Originally Posted by Hopeless

You have 4 credits for each year of 2008 2009. Even if the more recent years from 2010 through 2013 are "negligible", if about $1000, in any one year, you could have earned at least one credit. I would have to check the exact amounts to earn a credit for those particular years but I think it is around $1000 per credit.

You only have 60 days to appeal so I would ask your representative to calculate your credits based on your tax returns and determine if you will qualify by having sufficient credits. That is the FIRST hurdle to conquer. Everything else is a mute point if you are not insured under SSA.

Trying to look at the bright side, you are nearing early retirement age, so that might be something to consider if disability benefits are not an option. Medicare coverage is not far off in your future either because of your age. Trying to make ends meet from now until you are 62 if disability benefits are not in your future may mean that you will need to continue to earn whatever you can under your circumstances and at your own pace. If you could earn about $4000 per year over the next few years, you would meet the credits needed, maybe have more medical documentation, and be able to file a new claim. Disability benefits revert to retirement upon reaching full retirement age but you could still file for disability until then. Based on your current age, I am guessing full retirement for you would be between 66 and 67. I don't have the chart in front of me.

Do you have enough credits (40) for "retirement" at 62? That may be your best option if you do not have the needed credits for disability and are unable to earn more credits between now and age 62.

Good luck to you.

One other comment about disability...... just because you may not be able to do your former work, or same type of work without additional training, you could be found to be able to do "other" work that does not require training and is something you would be capable of with your condition. If you can type at a computer, have worked from home, they may find that you are still capable of gainful work. I am not saying that you are, I am saying that is a possible outcome on your disability claim. If you find that you can continue to pursue your disability claim having earned the appropriate amount of credits, be sure to check out some of the disability info on the stickies here and info on the internet under disability secrets.

Earn anything you can and are capable of if possible to get the credits you will need if you want to apply for disability later under a new claim in future year. Just my opinion. If you can not earn anything any longer, consider taking early retirement at 62.

First check out your true credits based on your tax returns. Talk with your attorney.

Originally Posted by soccertese

hi, would greatly appreciate any opinions about the law firm i hired to do my application.

i'm a 59 year old male, had a 1 person company for 20years where i installed pharmacy computer systems into retail pharmacies, did everything from installing, maintaining computers and writing the software.
was diagnosed in 2001 with parkinson's. stopped working in 2011 and applied for SSDI Nov1, 2013 and got a rejection on DEC 4th.
SS stated "The objective medical evidence prior to the date you were last insured for SS disability benefits on DEC 31,2012 is not sufficient to fully assess your potential work related limitations and abilitites. Therefore, a period of disability cannot be determined.

I can understand why SS determined this based on my application. I rarely see my neuro, exams are just a short visit and no formal testing, just a formality to get my RX refills authorized. When medicated, to the untrained eye I don't appear to have pd, medication works well. Unmedicated I have major pd symptoms, freezing so I take baby steps and halt, fatique, stuttering, disabled to the point that I just lay or sit down.

Anyway, I thought I might have a difficult time proving disability because I didn't have a clear record of progression on my medical records because my neuro always saw me medicated, my customers rarely saw me, I didn't allow friends to see me unmedicated and I live alone. Thus I hired a law firm to do the application and brought these issues up and they really didn't give me any odds on whether I'd get SSDI but I hired them anyway because they were recommended and I knew I couldn't do this application on my own. I went to their offices, brought them a detailed writeup of my history and concerns, medical records proving I was diagnosed 12 years ago. I had also visited my neuro and GP just prior to hiring the law firm to let them know i was filing for SSDI and they both said they would try to help the best they could. At the visit the paralegal asked me if i wanted to file right now and we did over the internet. She didn't care to see what my full medical records looked like or talk to my doctors to see what they had written, I assume she expected my initial application to be rejected so why work that hard?

So anyway, the law firm is filing an appeal. They sent me a list of questions to answer which I had already answered. It seems obvious to me I need to be examined more fully and unmedicated and have brought this up with the paralegal, will SSDI have me independently examined and she says she can't guarantee this. I'm getting a little worried here about how blase this legal firm is, maybe they don't get serious until there is a trial? Maybe they want to drag this out and get a bigger fee? I'm afraid to start complaining but I'm feeling like a number with these guys, any advice? I would think it would be hard to fire them but something seems weird here, so far they've filed the initial application, took about an hour in their officer to file on line while i was there and they emailed me a list of questions to answer after the rejection. i have sent them 2 emails subsequently asking questions about their questions and no response days later.

