Can someone advise me on the process for applying for Social Security Disability Benefits. Can a person work PT while collecting benefits? Are their any limitations regarding one's financial status?

If you follow this link, I belive on page 10 or so, you'll find some good information about SSD.
Tincup's links for new LymeNet Members

http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/009342.html

Also, you'll want to bookmark that link and return to it time and time again as you learn about this very complicated disease.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? How long or do you know that you've got LD? What meds are you on? Are you seeing a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor (an LLMD)?

The main thing (and it took me almost 4 years to see my first dollar of SSD) is they award you on what you cannot do because of your illness...it really makes no difference what that illness is, they, still, award on the things that you cannot do anymore because of your illness.

Be aware, too, that the vast majority of people apply for SSD are turned down the first time and must apply for a re-consideration and then the majority of those have to file an appeal to be decided by a Judge.
www.ssa.gov is a very good start and tells you all you need to do to apply.

If you go to the General Support forum on this board, you can click that search key that is up under Post New Topic and use the keyword, disability and you'll, also, get some very good advice from folks who have applied and finally won.

Also, be aware, that this is usually not a quick fix. I made my first application in April of 2000 and got my first check in December of 2003...almost four years later.

And, some more good advice...get to an attorney who specializes in Social Security Disability...preferbly referred to you by someone who has had good results from that attorney. They only receive money if you win and they can only charge what the government allows. They get this money out of your back pay.

Good luck, and welcome, again, to LymeNet...

I recently got approved for SSI. They definitly look at what you CAN NOT do on your own!!!

I applied once and like Rosemary said they turned me down the first time. Then I went to my local Social Services dept. and they inlisted me in the DEAP program...

I applied thru them in feb of this year and just found out, I am approved!!! I will be getting my first check this month,

Trust me when I say it's not much, but for someone as sick as am, I need it. I also will be getting health ins. with them.

My PCP, my local ER,neurologist, and my llmd had to get envolved..send records and stuff like that .

Long process, but worth it Click on Rosemary's blue links, there's great stuff in there from TinCup ( another person this site can't do without)

Good Luck and welcome to Lymenet

If I can get well enough, I am thinking about looking into working as a disability advocate, which would be actually helping people who are seeking disability benefits obtain these benefits. Walking them through the process. But right now I am too stupid from Lyme. It took me months to work through all the things I documented for my own case. But the fact that it was succesful does mean it can be done. And I was on the right track.

Go to the SSDI site and it will tell you lots. Also go to a group on yahoo called Disinissues. Those people are invaluable at helping you realize the best way to document things.

If you are working PT it will be much more difficult, if not impossible to get approved. You will have to prove that your employer is making accomodations for you that are the only way you can do the job.

I also got approved on my first application for disability. The best thing you can do is document, in boring detail, exactly what you cannot do, and why.

Disability doesn't care if doing something makes you tired. They do care if it makes you so tired that you are unable to make decisions, or become angry with co-workers, or make so many mistakes that an employer can't accept it.

The same thing with pain. It's Ok if you have to work while in pain, but not if the pain affects your judgement, or completely prevents you from performing an activity.

It's not enough for you to say so. Your doctor has to support you.

Also, you have to show that not only can you not do your previous job, but that you can't do ANY job.

I based my claim on multiple diagnoses, not just Lyme disease. For example, I used Hashimoto's thyroiditis, multiple chemical sensitivity, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and depression, as well as chronic Lyme disease. Here is where all those misdiagnoses come in handy!

It also showed a history of disability, not just something they could claim could be cured with a brief round of antibiotics.

Here are some good resources:

Disability Info & Resources
Completing Disability Forms
Five Crucial Steps to Winning your CFS Disability Case
Trying to Look Good When You Feel Like Crap: Don't
Daily Activities Worksheet (PDF)
SF-36 Functional Capacity (PDF)

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Sonoma County Lyme Support
[email protected]

I am the one who placed info on SSD on TINCUP's post to newbies, page 10. I feel you will find them helpful to look at PRIOR to doing anything to get a feeling of what you will be going thru....pure HELL!

Riversong, I was very IMPRESSED w/the web site you showed! Never heard of it, but EXCEPTIONAL also.

I've been in the SSDisabiility process 4 yrs., 2 months...denied! So that's why I gathered together the sites earlier for those in our support group & others like this lyme message board.

IMPORTANT: Riversong's web site there showed an article on 5 things you need to know from SSD lawyer, Scott Davis, Phoenix, Arizona. He was my former lawyer of almost 4 yrs. He withdrew/quit me on both my 2 cases on the same day as my 1st lyme appt. It was mutual consent.

