Mike,

Sorry to hear you got turned down, but it is normal. Over 75% of original applications for SSDI/SSI are turned down. But it is true that about 80% of those rejections are overturned by ALJs on appeal. The system is set up to prevent the disabled from getting their benefits without the help of an attorney, who then collects 25% of all the back pay. Most disability attorneys used to work for SSA in the disability system...often as ALJs. Get the picture? They're lining their own pockets on the backs of the sick and needy with full gov't complicity. That's the system we have. There's no way around it. The average case takes 3 years. So, if you get backpay at $1000/mo for 3 years, that's $36k. So the average contingency fee collected by a disability attorney is about $9000. A decent firm is handling hundreds of these cases a month with about 3 lawyers and 6 paralegals. So, if they have about a 60% success rate, at 100 cases/month, that's $900,000/mo to the firm...or about $10 million/year. If they pay each paralegal $50k/year, that's $300k/year plus payroll obligations that bring it up to about $500k. Knock off the overhead for the firm at about another $500k/year, and the 3 attorneys split $9 million/year...or make about $3 million/year each. And 2 years after I filed for mine, I got $1200/mo...$14,400/year. It's a great country, huh? Of course, after 2 years with no job, we were also about an extra $20k in debt and almost lost our house and cars...which would have meant my wife couldn't work either. My case was expedited because of the financial damage we were able to document and the fact that our lawyers are all retired ALJs from SSA and own the building that the SSA court leases its space from.

The moral of the story? Yes, the system sucks in a major way. It's repulsive. It's run by lawyers and set up by Congress. What do we expect? But keep pushing. Push your lawyer too. Make him earn his keep (as much as that is possible for a lawyer). Get every penny you are entitled to. Don't take no for an answer. And don't feel guilty about "whining" and "pestering" everyone. They're making a freaking killing. And be very thankful that you have your military disability. I didn't have that. And we had to survive on credit cards while we fought for the benefits I had paid for for over 23 years. Also, be very glad you can avoid the insurance/medicare issue due to your military disability. I can't get insurance. I'm still a year away from medicare eligibility because you have to be on SSDI for 2 years before you qualify. Then, once you do, they deduct several hundred dollars/mo to cover your medicare premiums (that I've also prepaid for the past 23 years). And my meds alone...keeping them to the minimum of what my docs want me on...run $1300/mo. Remember...my check is only $1200 without any deduction of premiums for Medicare and I can't get private insurance. So, my docs have cut my meds back to what they can scrounge in samples from the pharm reps.

FYI, you'll also have to learn to let it roll off your back when you hear the self-righteous pontificate about how the gov't needs to cut these "welfare" programs and make folks fend for themselves and "get off their lazy butts and get to work."

Have a Merry Christmas everyone. And the next time you hear someone talk about the merits of universal healthcare systems, remember this thread. I have a disabled friend who moved to Argentina 18 months ago. He has already collected more in gov't benefits from the Argentine gov't than he did in his entire 47 years in America. My wife is German. They don't have this kind of mercenary brutality in their system either.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!