Applying for Disability Benefits
 

If anyone has experience applying for disability online and wouldn't mind answering a couple of questions, can you please PM me? I'm a little confused about how to fill out the form and would rather not drag myself to the SS office in Leesburg for assistance.

(Because, you know. If I was able to drive or sit/stand for long periods I wouldn't need the disability.) :)

If make an appointment you should not have to wait at the SS office.

Expect to get refused the first time. Unless someone is basically a vegetable, they get turned down.

Once you get turned down the first time, try calling your US congressman's office and ask them to intervene.

I got a lawyer to handle mine and I recommend it. There is a ton of complex paperwork and unless you know what you are doing, you will probably make some mistakes. Those mistakes will case you to get rejected. A lawyer that specializes in SSDI will fill out all of the paperwork correctly. The lawyer gets something like $5,000 out of your first check which will be pretty large. Mine was around $25,000.

Thanks for the kind help, everyone! I should be set. :)

I qualified with my first app and I'm not a "vegetable." Why pay a lawyer if you are able to do it yourself?

:agree: You should make the first attempt yourself.

Thats not true I got it the first time doing it on line,no lawyer.And i`am far from a vegetable

I had this experience with attempting to gain SSDI for my brother when I was in NY. He did apply without an attorney the first time and was rejected. I retained an attorney for the second application. I recall that the only way to get a check for such a large amount is for them to deny you when you first apply and then if you are granted SSDI on your second application with an attorney they pay you for the months between your first denied hearing and the date you were eventually approved. I don't know how Florida works but I will say that in NY the whole process was awful. (Primarily due to unprofessional hearing officers and their inability to handle the amount of applications in New York City.) My brother was finally granted SSDI on the second application (after he collapsed at the hearing) and then was granted a military disability for PTSD. It is awful what disabled folks and military vets have to go through so that they can receive the benefits that they are entitled and have paid into their entire lives.