Over the years, current and former government administrations have transformed the process of claiming your disability and social security benefits into what could be described as an obstacle course for the even your average person. What makes things more critical, is that as a population the disabled are more likely than others to have handicaps which can further reduce their ability to conform with the intricacies of this ever-changing system.
As demands from the Social Security Administration have increased over the years, so too have the number of applicants. Claimants for disability benefits are in need of, and legally entitled to, qualified professional help in every step of the process. And sadly, without this much needed help, more and more people are being denied.
Social Security is investing enormous amounts of resouces to modernize and handle the increase in claims by implementing broad changes in the process of awarding disability benefits. We have new regulations and procedures comment into effect in waves over the next few years-- online filing, electronic case files and document storage and other innovations which are intended to speed up the enormous backlog of appeals pending at every level.
Meanwhile these changes have made compliance a challenge even for the most experienced attorneys. The “streamlining” and digitizing of the claims process; from application to approval (or denial), is achieved in large part by demanding even more meticulous attention to the ways in which documents are filed. Not to mention the standard deadlines for filing this new electronic “paperwork”.
Furthermore, new demands being placed on the claimant for meticulous attention to form and procedure. Certain rights to appeal could be compromised by new regulations and practices coming into effect at the beginning of next year. The Social Security Administration has come under fire recently from national advocate groups such as N.O.S.S.C.R. (www.nosscr.org) and the American Civil Liberties Union (www.aclu.org). These groups are trying to ensure that the Social Security Administration, in attempting to “streamline’ the procedure, does not compromise some of our most important basic rights to appeal. There are concerns that these changes may be generating new ways of denying otherwise qualifying cases.