At The End of My Rope with SSI....HELP

[waiting_4Him]

I've been sick for a long time and trying to get disability for about 3 years. At one point, I even had a lawyer.

I have SLE, Fibromyalgia, Sjogrens, Raynaud's, Degenerative Disc Disease, Osteoarthritis, Anxiety, and Bipolar II.

I've had to quit school and lost jobs due to being sick. :( I don't understand why they won't approve me. My mom believes it's my age and education. I'm 25 and had some college.

What else can I do? Has it been this hard for anyone else?

[here]

A lot of us can relate to what you are going through. I am in the same boat that you are. I can't believe the way the system is set up.

I wish I had some majic answer for you. Don't give up! There are a lot of good thread here that you can read about SSD and Pickles usually has some good advice.

Take care,

:flowers:

[raggedyann1]

Hello,

There are several long posts from a year ago or so, there is also some information pinned at the top of this forum.

Do a search of this forum and change the date to any date. search for soc sec spelled out or ssdi, losts of ways to do the search.

Yes your mother is right your age and education factor in. With additional college eductation the thinking is there are more job types that you can fit into.

Take care,
Karen

[waiting_4Him]

Ummm....what's Pickles? :huh:

Do a search of the SSI forum?

Thanx for replies and help! :shake:

[hurley]

Hi Sweetie

Pickles is the name of one of our members ;)

Hugs.

Julie

[songbird]

Dear Waiting,

Hang in there, I can offer some good news. :flowers: It is a tough fight, but your age doesn't nessecarily bar you from ssi/ssdi. I was approved in January of this past year. I'll be 26 in about a month. I have a B.A. and some post-graduate experience before my lupus set in.

I didn't understand why my claim was rejected either. It seemed plain as day to me that I couldn't work, so why couldn't the government see it? So, I asked the person in the ssdi office who handled my appeal why my last claim had been denied. She said that there had been nothing in my file explicitly stating that I could not work, so the government had assumed I could.

Lucky me, I had just gotten a signed statement from my doctor saying, "Patient is physically and mentally incapable of performing the duties of a job (any)." Not exactly something of which I was too proud. But, I handed that over. They made a copy of it and put it in my file. That worked.

I have no idea why you are being given so much trouble about your claim. Sometimes, I think the government actively tries to discourage people from filing. Please do keep trying! These are benefits you need, benefits to which you are entitled. I will be thinking of you. I certainly hope your fortunes change soon.

Take care,
Songbird

[raggedyann1]

Waiting,

Yes I am suggesting that you do a search of the this forum, not the whole site.
Look past the last reply and you will see the search function. Make sure you set the date to any and then you will find a boatload of posts. But not so many that it seems overwhelming. Reading them will help you feel you aer not alone and give you information that can help you in your appeal process.

Take care,
Karen

[Pickles]

:) HI,

I am Pickles, 55 year old woman from Georgia who had to wait 2 years for disablity after working 30 years. By the way, Pickles is my 21 year old cat's name but I borrow it for my "code name"

Glad to meet you.

If you are 25...You may qualify if you have credit for having worked half the time between 21 and the time you become disabled... Fo example, IF you become disabled at age 27, you would need credit for 3 years of work 12 credits out of the past six years(between age 21 and 27.

If you became disabled BEFORE 24..You may qualify IF you have six credits earned in the three year period ending when your disability started.

This is from a book you get from soc sec when you apply..

There is lots of great advice in the social security forum(this forum), you can search(put in ssdi, disability, ssi,)and it will pull up lots of info or you can just scan the fourm.

Lots of us have been thru what you are going thru including most of the ones who have already written you. It DOES take time and lots and lots of patience. You need to get your doctor(rheumatologist)preferably to do a Functional Residual Evaluation on you ..Thats where she sees how long you can sit, stand, walk, lift, carry, stoop, climb stairs, all kinds of things that you would normally do in a normal work day..She writes this all down and sends it to soc sec.

You can also write your congressman and get them involved at www.congress.org IF you are in the USA.

I wish there was a magic trick to it but as we all know it takes a long time. I lost my house waiting on it and begged and borrowed from family and friends.

Your age may be going against you too cause they probably think you'll get over it and can work again.

You have to have credits according to your wages earned. Since you may not have worked long or at all, that would be another problem in you receiving it.


GOOD LUCK to YOU!!!

P.S. Thanks Help and Hurley for remembering me :love: