Do I Need a Social Security Disability Expert to Help Me with My Claim?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) makes it easy to get retirement benefits. If you have worked and paid into Social Security for at least 10 years all you have to do to get your monthly check is to reach retirement age. It is not this easy should you become disabled and find that you need your Social Security benefit before retirement age because you’re sick and can’t work.

Why SSA is Strict about the Disability Benefits Process

SSA must be certain that you really deserve to get your benefits now. You must have a medical condition that permanently interferes with your ability to work for a year or result in death. It sounds harsh but SSA must safeguard the system to avoid social security disability fraud. Unfortunately, because the approval process is so complicated, millions of first-time disability claims are denied by SSA, which has caused a severe backlog of claims appealing denied decisions. It can take as long as two years to get through the process to getting approved for Social Security benefits based on disability. The thing is, if you are seriously sick or injured and really can’t work, you need the money you are entitled to and deserve to get as soon as possible. You just have to prove it.

You Must Prove to SSA that You Deserve Disability Benefits

How do you do that? First, you need to start an application. If you are Internet-savvy, you can apply for disability benefits online directly with the Social Security Administration. This may sound easy enough but don’t be fooled. Applying on your own is not that simple a process. Actually, with all the details that are required about you, your family, your work history and your medical condition, it can be overwhelming, especially if you aren’t feeling well.  A better option is to get the help of a Social Security disability representative.

Get Disability Application Help

Hiring a disability attorney or non-attorney advocate to handle the application process for you is smart. You need guidance to get you through – someone who is into social security disability advocacy. And, the more experienced they are with social security disability law the better your opportunity will be to efficiently cut through the process to winning disability benefits.

The Cost for Disability Representation

Keep in mind that if you don’t win your case, your disability lawyer does not win a fee for services. However, the longer it takes for your case to get approved, the greater that fee may be. The fee is set by SSA and is always a one-time payment that represents 25 percent of the retroactive payment that is due you, capped at $6,000. Your disability representative will never get more than that. The retroactive period is the time it takes from your disability onset date to getting approved. Clearly, building a strong case from the beginning of the process could shorten the period of time to wait for benefits.

The Risk is Yours to Take

You may be thinking, I can do this on my own and get more money. The point is, without an expert to guide you through the process, you can easily make some big mistakes. Just by missing one deadline or submitting incomplete paperwork is enough for SSA to deny your claim. And then you will need to prove that SSA is wrong to deny you.

Could this happen to you? The stakes are high considering that SSA denies more than 60 percent of first-time applications. It very often takes an administrative law judge at an appeals hearing to decide your case. The wait to get to that point can take over a year. If, by then, you haven’t put together a strong case with all the key components needed to demonstrate that you are, indeed, deserving of disability benefits, the window to getting them will be slammed shut.

Do yourself a favor and find a social security disability lawyer or non-attorney representative with strong disability advocacy experience to start you off right.