The Wounded Warrior Program Expedites Social Security Disability Claims For Veterans

Veteran’s Day is a day that the American people have set aside to celebrate and honor all those who have served in the armed forces. Veteran’s Day – originally known as Armistice Day – has been celebrated in the United States since 1919. Armistice Day became a national holiday in 1938, and has been known as Veteran’s Day since 1954. It is celebrated on November 11th to commemorate the armistice that ended the fighting in World War One.

The Social Security Administration recognizes the sacrifices that the members of our armed forces make every day. With the Wounded Warrior Program, the Administration ensures that military members who were injured on active duty have their cases processed in an expedited manner. While the standard of disability remains the same for all claimants, individuals injured on active duty can obtain a decision faster.

Even if you are still on active duty and receiving full pay, you may be eligible for Social Security disability benefits. Social Security looks at the activities you are performing, not the pay you are receiving, to determine if you meet the standard of disability. These benefits are in addition to any benefits you may receive from the Veteran’s Administration – it is important for you to know that a separate application for each type of benefit is required.

If you have any questions about applying for Social Security disability benefits, even if you are still on active duty, please contact us today for a free case evaluation.

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Six Tips for Safe and Fair Holiday Employment

Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Rehm, from Rehm, Bennett & Moore.

This time of year, many people get holiday jobs to earn extra money. That means some people will get injured at work and run into other difficulties working holiday jobs. Here are six tips on how to deal with the workplace challenges arising from holiday jobs. These tips for safe and fair employment apply just as well to any second job, not just a holiday job.

  1. Just because you have a “holiday job” doesn’t necessarily make you a seasonal employee: In some states, including my home state of Nebraska, employees can have their benefits reduced if they are a “seasonal employee.” However, even if you have a holiday job, your job may not be seasonal. In Nebraska, “seasonal employment” is defined as a job that is dependent on weather or can only be done during certain times of the year. For example, if you hurt your back working at an electronics store at your holiday job, that employment is not seasonal because you can work at an electronics or really most any retail store at any time of the year.
  2. You can’t be paid workers’ compensation for how your holiday or second job affects your regular job: If you are off work at your regular job because of an injury at your second job or holiday job, you are only paid income-replacement benefits for the income you lost at your holiday job or second job. For example in Nebraska, if you were hurt at your holiday/second job that pays $120 per week and you are unable to do your regular job that pays $600 per week, your only income benefit would be two-thirds of your second/holiday job, which would be $80. Employees should be extra cautious in second jobs or holiday jobs for just that reason. Employees should also consider applying for private disability plans if they plan on having a second job in order to account for the possibility of losing income due to an injury at their second job. In short, employees should do a thorough cost-benefit analysis before taking a holiday job or second job.
  3. Your permanent disability benefits could be better than your temporary benefits: In full-time employment, permanent and temporary disability benefits are generally fairly close. But with part-time employment, permanent disability benefits may be much higher than temporary benefits. In my state of Nebraska, temporary benefits are paid based on a typical work week. For example, if you are a part-timer working 12 hours a week at $10 per hour, your temporary disability pay would be $80 a week. However, in Nebraska and some other states, permanent disability is based on no less than a 40-hour week. So if you are a part-timer getting paid $10 per hour, your permanent disability rate would be $266.67 per month. This is good for employees, because serious injuries will usually have permanent effects that can permanently affect an employee’s ability to earn a living.If you are an injured part-time worker and your insurance company is trying to force you to take a settlement based on your part-time wage rate, you should consult with an attorney in your state.
  4. Your employer/insurer may be low-balling your wage rate: Say you get paid $8 an hour as a barista but you have an agreement to share tips, or you work in retail but you get store credit, or you teach exercise classes at a health club but you have an agreement that you get a free membership. In any of those scenarios, you could possibly use those benefits to increase your loss-of-income benefits.
  5. You are still protected by most fair-employment laws: Part-timers are still covered by most fair-employment laws. The most glaring exception is likely the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave and job protection for employees with a serious health condition, to care for a close family member with a serious health condition, or take care of a close family member who is affected by a military deployment. FMLA requires 1,250 hours worked in the last calendar year and 1 year of employment. That 1,250 hours a year translates to roughly 24 hours a week. Many people working second jobs don’t meet the eligibility standards for FMLA.
  6. Independent contractor, independent conschmacktor: Many holiday employees do fairly low-wage work that doesn’t require any specialized training or education. If this describes your holiday job or second job, then you are an employee, despite the fact that your company may have classified you as an independent contractor. Since you are an employee, you should be covered by workers’ compensation law. If you are misclassified as an independent contractor, you should look for other employment and consider reporting your unscrupulous employer to the United States Department of Labor or to your state’s department of labor.

