Press Release
Thursday, October 13, 2011 Press Office
For Immediate Release

Social Security Expands Compassionate Allowances Conditions
(Printer friendly version)

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced 13 new Compassionate Allowances conditions involving the immune system and neurological disorders. The Compassionate Allowances program fast-tracks disability decisions to ensure that Americans with the most serious disabilities receive their benefit decisions within days instead of months or years. Commissioner Astrue made the announcement during his remarks at the U.S. Conference on Rare Diseases and Orphan Products in Washington, D.C.

“Social Security handles more than three million disability applications each year and we need to keep innovating and making our work more efficient,” Commissioner Astrue said. “With our Compassionate Allowances program, we quickly approved disability benefits for more than 60,000 people with severe disabilities in the past fiscal year. We have made significant improvements, but we can always do more.”

The Compassionate Allowances initiative identifies claims where the nature of the applicant’s disease or condition clearly meets the statutory standard for disability. With the help of sophisticated new information technology, the agency can quickly identify potential Compassionate Allowances and then quickly make decisions.

Social Security launched the Compassionate Allowances program in 2008 with a list of 50 diseases and conditions. The announcement of 13 new conditions, effective in December, will increase the total number of Compassionate Allowances conditions to 113. The conditions include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, a number of rare genetic disorders of children, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and other disorders.

The agency announced a small grant program for graduate students that will help Social Security improve its list and has recently awarded an approximately $1.5 million grant over a five-year period to Policy Research, Incorporated (PRI) through the Disability Determination Process Small Grant Program. This new program aims to improve the disability process through innovative research by graduate students who will receive small stipends for their work. In addition, the agency recently streamlined its online disability application for people who have a condition on the Compassionate Allowances list.

For more information on the Compassionate Allowances initiative, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances.

New Compassionate Allowances Conditions

Malignant Multiple Sclerosis
Paraneoplastic Pemphigus
Multicentric Castleman Disease
Pulmonary Kaposi Sarcoma
Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma
Primary Effusion Lymphoma
Angelman Syndrome
Lewy Body Dementia
Lowe Syndrome
Corticobasal Degeneration
Multiple System Atrophy
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
The ALS/Parkinsonism Dementia Complex
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# # #

What this means is that if you suffer from one of the conditions listed under the Compassionate Allowances Program, you have applied for benefits, and been turned down, or you have been recently diagnosed with one of the conditions in the list (the above is not the entire list, only what conditions have been added to the list) and you need help with your Social Security Disability case, contact me immediately and I can help you file for a speedier determination and speedier hearing date under this program, if you qualify under the rules of this program.

Press Release
Wednesday, October 19, 2011


Social Security Announces 3.6 Percent Benefit Increase for 2012

Cost-of-Living Adjustment is First Since 2009

Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 60 million Americans will increase 3.6 percent in 2012, the Social Security Administration announced today.

The 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that nearly 55 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2012. Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 30, 2011.

Some other changes that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $110,100 from $106,800. Of the estimated 161 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2012, about 10 million will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum.

Information about Medicare changes for 2012, when announced, will be available at www.Medicare.gov. For some beneficiaries, their Social Security increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums.

The Social Security Act provides for how the COLA is calculated. To read more, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.

# # #

Here is the information on the COLA:


Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA):

Based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2008 through the third quarter of 2011, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries will receive a 3.6 percent COLA for 2012. Other important 2012 Social Security information is as follows:
Tax Rate:
2011 2012
Employee 7.65%* 7.65%
Self-Employed 15.30%* 15.30%

NOTE: The 7.65% tax rate is the combined rate for Social Security and Medicare. The Social Security portion (OASDI) is 6.20% on earnings up to the applicable taxable maximum amount (see below). The Medicare portion (HI) is 1.45% on all earnings.

* Section 601 of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 reduced, for wages and salaries paid in calendar year 2011 and self-employment income in calendar year 2011, the OASDI payroll tax by 2 percentage points, applied to the portion of the tax paid by the worker and the self-employed individual.


Maximum Taxable Earnings:
2011 2012
Social Security (OASDI only) $106,800 $110,100
Medicare (HI only) N o L i m i t

Quarter of Coverage:
2011 2012

Earnings needed to earn one Social Security Credit
$1,120 $1,130

Retirement Earnings Test Exempt Amounts:
2011 2012

Under full retirement age

NOTE: One dollar in benefits will be withheld for every $2 in earnings above the limit.
$14,160/yr.
($1,180/mo.) $14,640/yr.
($1,220/mo.)

The year an individual reaches full retirement age

NOTE: Applies only to earnings for months prior to attaining full retirement age. One dollar in benefits will be withheld for every $3 in earnings above the limit.

There is no limit on earnings beginning the month an individual attains full retirement age.
$37,680/yr.
($3,140/mo.) $38,880/yr.
($3,240/mo.)

Social Security Disability Thresholds:
2011 2012

Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA)
Non-Blind
Blind

$1,000/mo.
$1,640/mo.
$1,010/mo.
$1,690/mo.
Trial Work Period (TWP) $720/mo. $720/mo.

Maximum Social Security Benefit: Worker Retiring at Full Retirement Age:
2011 2012
$2,366/mo. $2,513/mo.

SSI Federal Payment Standard:
2011 2012
Individual $674/mo. $698/mo.
Couple $1,011/mo. $1,048/mo.

SSI Resources Limits:
2011 2012
Individual $2,000 $2,000
Couple $3,000

$3,000

SSI Student Exclusion:
2011 2012
Monthly limit $1,640 $1,700
Annual limit $6,600 $6,840

Estimated Average Monthly Social Security Benefits Payable in January 2012:
Before
3.6% COLA After
3.6% COLA
All Retired Workers $1,186 $1,229
Aged Couple, Both Receiving Benefits $1,925 $1,994
Widowed Mother and Two Children $2,455 $2,543
Aged Widow(er) Alone $1,143 $1,184
Disabled Worker, Spouse and One or More Children $1,826 $1,892
All Disabled Workers $1,072 $1,111
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When it comes to Law, the burden of proof is generally on the Plaintiff... or the Complainant. In Disability Cases, the Plaintiff is the person making the claim that he is disabled. The burden of proof of disability rests on the Claimant. It is not the Government's job to prove that you are not disabled, but rather your job to prove that you are.

Proving your disability needs to follow within the guidelines of Social Security Disability rules, and there is a process for the government to assess whether you are disabled or not, according to Social Security rules. This is known as the Sequential Evaluation Process. There are 5 steps to this process.

Step 1 determines whether or not you are engaging in Substantial Gainful Activity. This means do you have a job that, whether or not it actually provides you with enough earnings to make a decent living, is it significant and substantial enough work where you do have the ability to make a decent living in this type of work you are or are not doing. If you are currently not employed at all, then you are not engaging in Substantial Gainful Activity. The question then is, is your unemployment relative to your medically determinable illness or condition?

Step 2 determines just that. The question there is whether or not you have a medically determinable illness or condition which is severe enough to prevent you from engaging in Substantial Gainful Activity and whether or not that illness or condition or combination thereof is terminal, or severe enough to prevent you from working for a period of more than 12 months from the date of onset of this/these condition(s).

Step 3 determines whether or not your condition meets or qualifies under the specifications of the Social Security Listings of Impairments. If your disabling condition does, meet the Social Security requirements, then you are, at this step in the process, disabled, according to Social Security rules. If not, then Steps 4 and 5 need to be addressed.

Step 4 determines whether or not there are jobs which you have performed in your past work history that you can perform again, based on your condition.

Step 5 asks whether or not there are other jobs which exist in significant numbers in the national economy which you could transfer your skills and be able to perform based on your medical conditions.

You need to prove that you qualify as being disabled under the above 5 elements, and do so with credibility, in order to get approved for your Social Security or SSI Disability Claim.

If you feel that you are disabled and cannot work due to a medically determinable condition or impairment, and you have applied and been turned down by Social Security for Disability Benefits, or if you have recently become disabled and don't know what to do and wish to have someone who specializes in this field represent you, then go to my contact page, fill out the form there and send it to me. I will be happy to review your initial information and get back with you quickly.

I do not work weekends. My regular office hours are Monday through Friday from 9 am til 5 pm.
I also do not work on Holidays. Thanks.

Friday, October 15, 2010 Mark Lassiter, Press Officer
For Immediate Release 410-965-8904
press.office@ssa.gov
SOCIAL SECURITY
News Release
Under the Law No Social Security COLA for 2011

Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 58 million Americans will not automatically increase in 2011, the Social Security Administration announced today.

The Social Security Act provides for an automatic increase in Social Security and SSI benefits if there is an increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of the last year a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) was determined to the third quarter of the current year. As determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is no increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2008, the last year a COLA was determined, to the third quarter of 2010, therefore, under existing law, there can be no COLA in 2011.

Other changes that would normally take effect based on changes in the national average wage index also will not take effect in January 2011. Since there is no COLA, the statute also prohibits a change in the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax as well as the retirement earnings test exempt amounts. These amounts will remain unchanged in 2011. The attached fact sheet provides more information on 2011 Social Security and SSI changes.

