Disability Blog

Claimants for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits and SSI (disability benefits) have typically endured lengthy waits for agency decisions on their applications. Large cuts by the Trump Administration in the 2018 budget of the Social Security Administration (SSA) have exacerbated the problem of major delays for disability benefit applicants.

These budget cuts have forced SSA to try and save money by pushing many of its services online, including both disability benefit and retirement benefit services. This online push has been a challenging task ...

The Social Security Administration (SSA) published new medical evidence rules on January 18, 2017. (82 FR 5844). They became effective on March 27, 2017. If your claim was filed before March 27, 2017, your claim will not be affected even if it was remanded from a federal court or SSA’s Appeals Council. These regulations provide some help to claimants, but they can also undermine one of the strongest allies that many of our clients have – their treating providers.

On ...

The Social Security Administration recognizes Fibromyalgia as a medically determinable impairment that may entitle those who suffer from it to disability benefits. Fibromyalgia, like some other pain disorders, is characterized by diffuse and widespread pain of the joints, muscles, tendons or soft tissue and is commonly associated with fatigue.  The unique feature of Fibromyalgia is that it is a diagnosis of exclusion, i.e., other potential causes of the symptoms must be eliminated.

In order to establish that Fibromyalgia is a severe ...