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What Is Chained CPI And Why Is It Bad For Elderly And Disabled People?

Chained CPI is back in the news.  What does this mean for the elderly and disabled who rely on Social Security benefits?  The short answer to this question is “nothing good.”  Before we discuss why chained CPI is such bad news, I should explain exactly what it is.

Chained CPI is a different way of calculating the amount of inflation that occurred in a given year, and the amount that Social Security benefits will increase in response to inflation.  Currently, the Social Security Administration uses the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W).  Due to the way it is calculated, chained CPI measures inflation at a lower rate than CPI-W.  Chained CPI assumes that individuals have the ability to buy cheaper items in place of more expensive items – the classic example is buying pork instead of chicken or beef – in order to bring their expenses down.  According to the Congressional Budget Office (which provides nonpartisan analysis for Congress), chained CPI is likely to measure inflation as being 0.25 percentage points lower than CPI-W does.

A one-quarter of one percent decrease may not sound like much.  In fact, it would only result in the loss of a few dollars per month in benefits.  The problems with this approach really become apparent when you think about how your benefits will be affected several years down the road.  Due to the fact that you receive a smaller inflation adjustment each year, your benefits grow at a slower rate as the years go by.  Eventually, this one-quarter of one percent decrease will have a very large effect.

The average age of an individual receiving disability benefits is just over 53.  Most individuals who stop receiving Social Security disability benefits have their benefits stopped because they attain full retirement age and are no longer entitled to disability benefits.  Based on this, we know that many individuals receive disability benefits from Social Security for a long period of time – many years in most cases.  This means that the cumulative effect of the switch to chained CPI will hit the disabled hardest.

This decrease is an especially big problem when you realize how important Social Security benefits are to the disabled and retired.  According to the Administration, Social Security benefits provide 50% or more of household income for 53% of elderly married couples and 74% of unmarried individuals, and provide 90% or more of household income for 23% of elderly married couples and 46% of unmarried individuals.  71.7% of all disabled workers receive 50% or more of their household income from Social Security disability benefits.

Switching to chained CPI would result in a loss of benefits to the retired and disabled – those who are least able to afford such a loss.  There are news reports that a switch to chained CPI is being considered by lawmakers in Congress.  You should make sure that your elected representatives know that you do not support such a switch.  You can find contact information for your Congressional representatives at House.gov and Senate.gov.  Let them know that reducing future Social Security benefits for the elderly and disabled is unacceptable.

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Ketamine Therapy: Wonder Drug for RSD/CRPS and Depression?

Today’s post comes from guest author Kristina Brown Thompson, from The Jernigan Law Firm.

Lately there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding a drug known as ketamine. Some workers’ compensation patients with chronic, neuropathic pain [i.e. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)] are lauding ketamine as a new wonder drug and a few pain clinics are now prescribing ketamine therapy to treat certain pain conditions when other treatment is not effective. Yet, ketamine is by no means a new drug. Developed in the 1960s, ketamine has typically been used as a pediatric anesthetic or by the military in emergency surgery situations (think Vietnam). It’s a serious medication and is typically administered intravenously in the clinic.

Clearly, ketamine is a potent drug. Not to mention that it’s a derivative of Phencyclidine (“PCP” or “Angel Dust”). On the street, ketamine is called “Special K” and is highly sought for its hallucinogenic side effects. Yet, now it’s being prescribed in certain contexts for treatment of major depression and chronic pain conditions (i.e. CRPS/RSD) and being hailed by some as an effective treatment modality where others have failed.

