motebellas mom posted this to another post.. "I applied for SSDI.."

I appied for SSDI in Feb 2013. I was rejected in June 2013. I hired an attorney for the appeal the next day. It has taken alost 1 year in Texas for me to finally get my hearing which is May 7th in Dallas. I have met with my congressmen and my Sentaor to see if they would help in speeding up the process for me. They said that Dallas area has the fewest judges so it take on the average of 311 days. Dallas has the longest wait period of all states to get a hearing. My attorney assured me that I will get it becasue of all the issues I have. Has anyone else waited so long for theirs?

(Moderators I hope it was OK that I reposted this in new post )

Post Edited (DianeB) : 4/15/2014 2:43:34 PM (GMT-6)

M&G hit my timeline pretty close although I submitted the "dire need " to my Senator and a copy to SS and the important thing with the dire need is submitting anything they can to prove that Diane. Foreclosure notices, eviction letters, past due bills, utilities, overwhelming medical bills, pharmacy costs, anything even proof of food pantrys, food stamps, family loans.

I have no problems with the post by the way and am glad M&G posted the link. Its a long hard road.

I am in Ohio and I won my disability on my first round and then they tried to take it away during a reevaluation in 2007. I had to file several appeals and did not get an ALJ hearing until the Spring of 2011. From the time I filed the appeal to get the hearing scheduled took almost 24 months. ALSO - my hearing was face to face with the alj and I found out the same day as my hearing that I won.

The dire need letter you have been told about is very important as well as the documentation for it.

Hope this helps!
Trudy

Thank you for all the advice and info. No one not even my attorney suggest a dire need letter. IfI knew that I would have filed one. I am very blessed that I have insurance that cover perscriptions. My hearing date is May 7th so it is about 3 weeks away. My attorney said I have a very overwelming case with lots of medical support. I hope I don't blow it my not answering the courts questions.

Why would you not answer the courts questions? And by court let me say the only persons present in that "room ",was actually more conference room than court, was the ALJ, employment specialist, court reporter,me, my Atty,and a Sheriff I assume was standing as a bailiff, and a "runner" like person to go for files, or water, or whatever the Judge requested. Very informal, very relaxed, and the Judge I had asked some hello and greet kinda thing before starting. He talked mostly to my Attorney about filing status, medical records, Drs and scans and then asked if I agreed with that assessment and did I want to add anything to any one. He then said to the employment lady he didn't see any reason to delve deeper into that aspect of the hearing and was she in agreement, she said yes and congratulated me as did my Atty, the Judge, and my Atty told me I would get confirmation of the hearing results within a few weeks but we already had the decision. I signed a paper for him so he got his 30% of my backpay and start to finish was less then 40 mins after fighting almost 2 years!!

Because of the dire need and hardship papers my 1st backpay check arrived in my account 2 days before my official award letter!! Because I had enough credits I didn't qualify for any SSI and because the Judge gave me my origional filing date of 2 years previously my Medicare went retroactive to 3 months prior.

I did have to submit a form to SS to get all my backpay remaining in one lump sum showing it was not the sole income I had? Luckily at that time my daughters Dad was paying child support. From my understanding, if you have no other resources they split your backpay into installments?? I'm not sure if that's for everyone or simply because I had filed the hardship and dire need.

My kids check and backpay came later,actually more inline with what others have reported as normal time limits after a hearing.

Hopefully M&G will know more about that. I really wish we had a SS forum here since we have so many questions and the process is so confusing and long.

Good luck to you!

Usually back pay is paid all at one with SSDI. For SSI, it is in 6 month installments. If you receive SSDI, your children will receive app one half of what you do. If you have 4 children, it will be divided between them. The children qualify until the graduate high school. If they reach 18 while still in high school, you will have to get proof that they are still attending school and their graduation date. If you have a child who is disabled as a child or before the age of 22 and unmarried and you receive SSDI or they have a parent who is deceased or retired, they may be entitled to Disabled Adult Child Benefits on your records or the record of the decreased/retired parent.

The Fee Agreements state the attorney gets 25% or max $6,000 from your back pay, if you're approved. There may or may not be things you are responsible for like copies, medical records, postage, travel expenses, etc. The attorney's fees are taken out of the back pay automatically and sent to them.