Information about Medicare changes for 2011, when available, will be found at www.Medicare.gov. The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet announced if there will be any Medicare premium changes for 2011. Should there be an increase in the Medicare Part B premium, the law contains a “hold harmless” provision that protects more than 70 percent of Social Security beneficiaries from paying a higher Part B premium, in order to avoid reducing their net Social Security benefit. Those not protected include higher income beneficiaries subject to an income-adjusted Part B premium and beneficiaries newly entitled to Part B in 2011. In addition, almost 20 percent of beneficiaries have their Medicare Part B premiums paid by state medical assistance programs and thus will see no change in their Social Security benefit. The state will be required to pay any Medicare Part B premium increase.

*****************

(For more info, you can visit the SSA website. There is a link in my home page to the SSA site)

My dentist died.

He was the very best dentist that I have ever known. Such a great dentist to have, in fact, that I travelled 250 miles, one way, to go to the dentist.

Amy, at first, wondered why I made it a point to go to Savannah when I needed to go see the dentist. She soon learned, and he became her dentist, as well.

First time I went to Dr. Kazlow's office in downtown Savannah was in 1992 when I took a lunch break from my work as an investigator back then. A friend recommended him when I had a filling loose. I was expecting the dreaded root canal sales pitch.

His office was not fancy. It was an old-fashioned office, and he even had the old-timey dental chair, equipment, and even the old porcelain spit-bowl. As I began taking off my suit coat, he asked if I had any allergies. I replied, "Yes, one...pain." He glanced at my sidearm and handcuffs and said, "Well, you came to the right place. No pain here."

"Good, because if you hurt me, I might shoot you," I replied, semi-jokingly.

I sat down in the dental chair and got comfortable. He looked at my tooth and then he said, "I need to take a picture to make sure nothing is too bad underneath everything."
Ok. Now comes the added things to bump up the cost of my visit and all because of this one tooth. He took an x-ray, and excused himself for a few minutes while he processed it and looked at it.

He came back in the room and said, "you don't need a root canal, but I am going to have to build your tooth up some and it will take about 3 fillings to build it up and fix it right."

Good, no root canal, but I was figuring he was going to sock it to me with the 3 fillings deal. I started bracing myself for the novacaine injection. I didn't feel a thing... not even the initial prick of the needle nor the liquid going into my gums. The only thing I felt throughout the whole ordeal was a little bit of pressure while he put the fillings in. He was right. No pain... so far... but I hadn't gotten the bill for his services yet.

When finished, I went to the front to pay the bill. He followed me there after he cleaned up. "I am going to have to charge you a little more than what I usually charge for a filling, since I had to put in 3 fillings and build that tooth up," he said. "Is $75 ok?"

No pain.

He was right.

I didn't even feel pain in my wallet. I was happy to pay him.

In Savannah, Dr. Kazlow was known as the "painless dentist". Amy found that out for herself. Being located downtown, being the most reasonable dentist I've known, having the very best "bedside" manners that I have seen, and being the most customer service-oriented dentist I've ever met, he will be greatly missed by me, by Amy, and by so many people who were his patients.

80 years old. He had been at the same office throughout most of his life. And from the window, he had witnessed half-century or more of history that passed by the intersection of Liberty St. at Bull St. in downtown Savannah.

How fortunate I feel in having had the honor to have befriended him.

The old saying "Saving for a Rainy Day" can hold very true in cases of disability.

Many employers offer what is known as "Cafeteria Plans" of Insurance and Retirement Benefits to their employees by allowing an employee to pick and choose from a variety of insurance and retirement plans available at the workplace, and then the employer deducts the premiums on a per paycheck basis before taxes.

This can have more benefits than just the income tax benefits of paying for your plans with pre-tax dollars rather than post-tax dollars.

If you have Short and Long Term Disability Insurance available through your workplace, you should take a serious look into them. There are some insurers these days that even offer a return of premium if you retire without having a claim for disability coverage.

Of the persons I have represented so far in disability cases, there have been a few who took advantage of workplace disability insurance policies and they were much better off during their wait to be approved than those who didn't have any disability insurance.

Usually, disability insurance plans will pay a stipulated percentage of your payroll salary if you become disabled. The standard is 60% but there are plans that will pay higher percentages as well as there being plans that pay lower percentages of your normal workplace income. Additionally, insurers offer a variety of time elements for starting to receive benefits, from 1 week to around a month, generally, from the date of your onset of your disability.