The press surrounding ketamine lately has largely been optimistic. Last year, NPR broadcast a piece on Talk of the Nation featuring ketamine. The program discussed ketamine’s potential as a fast-acting drug to relieve major depression, particularly when other medications were no longer effective. A few months ago, Time ran an online article entitled “Club Drug Ketamine Lifts Depression in Hours.” Based on the title alone, what depression sufferer wouldn’t want to try ketamine? The article reported that “[a]fter receiving a single intravenous (IV) does of ketamine, 64% of patients reported fewer depression symptoms within one day compared to 28% of those given midazolam – an anesthetic drug that was used as a control.” Even CBS News ran an article earlier this year stating that “[k]etamine may be quick, effective treatment for untreatable depression.”

RSD patients and pain clinics are reporting similar fast-acting pain relief stories. One patient reported that ketamine therapy reduced her pain to a manageable 5 out of 10, on a pain scale of 1 to 10 with 10 representing the most amount of pain imaginable (see article). Another patient who had full-body CRPS had undergone several pain treatment modalities. She had tried Bier blocks, spinal blocks, and a spinal cord stimulator. Nothing relieved her pain. However, after about a year on the ketamine treatment program, she was able to mow her lawn for the first time in ten years.

Ketamine is a controversial topic in the medical community. There is not much research on the long-term effects of ketamine use. Some say that chronic use of ketamine may cause verbal, short-term memory and visual memory loss. Some research indicates that the effects on the brain are irreversible. Currently not many clinics are offering ketamine therapy. Clearly the potential benefits could be tremendous and RSD/CRPS treatment could be revolutionized. However, as with any form of therapy, patients should discuss the benefits and risks carefully with their doctor.

 

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Why The Republicans Should Not Cut Food Stamps

Today’s post comes from guest author Paul J. McAndrew, Jr., from Paul McAndrew Law Firm.

I write about a debate now occurring in Congress in which the GOP is threatening millions of American families, including 200,000 Iowa households.  The debate is over food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”).

To understand the problem, we need only review the survey-report issued by the Department of Agriculture on September 4.  (Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Mark Nord, Anita Singh, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2012”).  The report shows that nearly 49 million Americans lived in “food insecure” households last year.  This means family members lack consistent access to adequate food throughout the year.  In short, 49 million Americans (over 16 times the Iowa population) went hungry for long periods in 2012.  Worse, children were found to be hungry in 10% of all U.S. families with children.  The agency found that hunger rates since the 2007 recession are much higher than before.

Many people have a misunderstanding of this hunger; many think the hungry are the same persons who are homeless.  In fact, in most cases the hungry are persons who work at low-paying jobs or are disabled from work.

The GOP (mostly the House GOP) wants to cut food stamps.  Yet, food stamps have been the centerpiece of our country’s safety net for the poor.  Benefits are adjusted for income.  Recipients can use SNAP benefits only for food, notwithstanding Rep. Steve King’s assertion that he knows food stamps are used for bail and tattoos.  Nearly 48 million Americans now receive food stamps (about 15% of the approximately 314 million Americans), at an annual cost to us of about $80 billion.

No matter what Congress decides, food stamps expenditures will be reduced in November, when a provision in the 2009 stimulus bill expires.  House Republicans, however, propose Continue reading →

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We Support Brandworkers

Attending the 2013 Brandworkers Awards Dinner

On Wednesday October 16, several members of our firm attended the Annual Brandworkers’ Dinner held at the Angel Orensanz Foundation in NYC. Brandworkers was founded in 2007 by retail and food employees who identified a need for an organization dedicated to protecting and advancing their rights. The organization was launched based on a simple principle: that working people themselves, equipped with powerful social change tools, were uniquely positioned to make positive change on the job and in society.

By empowering retail and food employees with social change tools, Brandworkers’ Focus on the Food Chain and Legal Defense-Plus programs have recovered close to $1 million in unpaid wages and compensation for discrimination; improved working conditions for hundreds of workers; and have helped workers develop as powerful social change leaders.

We look forward to continuing our  support of their mission!

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THE TRUTH ABOUT CHEATIN’ AND LYIN’

Today’s post comes from guest author Susan C. Andrews, from Causey Law Firm.

     You hear it all over the place these days: there are lots of people out there who lied and cheated to get Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits. I’m here to tell you that is a myth. You don’t have to drill down very far to find out differently. I should know, from where I sit, as an attorney who handles SSD cases. Where I sit most days is in front of a big pile of medical records—I mean HUNDREDS of pages of medical records, all belonging to the same person. You see, some of my clients have just one great big medical issue—like cancer, or Multiple Sclerosis, or Parkinson’s, and many of my clients have multiple medical problems. Either way, they have spent more time in doctors’ offices and hospitals than any of us would ever choose to do.

