I absolutely cannot believe it ! I have such bad luck I just knew they would deny my reconsideration.

I had my local Congressman's office involved and I think that really helped my case.

I still have some guilt going on in accepting the SSDI.....I know I deserve it...I've worked and had SS paid in since I was 15....I'm now 51. I know I'm unable to work 8 hours a day/40 hours a week.

I'm 9 months in to severe small fiber neuropathy, hands, feet, upper right arm....and I know the journey to get some daily quality of life back is a very long road.

It took me 8 1/2 months.....1st claim was denied in July 2013.....entered reconsideration end of Sept 2013 and was just approved.

From reading posts on here I know how VERY lucky I am to have gotten this in 8 1/2 months. I did not expect an approval and was already looking at ss lawyers I would need to file for the next phase.....which is a hearing before a judge (in GA).

I won't be leaving this forum.......such great people with so much knowledge and ones who need support from all of us.

Just wanted to share the good news and to tell you all to keep fighting !

Debi from Georgia

Woohoo!!! Congratulations Debi!!!

So, do you think the Congressperson pulled some strings or put pressure on the local DDS to approve your case or did you have stronger evidence? It is somewhat bothersome to me that anyone thinks that any Congressperson would influence an SSA decision. Had the Congressperson's office read your medical records or did they only know what you told them?

I think that you must have had better or more convincing evidence on the reconsideration or a second employee saw something that the prior employee didn't see. Hard to say from afar. You could probably obtain a copy of your electronic folder (for purposes of being ready for a CDR so it doesn't cost you anything) and see for yourself.

My understanding is that Congresspeople and other elected officials work on cases like mine everyday. I had to sign a release for them so they did see my records. I couldn't even get my caseworker to call me back until I got them involved.

I have severe small fiber neuropathy from diabetes/chemo treatments. My skin biopsy showed results of 0.06 and 0.0 for the 2 punches I had.....that labs scales are from 0 to 15. I have zero A and C fibers left in both feet.
I had the following:
Biopsy report
Letters from my immediate family and former co-workers
A letter from my GYN of 25 years (no other dr would write a letter for me)
Office notes from PCP, onco, foot and ankle dr and neuro

And that's about it except for the forms SS required be filled out.

I decided to explain the above to you in hopes that it might help someone else.

Why would you not use any means available to get assistance ? I didn't want this to happen to me......I just went thru a year of pure hell to come out on the other side with a condition that I will have for the rest of my life. I was the Assistant Director of a Claims Dept that I actually created for 26 years. And making very good money. I was laid off, a month later a hysterectomy, 2 weeks after that I found out I had a rare uterine cancer and the chemo (taxol/carbo) treatments started in Dec and ended this past March.....exactly a month later I could not walk and my journey began to find out what was wrong with me.

I hope I've explained myself adequately enough for you. No bribes were given, nothing shady going on.

I would suggest that anyone that is having trouble with their disability claim get their local Congressman involved.

Debi from Georgia

It is the Congressperson who votes for the legislation that determines how SSA makes disability decisions. They also vote for or against the funding determines how much staff SSA has and the amount of staffing also determines how quickly work gets done. If SSA is not as responsive to you as you would like, a very big reason is that the employees are overwhelmed with work and are always playing catchup and never catch up. If your Congressperson truly cared about that, they would provide the funding necessary for SSA to perform the job that SSA is tasked to do. There wouldn't be a long history of hiring freezes and reduced staffing and budget cuts.

My guess that in your case it was the evidence that determined that outcome of your case. And I think your condition must be obviously severe in order to get a favorable decision at the reconsideration level and that the favorable finding had pretty much nothing to do with the Congressperson's involvement.

I do believe that nothing shady happened between you and the Congressperson and between the Congressperson and SSA, but what I don't understand is what role that you believe a Congressperson played in your case and what role should they play in the rest of their constituents' cases? I think SSA takes too long to make decisions, and the hearing backlog is harmful to applicants, but if SSA is going to follow law and policy with their reduced staffs (expected to do more with less) then the backlogs will not go away.

There are some cases that get priority handling and get moved to the front of the line. And I think there are times when that is needed. But if everyone's case was flagged as priority handling because a Congressperson is involved, then no one is special.

congratulations!

Congrats!!

Janke, this was probably a "Congressional Inquiry" which occur all the time. I agree that the Congressman probably didn't have any sway on the decision making processes. But I DO believe it got the ball rolling. I also understand about cuts, reductions, etc. This has not changed since I retired; we were always working more with less. Having said all of that I will say that the SSA was far, far more responsive and easier to work with than OPM. OPM sat on my "backpay" that had been released by the SSA for 8 months and for no earthly reason! I was CSRS-Offset so I realize that it was a different scenario and took longer. But there was no reason whatsoever to sit on that for 8 months. I had to contact my own Congressman and the very next day it was in my account. Bottom line...there are times you have to get a Congressman involved.

You know what Janke......I was sharing my news not looking for a lecture but I appreciate the information.

Thanks,

Debi from Georgia

St George, it is Office of Personnel Management. I am a federal retiree.

Others read these type of posts and figure if it will increase their chances at approval than they should do the same, but it only compounds the problem for others. It will speed things up but it shouldn't increase anyone's likelihood for approval.