Short term disability insurance plans usually offer other options such as a maximum time for disability benefits, such as 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years, with 3 years being pretty much standard in the industry. Since a Social Security Disability claim could very well take up to 3 years to get approved, I suggest that you look into at least Short Term plans that will pay benefits from about 1 week into your disability through 3 years, so that it will be of great help during the Social Security Disability application process.

Remember that, even if you filed a claim for disability with Social security and you were accepted in the initial application level, Social Security will not pay benefits for the first 5 months of your disability. Having a short-term plan that will start off with, like day 7 of your disability, will help you keep your head above the financial waters during those first 5 months, and until you get approved.

Long Term Disability plans usually cover the insured throughout the entire lifetime of the disability, but the plan can also stipulate the number of years of benefits (i.e. 10 years or any other specified number of years or months). Contrary to popular belief, the amount of Social Security benefits you receive is not affected by the amount you receive through your disability insurance benefits. Private insurance benefits would only affect the SSI benefits, if any, that you may receive.

Another card up your sleeve which you might wish to consider in case of disability is an IRA. If you have a qualifying disabling condition or illness, you can withdraw some or all of your IRA funds without having to pay a penalty for early withdrawal. If you have a traditional IRA, you will still have to report it and pay taxes on the amount you have taken out, but there wouldn't be any penalties attached. If you have a Roth plan, you already paid the taxes on that, so you would not have to pay taxes nor penalties on the amount you have withdrawn. You may wish to talk with your tax professional about this.

If you have questions or need help with a Social security issue and don't know who to turn to, feel free to contact me by clicking on the "Contact" link on my website:

www.ssabenefit.com

or you can call me at the number listed on my website.

Capt. Leonardo Ortiz (USMM)

Your Social Security Benefits are determined by the income you have earned and received, primarily over the past 5 years.

Generally, you should receive a Social Security Statement once a year, or you can get your Social Security Statement by visiting the Social Security government website online by simply clicking on the Social Security website link on my website:

www.ssabenefit.com

You will notice the Social Security link on the right-hand side of my main page.

You can also get a Social Security statement by calling your local Social Security office or stopping in and requesting one.

This is an important annual piece of information for you to have, since your Social Security statement will show you your annual earnings since you started working, what your retirement benefits would be if you continued earning the same amount until you retired, what your disability benefits would be if you became disabled, and what kind of benefits would be available to your spouse and children, if any, dependent upon variables.

If you or someone you know is disabled and don't know what to do, who to talk to, if you need representation and if so, who to represent you, contact me.

You can contact me by clicking the Contact link on my main page, answer the questions, and send it to me (be sure your phone number is included, so I can call you), or you can call me.

I deal only with Social Security and Labor cases, with my concentration being in Social Security Disability cases. It is my specialty since 2001.

Capt. Leonardo Ortiz

When you file a claim for Social Security or Supplemental Security Income disability benefits, you become the party who has the burden of proof. You have to prove that you are disabled under Social Security rules in order to be eligible to receive disability benefits.

This is usually where the claimant ends up having the biggest problem in applying for disability benefits.

SSA (Social Security Administration) handles claims processing for both SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) and SSI (Supplemental Security Income), though the latter is a welfare program paid by the state and not by Social Security funds. When you apply for disability benefits through Social Security, they gather the evidence you have regarding your disabling illness or condition and then pass the information from the application process over to the Disability Determination Services (DDS) in order to determine whether or not, by the evidence available to them, you are disabled under SSA rules.

In the State of SC, DDS is administered through a section of the SC Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Their job is to look through the information you provided, check your medical records, and determine if, by that information, you are disabled or not, pursuant to SSA rules. Sometimes, though not necessarily a requirement they do so, if they are not quite clear on whether or not your medical records indicate disability, they may schedule an appointment for you to go to an Independent Medical Examiner which may be able to help them clarify things some in order for DDS to make a determination.

If you have ample medical evidence proving your claim during the initial application level and showing that you qualify under SSA rules, then DDS will make a favorable determination regarding your claim. If not, then they will send you a denial letter. If you get the denial letter, you have 60 days from the date of the letter to submit the necessary forms to request an appeal, which is called a request for reconsideration.

During the Reconsideration stage, a completely different group of folks from DDS is supposed to review all the evidence and make their own determination, independet of the prior determination. If they make a favorable determination, then you will begin receiving disability benefits. If not, and you wish to continue with your claim, then you have 60 days to request a hearing.

Generally, it has been taking an average of 3 to 6 months for a determination to be made during the initial application process. If denied and you file for reconsideration, depending on when you request it, it can then take an additional 6 months or so for that determination to be made. If you are denied again and request a hearing, it then may take a bit longer for you to get your hearing date, since you basically take your turn and wait for your turn to come up.

