DISABILITY SURVIVAL GUIDE: NORTH ALABAMA EDITION

If you've been denied Social Security disability benefits, don't delay.  Take action NOW to protect your claim and get all your benefits. The Social Security Administration will deny 8 out 10 disability claims filed in Alabama in 2025.  Many of these denials will come after a brief, mechanical review of the application.  Often, they will not get all of the medical evidence. Faulty denials are common. The majority of denied claims can be won and paid with appeals.  Yes, appeals are time consuming, complex and frustrating.  But they often get your money for you, including back pay or past due benefits. Here's how THE FORSYTHE FIRM can help you if you've recently been denied (denied within 60 days): 1.  We will meet with you and get to know your disability and your needs.  The consultation is free with no obligation. 2.  If you appoint us to represent you, we will review your denial carefully to see what went wrong. 3.  We will obtain any missin...

Will Social Security benefits for seniors be drastically cut by 2032? It isn't likely, although the Social Security trust funds have started to dry up. Up until 2021, Social Security took in more money than it spend and had surplus to invest.  However, in recent years it has spend more than it takes in and has had to rely upon reserves to continue paying full benefits. Experts keep revising the date when the system will become unable to pay full benefits.  The most recent estimate indicates that will happen in 2032. If nothing is done, there could be cuts of up to $18,000 per COUPLE for retirees in 2032 or after.  But few people think that's going to happen. The Congress is likely to intervene and save Social Security before drastic cuts take place.  It is unlikely that Congress will allow such cuts to take place. Social Security is "sacred" to US politicians.  Just the mention of cutting benefits (or even failing to allow an increase) is the death knell in poli...

Social Security disability is a very complicated, tedious affair.  One small mistake can delay your claim by months or even years.  A small omission or using the wrong wording can get your claim denied. That's why it's better to get someone to help who knows the rules and has a lot of experience dealing with the Social Security Administration. Here are a FEW examples of how a mistake on your application or appeal can cost you dearly:   Wrong Onset Date.  You will be asked to provide an alleged onset date. Your claim can potentially pay back to this date.  Use the wrong date and you may lose thousands of dollars in pay. Income After Your Alleged Onset Date (AOD):   If you have non-earned (non-job related) income after your AOD, Social Security may mistakenly use that to deny your claim.  It is important to identify such income and explain it to Social Security in the beginning. Insufficient Work Credits.   I recently represented a person who had ...

I represented a 51 year-old woman at a Social Security disability hearing.  Upon examination by the administrative law judge (ALJ), the lady testified to herniated discs in her neck and back and swelling in her lower extremities that prevent long term standing or walking.   The judge felt that my client would be limited to sedentary work requiring sitting up to 6 hours per day but requiring no more than 2 hours per day of standing and/or walking.  In other words, he restricted her to sedentary work. The judge asked the government's vocational expert (VE) if any jobs existed in the US economy that my client could still perform.  Of course, the VE found 3 jobs, as examples--all at the Sedentary exertion level and with an SVP of 2--unskilled.   One of those jobs was that of a   Document preparer, microfilming, DOT Code 249.587-018.  The expert testified that there are approximately 63,000 of those jobs  in the US economy. In the federal di...

  SOCIAL SECURITY & OUTDATED JOB DATA Before approving your disability claim, Social Security must decide whether there are any jobs in America that you might still be able to perform. To get job information, Social Security relies on The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and other sources. At the final decision-making step, Social Security must decide whether the claimant can perform even unskilled sedentary or "sit-down" type of work.  If so, they must deny the claim. This is where it gets really frustrating.  There are several  sedentary (sit-down) jobs in the DOT that no longer exist. The DOT was written in the 1930s during the Great Depression.  It was last updated around 1990.  So, at best, it is almost more than 30 years out of date. Here is an example of a job in the DOT that no longer exists: Telegraph-service rater, DOT Code 214.587-010.  It's a real job according to the DOT. However, the last telegraph ...