An hour is reasonable. He/she will have gone over record in private as well. There are SS docs that spend 5 minutes with patients, those are the ones that are worrisome.

All I know is that in my and some others' experiences, SSA is not an ethical organization. Yet they hold monetary power over the disabled who seek help from them. Such power, when not exercised fairly or ethically, can and does affect vulnerable disabled people in unimaginably devastating ways....just read the thousands of stories online, including this site. Having been denied repeatedly by SSA for the help I desperately need, I am living that life now.

Under those kinds of circumstances, I say fight for your monetary help in any way you can. It is not lying if you are truly disabled, which I believe the majority of us on here are. If you are already an honest, ethical, modest, humble person who was raised to always look your best, act your best, never bother or trouble anyone, or God forbid show others your problems, that is deeply ingrained in you and can be a hindrance when it comes to getting help from an agency such as SSA (at least, that is, in mental disability cases such as mine).

I say fight however you are able to, to get what you need. SSA will not do it for you. They are not going to see through some people's neat, clean, hey-I'm-just-fine, smiling appearance, because they do not want to. I wish I knew this before I began the process over two years ago.

I went back and reread your other threads before attempting to respond to this. I'm sorry that you have had such difficulties over the years , but instead of being dishonest and encouraging others to be dishonest, it would be a better use of energy to read about the SSI/SSDI process, so that you can more effectively advocate for yourself. Start with the Stickies and the links in the Stickies. If you feel you need more hands on help than would normally be provided by an attorney, than seek out a nonprofit agency that specializes in SSI/SSDI approval.

I tend to agree with you. There are others however, whos' experiences have been different, and turned out OK. People in positions of power, somehow get a bit carried away with it. ginnie

For those that are very skilled at deception, perhaps her advice could work for some, but SS has several ways to catch them--which I won't post about to make it easy for those engaging in such behavior. My guess is that it will backfire for most that attempt it, and once you've been caught it will be difficult to ever overcome the stigma attached to exaggerating one's disability--previous SSDI/SSDI case files are including with subsequent applications.

I believe in telling 100% the truth, I have said this before, and let the chips fall where they may. Lying does no one any good. I agree with you on that one. Ever go to a Medicaid office? I was treated very nasty, and most of those folks behind their screens, seem to be quite curt with everyone. I also didn't like the one doc. who did my screening. Small, dark office, not clean, and he didn't have much empathy. When you are sick and hurting, those kinds of people are the last kind you want to deal with. This is where I find objection.
These folks have power over you and I find they use it. If compassion ruled, those of us that hurt, would do better, both physically and mentally.
Put into that mix, "some" families who abandon, and you get a patient that is in a very depressed state. Thank God for NT.....
I think that is why you are here too Lit Love...to offer help and encouragement, even when circumstances are not the best. Have a good rest of the night. ginnie

My experience is that why should you give them any more ammo then they already possess to shoot you down by exaggerating your claim. Frankly, you could have mother Theresa presenting your case and it will make no difference if you get any of the slimebags I was treated too in my previous hearings, you can tell immediately by how they question you and about what! In front of ** it was glaringly obvious that his mind had been made up long before I stood before him, and his condescending, sneering, and arrogant questioning reflected that posture to perfection.

They know that pretty much nobody will be evaluating their behavior, and you will have absolutely zero chance of prevailing in front of them. Such bias can be fueled to extravagant levels if you are then caught in an overt bit of embellishment. ** to say that "all of my doctors" were lying on my behalf!

You will not be changing such scumbags minds by lying to them....

Doctors have nothing to gain by lying. So that scum that said the doctors lied for you are just that scum, dirt balls, and a few other choice words. It is hard enough to be sick or hurting, without having to run into those types of people. I hope since then, someone has shown you some compassion direwolf. I hear it is your post, how angry and sad you are. Been there a time or two myself. I know this site, gave me tools, information, hope, caring, friendship, prayers, and also a kick in my butt to keep on keeping on. I will be here any time to talk to. I may not have had the same experiences as you have had, but I have had some bad apples in and around my case. My lawyers rep. kept me on an even keel, and made my frantic emotions more settled. I was lucky in that respect. Do you have a friend in your life to help ease your way through some of this muck? Even one person can make all the difference. ginnie

I have been reading this thread since it started a few days ago, and not knowing what to think about some of these comments. I do know this, we have a system in place that does work, does it have it's problems, sure just as any program can have, better than most, and not as good as others. However what Ginnie said is true, know what the SYSTEM REQUIRES in order to qualify for benefits. To truly believe that the people that administer this program would wake up on any given day and look at there schedule and say I'm going to screw any one of you over today is mind boggling.
I have spent allot of time reading rules and what SS requires. To be sure there are allot of hoops too jump thru, however if you are truly disabled, your medical records, treatment programs, and filling out the paper work correctly is all any of us can do to start. SS does not care if we are broke, homeless, losing our home, or someone stole your dog, that's not there job. There job is to look at what is presented to them and make a judgement off from what other professionals have told them. There are way to many people that are committing fraud when it comes to SSDI, all these people are doing is their jobs.

Direwolf, you probably should change your pronoun and use the term "I would call you clueless" rather than include the rest of us in your conclusion. Personally, I think Cameron1958 makes sense.

I am not going to comment on whether or not you were evaluated fairly or correctly (not having any details beyond whatever you post). Claims are approved every day of the week as well as denied. There are people in the world who try to get money for nothing as well as people in the world who can no longer hold jobs.

I think the appeal process takes too long but that would take more staff. If the DDS and field offices and the payment center had more staff, work could be done more quickly and/or with tremendous attention to detail. The pressures of volumes of work doesn't lend itself to long and exacting parsing of the details.

Making a disability decision is sometimes more of an art than a science. There is sequential evaluation that must be followed, but there may not be a numerical method of determining when someone has a marked, moderate or mild impairment.

Having a problem does not equate to being disabled. The SSA staff has no personal stake in whether or not your claim is approved or denied. Their pay is the same. If anyone wanted to push work through without true evaluation, approving everyone would be easier since then no one would appeal the approvals. Less work overall to just say yes to everyone.

I would also observe that people who post on sites like these are almost always those who are denied because those who are approved with smooth sailing don't go looking for sites like these. So IMO, in this kind of forum there will be statistically many more unhappy people looking for answers. So it is not representative of claimants as a whole.

You can disagree of course and it would be based on your own observations. Like the rest of us.