If you have questions about the disability process and don't know who to turn to, and do not have someone representing you already, feel free to contact me through my contact page in my website here, or by calling me on the number listed in this website.

SOCIAL SECURITY

News Release

Social Security Hearings Backlog Down for First Time in Decade
Productivity and Processing Times Also Improve

Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that for the first time since 1999, the agency has ended the year with fewer disability hearings pending than in the prior year. Social Security ended fiscal year (FY) 2009 with 722,822 hearings pending compared to 760,813 hearings pending at the start of the year, a reduction of more than 37,000 cases. Over the same period, the average processing time for these cases improved from 514 days in FY 2008 to 491 in FY 2009.

“Our backlog reduction plan is working, and progress is accelerating,” Commissioner Astrue said. “Even in the face of a significant increase in our workloads as a result of the worst recession since the Great Depression, we have reduced the hearings backlog for nine consecutive months. Thanks to the efforts of thousands of hardworking Social Security employees and the additional funding we received from President Obama and the Congress, we have exceeded our backlog reduction goal for this year.”

To achieve its backlog reduction goals, the agency has embarked on the largest expansion in decades of its capacity to hear disability appeals. This year, the agency hired 147 new Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) and 850 support staff and plans to hire 226 additional ALJs plus support staff in FY 2010. To provide flexibility to assist the most backlogged hearing offices, the agency opened three new National Hearing Centers (NHCs) in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Baltimore, Maryland; and Chicago, Illinois. The agency also has aggressive plans to open 14 new hearing offices and 4 satellite offices by the end of next year with the first of those new offices opening in Anchorage, Alaska in the next few months.

In addition to reducing the number of cases awaiting a hearing decision, the agency again targeted the oldest and most difficult cases for processing. Beginning in FY 2007 with 65,000 cases that were 1,000 days old or older, the agency has continually attacked its “aged” cases. This year, the agency targeted 166,838 cases that were 850 days or older and virtually eliminated this entire universe of cases. The goal in FY 2010 has been reset again to eliminate cases over 825 days old.

Social Security’s ALJs also continue to increase their productivity. The agency averaged 570 dispositions (2.28 per day) per available ALJ in FY 2009, an upward trend that has continued for the last three years.

For more information about Social Security’s hearings process and backlog reduction initiatives, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/appeals.

Thursday, October 15, 2009 Mark Lassiter, Press Officer
For Immediate Release 410-965-8904

SOCIAL SECURITY
News Release

Prompt Passage of Economic Recovery Act Payment for 2010 Needed
Law Does Not Provide for a Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment for 2010
(Printer friendly version)

With consumer prices down over the past year, monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for more than 57 million Americans will not automatically increase in 2010. This will be the first year without an automatic Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) since they went into effect in 1975.

“Social Security is doing its job helping Americans maintain their standard of living,” Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security said. “Last year when consumer prices spiked, largely as a result of higher gas prices, beneficiaries received a 5.8 percent COLA, the largest increase since 1982. This year, in light of the human need, we need to support President Obama’s call for us to make another $250 recovery payment for 57 million Americans.”

The Social Security Act provides that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits increase automatically each year if there is an increase in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of the last year to the third quarter of the current year. This year there was no increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009. In addition, because there was no increase in the CPI-W this year, under the law the starting point for determinations regarding a possible 2011 COLA will remain the third quarter of 2008.

Some other changes that would normally take effect in January 2010 based on the increase in average wages also will not take effect, even though average wages did increase. Since there is no COLA, the statute prohibits an increase in the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax as well as the retirement earnings test exempt amounts. These amounts will remain unchanged in 2010. The attached fact sheet provides more information on 2010 Social Security changes.

Information about Medicare changes for 2010, when available, will be found at www.Medicare.gov. The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet announced if there will be any Medicare premium changes for 2010. Should there be an increase in the Medicare Part B premium, the law contains a “hold harmless” provision that protects about 93 percent of Social Security beneficiaries from paying a higher Part B premium, in order to avoid reducing their net Social Security benefit. Those not protected include higher income beneficiaries subject to an income-adjusted Part B premium and beneficiaries newly entitled to Part B in 2010. On September 24th, the House passed legislation by 406-18 that would, on a fully paid-for basis, prevent abnormally large premium increases. The President is calling on the Senate to enact this legislation before it becomes too late for the Social Security Administration to update its computer systems to implement this needed change.

For additional information about the 2010 COLA, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.