I'm thinking they just don't think I'll get approved until I go to trial so why put in that much effort until then or maybe they are just increasing their fee, i can understand that. But I also can't believe SSDI wouldn't approve someone who is clearly unable to work when unmedicated and 12 years after a pd diagnosis, who in the world would hire me at almost 60?

Any advice on dealing with this large local firm, dont want to alienate them and whether I should take the bull by the horns and schedule my own evaluation with another neurological organization that would do a more comprehensive evaluation?

Originally Posted by Msudawg89

Most lawyers who take workman's comp cases are qualified. From my experience, unless you are in a select box, you will be denied. Just keep fighting.

Originally Posted by Hopeless

Dear Soccertese,

About your TAX returns. There is a statute of limitations on getting any refunds due you and it is 3 years. However, if you OWE, there is no limit of time. You would be required to pay any and all taxes for any and all years late. Even if you did not owe FEDERAL INCOME TAX, if you earned a net of over $400 in self-employment, you would still owe Social Security and Medicare tax on it.

Are you saying that you had less than $400 net income from your self-employment during the years that you were late filing your returns?

It is very surprising for a disability law firm to accept any claimant that did not meet the eligibility requirements of being insured under the Social Security system.

It is situations where DLI (Date last insured) and Date of Onset create problems with qualifying for eligibility and some decisions must be made as to which dates to use as the date of onset.

As far as "accepting" your tax return information. If you PAID Social Security taxes, it is my belief that the returns MUST be accepted if filed. Your payments may not simply be ignored. As far as the IRS, they do not have to provide any "refunds" on returns filed beyond 3 years after they are due. Any refunds due you are forfeited.

Hopeless

Originally Posted by Hopeless

Dear Soccertese,

About your TAX returns. There is a statute of limitations on getting any refunds due you and it is 3 years. However, if you OWE, there is no limit of time. You would be required to pay any and all taxes for any and all years late. Even if you did not owe FEDERAL INCOME TAX, if you earned a net of over $400 in self-employment, you would still owe Social Security and Medicare tax on it.

Are you saying that you had less than $400 net income from your self-employment during the years that you were late filing your returns?

It is very surprising for a disability law firm to accept any claimant that did not meet the eligibility requirements of being insured under the Social Security system.

It is situations where DLI (Date last insured) and Date of Onset create problems with qualifying for eligibility and some decisions must be made as to which dates to use as the date of onset.

As far as "accepting" your tax return information. If you PAID Social Security taxes, it is my belief that the returns MUST be accepted if filed. Your payments may not simply be ignored. As far as the IRS, they do not have to provide any "refunds" on returns filed beyond 3 years after they are due. Any refunds due you are forfeited.

Hopeless

Originally Posted by Hopeless

As promised I looked it up and there IS a similar stipulation in SSA regs. In order to have your earned credits applied, they must be reported within 3 years, 3 months, and 15 days. This was news to me and I am sorry if my prior post misled you. I knew about the tax law but not about the SSA reg.

Hopeless

Originally Posted by soccertese

you hit the nail on the head and this is an issue i have been trying to discuss with the attorney. i filed my 2008-2011 IRS returns in early 2013, actually got a small refund. unfortunately, the IRS was way behind in reporting my numbers to SS, didn't realize this and didn't notice until october 2013. at that point, brought IRS transcripts of my returns to the local SS office and asked them to record them. a week later i got my returns back in the mail from SS and on them was a handwritten note saying "you are disability insured with your alleged onset onset as 10/011/2011".

This was very puzzling and am waiting to talk to paralegal to find out if that's the date on my application. Anyway, SS rejected my 2008-2010 IRS returns as being filed too late. I had enough income in 2001 thru 2009 in each year to get credits but obviously not enough in last 5 years. So may be even more hopeless.
No excuse for not filing except had very complicated schedule-D's, i'll blame it on my parkinson's. I didn't file for SSDI in 2012 out of ignorance. I brought up the late tax filings at the first meeting with the attorneys, actually gave them copies of my returns thinking they wouldn't take the case without evidence that i had filed them. paralegal didn't say this would be a problem.

I called the the SS office that handled my SSDI application and discussed if there was anyway to get the 2008-2010 wages accepted by SS, they actually connected me to the examiner that handled my SSDI app and she said no but did give me a $$ amount that I was eligible for if I can prove that 10/01/2011 disable date. She asked me about the 2008-2010 wages but then kept correcting herself, saying they can't accept them.

Thanks for your reply, I need all the help I can get, thought hiring a lawyer on contingency would make things clear cut.

Originally Posted by Hopeless

I do not know how to post links