I feel so bad for you! And yes, aren't they afraid someone may go postal on them or in their case SSDI-al on them?
I have to add this to the mix:
The other day I called the federal tax help line. I was on hold for eight minutes......when I finally got someone, I asked my question and the guy said to me "its in the 1040 instruction book - look it up" Would not give me the answer or help me with my confusion. I think government workers are not happy with their jobs. I finally just said "never mind and I'm glad our conversation was recorded for quality assurance".... click and dial tone

Ironically enough, I too had to call the IRS last week. BUT, I called the local office instead of the 800# and that lady was nice as pie. Problem solved in less than 10 minutes.

Happy Friday all. I managed to get in touch with the operator at SSDI in fairfax yesterday and explained the phone issues with my case worker. She was able to put me through to his voicemail. Today he calls back.

The system (which we all know is flawed, to say the least) is that he collects all medical info and makes his determination if he decides that you are indeed disabled it goes to their doctors for another medical determination. The doctors on their team apparently were confused about 1 of my cervical MRIs. That is 1 out of the 7 Cervical MRIs that they have on file. But they were confused anout the ONE and why the lesions had tried to grow together into one big mass. I wa told that a decision had been reached and said decision left the office this afternoon and I owuld be notified by mail in the next few days (should be by monday, but we all remember last monday!).

By law he is not allowed to tell me yes or no over the phone. So I am to anxiously stare at my mailbox for the weekend and all of Monday until i am allowed to know what decision was made on my case.

ARGH, I don't like that rule of not telling you. There he sat knowing your outcome and couldn't say anything. Ugh

yes it is maddening, BUT although he is not allowed to tell me yes or no, he did make it a point to tell me the steps of processing. So I asked him if he determined a person was NOT disabled, does it still progress to their team of doctors for a decision? and the answer was no. if he determines they are not disabled it is then signed off by him and his boss and a denial letter is sent.

So I know that menas I got a yes from him. Now I wait to see what their doctors have to say and if they decide against my team of specialists who are trained specifically to treat my medical issues.

When Jim was approved the same thing happened. He got approved for 50% but was going for at least 75%. Of course that was 20+ years ago. But the good news is he was approved. We just had to appeal the 25% and he won that too.

It was a rough time because he had to be out of work 3 months and that meant I had to pick up double shifts at work. Yikes, Uncle Sam took a huge chunk of that. Never work more than 10-15 hours overtime to stay within your tax bracket. haha