 There is a mistaken notion floating around out there that a person can just waltz into Social Security, claim to be disabled, and voila—he’s granted benefits!

There is a mistaken notion floating around out there that a person can just waltz into Social Security, claim to be disabled, and voila—he’s granted benefits! Nothing could be further from the truth. The burden of proof is on the claimant (the person claiming benefits) to show that he or she is disabled from engaging in substantial gainful activity (SGA) for a period of at least 12 continuous months. More about SGA in a bit. That proof starts with medical records, and diagnoses made by doctors. Self-diagnosing just doesn’t cut it, even if you’ve read up on your condition all over the internet, and you’re absolutely positive you know what’s wrong with you! Sometimes we get calls from people who do not have health insurance, and even though they have a serious medical condition, they have been unable to access much in the way of health care. Sadly, some of those folks who should be able to qualify for benefits do not, because they simply do not have the necessary treatment records to document the seriousness of their conditions.

     As mentioned above, Social Security’s definition of disability is the inability, due to one or more medical impairments, to engage in substantial gainful activity for a period of at least 12 continuous months. Social Security defines SGA in part by a dollar figure that usually goes up a little every year. In 2013 it is $1,040. Social Security looks at a person’s GROSS earnings, not net earnings or take-home pay. So if I’m able to gross $1,040 or more per month, I can engage in substantial gainful activity and I do not qualify for SSD. This concept is important especially for individuals with progressive conditions.

     Take, for example, a person diagnosed with Parkinson’s. One famous example is the actor Michael J. Fox. His Parkinson’s affects his functioning, but he is still working. Many people with progressive conditions continue to work for some time after receiving their diagnosis. At some point, progression of the disease may force some of them to go to part-time work. When the hours worked decrease, their earnings may no longer qualify as SGA. Or—and I see this a great deal in my practice—some people begin to have more bad days than good days, and work performance is impacted. There are days so bad that they really have no choice but to call in sick. Then this begins to happen more frequently than a couple of days a month. In my experience, at that point most employers become very unhappy campers. Not only are the employees taking sick leave faster than they are accruing it, they can’t tell their employers ahead of time which days they will wake up with an exacerbation of symptoms that keep them in bed, or at least in their bathrobe, all day.

     Which brings me to my final point: Many of my clients look okay to the casual passer-by. Take the guy with a serious heart problem. Well sure, if I followed him around for half a day, I’d see that he can barely exert himself without getting out of breath. But if I just passed by, he might look fine. And the day he spends at home in his bathrobe because he can hardly catch his breath—I’m not going to see him at all when he’s having one of those really lousy days. His condition may be largely invisible.

     To sum it up, I’d say there’s a bit of wisdom in being slow to judge. Thank goodness we take our good health for granted—it’d be a miserable existence if I spent too much time worrying about getting sick before it actually happened. But, of course, serious illness can strike any of us when we least expect it. And on the other side of that defining moment, the world can look a whole lot different.

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Misclassification – Department of Labor Recovery

Today’s post comes from guest author Leonard Jernigan, from The Jernigan Law Firm.

The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $1 million in back wages and liquidated damages for 196 employees of Bowlin Group LLC and Bowlin Services LLC out of Ohio and Kentucky. Bowlin Services installed cable for Insight Communications, a cable, telephone and Internet provider in Kentucky. The defendants misclassified 77 employees as independent contractors and violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by denying these workers access to critical benefits, including minimum wage, overtime, family and medical leave, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation and failing to maintain accurate payroll records.

Misclassifying employees negatively impacts our economy, generating losses to the U.S. Treasury, Social Security and Medicare funds, state unemployment insurance, and state workers’ compensation funds. It also leads to unfair competition because businesses that play by the rules are at a disadvantage.

This problem has become so acute in Tennessee that last month the legislature passed Senate Bill 833, which has been signed into law and imposes penalties on construction companies for misclassifying workers in an attempt to evade workers’ compensation premiums. A Tennessee study in 2012 revealed losses of up to $91.6 million in workers’ compensation premiums. North Carolina has identified the problem but has yet to take any action. Until states aggressively prosecute misclassification, this fraud will continue.

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