Social Security Compassionate Allowances

Those seeking Social Security Disability often have to go through a long and tedious process. You file, get evaluated which takes weeks if not months and very often are then denied. In Colorado you can then appeal and seek a hearing. However any hearing date is delayed for many months. I have been figuring on it taking a year or longer for the hearing and decision. Even when you win the matter must be processed for you to begin receiving benefits. If I had to estimate the time from beginning to end I would have to say the process will take over 1 1/2 years. Typically from the time you start to the receiving of benefits is long but I say that if you can no longer work get the ball rolling on this. Doing nothing is foolish as there may be things you or your attorney can do to get ready. But there are exceptions to all this. Sometimes people are granted benefits right off the bat. Most of us are not that lucky. Despite any delay if you obtain benefits you may get them backdated to a point 6 months from when your total disability actually started. That is the rule for everyone and the date of disability or onset is not always easy to figure out. Often the judge will do so in his decision. Anyway the point of this blog posting is to make you aware that the agency does have a fast track in certain cases. It is called Compassionate Allowances. For example if the person has early onset Alzheimer's disease they can be fast tracked. In other words certain serious problems can be expedited so benefits flow faster. There are at present some 88 diseases and conditions but this list can get expanded from time to time.