It looks like the new Social Security Commissioner, Martin O’Malley, is really taking charge. A number of changes have been implemented in the several weeks Commissioner O’Malley has been on the job. Among the most meaningful is decreasing the default overpayment withholding rate to 10% (or $10, whichever is greater) from 100%. This will significantly…
Social Security uses what is called the “fee agreement process” to pay representatives who help Claimants. For those signing an appropriate fee agreement Social Security will approve the agreement and pay the representative up to 25% of a retroactive fee. Since November 2022 that retroactive fee could not exceed $7,200. Sometime this fall the cap…
Summer 2021 Newsletter STILL STANDING…AND PRACTICING I published the first issue of Social Security & You in Spring of 1993. Some years I’ve published more issues than others. The most recent issue was dated Spring 2019: over 2 years ago. The world was a much different place then. Especially for me. Read the full newsletter…
Spring 2019 Newsletter An Opioid Story I’ve changed his name. Let’s call him Gerald. He was a laborer. And by that I don’t mean that he just did physical work. He was a card-carrying member the Labor’s Union local. And that meant a lot to him. I represented him for Social Security disability and Michigan…
A study conducted by the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) last year found that for Social Security Disability claims the increase in benefit allowance rates was minimal when an attorney assisted in the initial application. However, the rate was significantly greater for SSI claims. The SSAB also found that the waiting time for an initial decision was actually longer for represented Claimant’s.
Attorney Crawforth does not represent Claimants at the initial level. His feeling is that any minimal benefit to a Claimant is offset by the windfall attorney fee he would receive for answering questions the Claimant can answer for him or herself.
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