understood by Congress that the shortfall was not going be corrected since early in 1993.  “The Figure shows that the deficit has hovered around 2 percent of taxable payrolls for almost 20 years.”  Since nothing has been […]

Posted on Monday, June 18th, 2012 at 9:03 pm and filed under Social Security Law.

  Although there can be experienced and non-experienced representatives in both realms of attorney and non-attorney representation the problems is that non-attorney representation has a weak baseline standard and is virtually unregulated. Attorneys as a group have undergone the greatest, training, education and testing  standards of higher education available. The GAO in their 2007  Report found the SSA standard for […]

Posted on Friday, February 24th, 2012 at 9:04 pm and filed under News.