Success at Disability Hearing!

[Ema]

After 3 years of applying and waiting, I had my hearing today with the Administrative Law Judge for SSDI. The judge ruled in my favor on the spot (which almost never happens according to my lawyer) and found that my CFS and other related conditions rendered me completely disabled.

I just wanted to post and share my success because I know too often we only read the horror stories (and the process for SSDI is truly so difficult). Here's to the ALJ who "got" CFS and hopefully more like him will sit on the bench moving forward...

 

[Mark]

Whoop! Congratulations Ema!

 

[snowathlete]

Excellent, good for you for not giving up!

 

[Esther12]

That must be a relief. Hopefully you'll be able to get on with something more pleasant now that this is out of the way.

 

[SickOfSickness]

Wonderful!

 

[hixxy]

Congratulations! Thank god applying for disability is a lot easier in Australia!

 

[taniaaust1]

Congratulations, it sounds such a nightmare system over there with having to wait as long as that.

 

[Ema]

So, I got my notice for disability review this month...hard to believe it's already been 2 years. And hard to believe that so very little has changed after all. It's a bit disheartening, to be honest.

I think I got the long form...it was 12 pages and had places for me to list all the doctors and treatments I'd had over the last year. It also included a checklist on restrictions for daily activities and asked me to describe my typical day and hobbies and interests (I wish!).

All in all, any kind of review like this is very stressful and I am just hoping and praying that this one goes smoothly. I will be very relieved when it is over (for another couple of years anyway!).

Ugh.

 

[Keela Too]

I agree, having to spell out our inadequacies is harrowing.
I had to re-fill out the form after a year on Disability Living Allowance. Thankfully they did not ask to see me and so I have now got it for an undefined length of time... their words.

Hope your renewal goes smoothly.

 

[Gingergrrl]

These stories both scare me and give me hope. @Ema, I will pray for your review to go smoothly and quickly be over with and disability renewed. I am only on short-term disability through my employer (with a plan I purchased and paid for 12 yrs ago) and they still gave me grief about it so I can only imagine the stress of long-term disability which is where I think I am headed.

@hixxy Not sure you if you are still on the board (from 2012) but wanted to tell you I love your dachshund avatar!

 

[maryb]

@Ema
I just read your first post and thought hurrah she's got it, then I saw 2012.....
Hope you feel well enough to complete the form in the time you have. I did one recently and it is so hard when you feel sick, the added stress doesn't help.

 

[Gingergrrl]

@maryb I did the same thing and thought she was approved currently and liked the post and then realized it was two years old! I just joined PR in June 2014 and often read something thinking it is new and then realize it is several years old!

 

[SDSue]

Wow, @Ema , sorry to hear you got the long form.

I just completed (?) my first appeal and am waiting to hear. After doing tons of paperwork and a phone interview, a few months later I got 3 packets of numerous pages each, in-depth questionnaires (sounds similar - wish I could remember the actual questions lol), and it was quite depressing. It took me over a week to complete.

Writing it all down is a horrible exercise. I prefer denial lol.

I'll be eager to hear how it goes for you and wish you well.

 

[CFS_for_19_years]

@Ema, depending on your age, you can expect to get a disability review about every 3 years. The older you are, the less chance there is of you returning to the work force. IMHO, there has to be a drastic improvement in your condition in order for you to "flunk" your disability review. I did some part-time home-based work (telemarketing - ugh) while collecting benefits and since it was very limited and I only did it when it suited me, there was no issue with it. They wanted to know how much $$ and how many hours. This was in addition to medical records, which were all in my favor.

It's good to keep a diary somewhere listing the dates of doctor visits and the reason for the visit. It will help you fill out their disability review forms a lot quicker. Keep copies of everything you send to Social Security as you may need to refer back to it.

 

[WillowJ]

All the best with your review, @Ema .

I agree it's daunting to have to write down (thus, face the reality of) all the details about what's wrong/disabling.

 

[caledonia]

If you kept copies of what you sent them for your initial application, you can just recopy all the same stuff for the long form review (assuming nothing has substantially changed for better or worse).

There are actually three review schedules:
1 year - they think improvement is likely
3 years - they think you may or may not improve
7 years - they think improvement is not likely

It should say in your approval letter which schedule you're on. It's not unusual for them to get behind schedule.

I'm on the 3 year schedule. I've gotten the long form once and the short form a couple of times. One time my review was about a year late. The rest of the time it's been seemingly on schedule.

Good point about keeping a record of doctors visits.

 

[Ema]

Approved!

Whew...now I can let that one go for a little while again.

 

[SDSue]

That's great news! I'm happy to hear it.

 

[caledonia]

If you kept copies of what you sent them for your initial application, you can just recopy all the same stuff for the long form review (assuming nothing has substantially changed for better or worse).

There are actually three review schedules:
1 year - they think improvement is likely
3 years - they think you may or may not improve
7 years - they think improvement is not likely

It should say in your approval letter which schedule you're on. It's not unusual for them to get behind schedule.

I'm on the 3 year schedule. I've gotten the long form once and the short form a couple of times. One time my review was about a year late. The rest of the time it's been seemingly on schedule.

Good point about keeping a record of doctors visits.

I just got a Continuing Disability Review form (thankfully the short one), but it was only for two years. Perhaps they're shortening the length of time as some sort of cost cutting measure. I've gotten several robo-calls for joining the Ticket To Work program in the past few years.

 

[Gingergrrl]

Congrats @Ema and that is great news!!!