FIND OUT before you hire any lawyer if they have a license to represent you in FEDERAL COURT! Scott had never told me of this earlier. If appeals council denies me, that is LAST recourse...federal court!

My 1st case has been in Virginia's appeals council for over 2 yrs. After my LYME DX, I contacted our local senator's office. He emailed them, and they responded ALL CASES have to be there 2.5 YEARS BEFORE they are even looked at. So that meant another 3-4 months for me.

Yesterday, I received the below letter about my 1st case to REOPEN MY FILE & REVIEW IT....

"This is in further response to your inquiry to Commissioner Barnhart regarding your REQUEST FOR REVIEW by the Appeals Council.

We have checked on your case, and found that the council has received your request for review, but has NOT begun its evaluation of your records.

The council has received an unprecedented number of requests for review and as a result, is experiencing lengthy delays in the processing of its cases.

Although proceeding times vary, you can expect a delay of about 18-36 MONTHS from the DATE you FILED YOUR REQUEST FOR REVIEW until the council begins its review of your case.

The Appeals Council will notify you when it completes its action on your case.

Sincerely yours,

A. Jacy Thurmond, Jr.
Associate Commissioner"
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So to me, my short wait of a few months has now been increased 1.5 - 3 YEARS more!

I'll contact my local SS director and local senator's office for clarification.

I have requested my NEW LYME CORRECT DX be entered into my cases esp. Virginia's since my 4 skin biopsies of my rashes were NOT correct..."negative, unknown bug bite"!! yeh, right...a TICK got me!

But back on subject, PLEASE read over a lot of this info BEFORE you hire and file your 1st SSDisability or SSSI ... it's to your benefit to have the BEST, accurate, and thorough info you can.

4 suggestions:

1. I have our local clinic and hospital print copies of my medical records going back 15 years and paid for this out of pocket. (SSD will go back ONE YEAR ONLY for years.)

By giving them ONE entire copy of 15 years, they have to use that at your admin law judge hearing level.

2. KEEP COPIES OF EVERYTHING BEFORE SENDING/GIVING ANYONE! You'll regret it if you do not, and it's LOST...happens a lot.

3. Take a good sized calendar or a normal size piece of paper, write down the following:

DATE of EACH appt., drs. name/address/phone no./fax no sometimes, why you went, treatment received, PRESCRIPTIONS he gave you, medical TESTS done,

You will be ASKED this by SSD at the beginning going back many years, etc., PLUS in addition to CURRENT year's appts.

4. I give each dr. a typed copy of why I'm there....what specifically is wrong, meds on, and REQUEST A COPY OF EACH MEDICAL REPORT they file on me be sent to my home address.

I mark it off when it arrives, and bug the drs. office if after 2.5 wks. I have NOT received it.

MOST IMPORTANTLY -- if you do NOT have the stamina to start this thing, you will NOT survive the REDUNDANT paperwork they keep sending you over & over!

At the end if there have been NO CHANGES, I write SAME on those pages, and return them.

2nd claims comments: another thing I learned the hard way......

You can refile for a 2nd claim, but NO ONE told me prior that you can file, be denied, and file for reconsideration & be denied.....

that's where it stops for now! They will NOT work up your 2nd claim NOR will there be any 2nd admin law judge's hearing until VIRGINIA'S APPEALS COUNCIL makes a decision on whether the ALJ was correct or NOT in favor of your claim.

If ALJ is wrong, they send it back to SAME JUDGE....those judge's don't like that happening either! I found this out 2 wks. prior to my lyme dx...not been pleasant around here for 3 months...

I hope you will go to the special sites I compiled as a result of my own 2 cases, plus the other posters.

quote:

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Originally posted by bettyg:
IMPORTANT: Riversong's web site there showed an article on 5 things you need to know from SSD lawyer, Scott Davis, Phoenix, Arizona. He was my former lawyer of almost 4 yrs. He withdrew/quit me on both my 2 cases on the same day as my 1st lyme appt. It was mutual consent.

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Funny you should mention this attorney.

After reading his articles, and his supposed expertise on winning claims for CFS and Fibromyalgia (I had a CFS diagnosis), he was the one I called to handle my case. He turned me down. I couldn't believe it.

I was at my wit's end trying to figure out how to do it, had already received 2 denials, and then the one attorney I thought could help refused to do so. I lost it, right there, on the phone with him. Couldn't help it, but I started crying because I didn't know what to do, as I knew I had to have an attorney who knew enough about CFS to be able to win my case, and there are so few.