so this is not really a fuck customers so much as a fuck the system. feeling really frustrated by work right now and if I can help someone I want to.
I work for the Unit*d St*tes g*vrmt assessing disability benefits claims. If there are 3 things I would beg every applicant to know it is this:
1. If you don’t have recent treatment (recent being within the past 3 months for mental health, and within the past 6 for physical) feel free to mention it on the remarks section of the application. We can pay for you to go to an exam (physical or mental) to get the evidence required to assess your claim. Especially if you have a visual impairment, the law is really picky about what is “necessary” to assess a claim, so I order a lot of exams for people to get X-rays, eye exams, and the like. You don’t need insurance, we’ll pay for the entire appointment.
2. The system is extremely prejudiced in favor of people over the age of 50. You’re assessed not only on how physically or mentally ill you are, but on whether or not you are capable of “work”. ANY work. Over the age of 50 the law makes us “assume” it would be more difficult for the claimant to transfer to a different job, but if you’re younger than 50 claims generally get denied because you could do “unskilled” or “sedentary” work. Yes, I know this is unfair. Your claims processor knows it’s unfair, and we all hate it. At the initial application level (where I work) we don’t have the power to overrule this, but if you get to the hearing level and meet with an administrative law judge, they can sometimes overrule it.
3. If your records mention another source you were treated at, we have to request from it. This can add a lot of time to your claim processing as we are required to give medical sources 30 days to respond to us. A lot of people list their primary care doctor as their only source - your claim WILL get done faster if you list all sources (that you can remember) including ER visits and chemical dependency treatment (we don’t judge, trust me, most of us working there have our own problems). More information is better. Also, if you have a doctor who’s willing to write you a medical opinion, we are legally required to consider it if you submit it!! Please, please submit them.
if you are applying for disability I promise you that the people who are working your claims WANT to be able to allow you, but the way the law is written is very specific and harsh and we have several layers of oversight to prevent leverage-style goodwill. If you want to see a list of specific impairments that will end up in an allowance decision (and how harsh the standards are) you can google “blue book SSA”
A lot of us are technically disabled, too - I’ve been hospitalized for issues I read on applications daily. But, we wouldn’t be bad enough to get on benefits either - having a disability is unfortunately not enough to get on disability in the u s of a.
