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Casework Corner - Another Social Security Success Story


                                              
                                                           Elona Roberts

Social Security disability is one of the most common constituent service issues in Congresswoman Nancy Boyda’s office, so you wouldn’t expect we could still be surprised by an SSD case. However, when Elona Roberts came to us with her issue, we had no idea what twists and turns her case would take us through by the time it was all said and done.

At first glance Ms. Roberts’s case looked like so many others. She had applied for disability benefits, she was awaiting a hearing, and with each passing month her financial situation worsened. She contacted our office to see if there was anything we could do to help. We began working with Social Security in an effort to track down her application and find out what was holding it up.

By the time she contacted us, Ms. Roberts had already been waiting for a significant period of time. Our inquiry revealed that her hearing had already been scheduled, and hopefully she would have an answer in just a matter of days. A few days later, we had the pleasure of informing her that Social Security had issued a favorable decision. We were able to tell Ms. Roberts that her payments, including back-payments, should soon begin. She thanked us for our help and we closed the case - happy we had been able to assist.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the story. Ms. Roberts called back a couple of weeks later to tell us that Social Security still hadn’t processed her payment. The delay was beginning to cause her some real financial difficulties. We immediately reopened the case and called Social Security to find out what was going on. They told us that because Ms. Roberts had a worker’s compensation case pending, they couldn’t process her payment until it was completed.

Ms. Roberts’s worker’s compensation claim was unrelated to her disability and had no impact on whether or not she was entitled to disability benefits. However, depending on the size of the settlement, it could have an affect on the amount of the benefit to which she was entitled. Therefore, the Social Security office said, they couldn’t process any payments until after a settlement was reached in that case.

Unfortunately, this case was not in its end stages yet, and it can take months to settle such cases. Ms. Roberts needed her disability benefits much sooner than that. We called Social Security and explained that, regardless of what settlement she gets, she hadn’t yet received any worker’s compensation payments, and therefore her back-pay amount shouldn’t be affected. They agreed and began processing her back-payment amount. Later that week, a payment of nearly $30,000 was made to Ms. Roberts.

Even though we have worked to help hundreds of people with Social Security disability, this was the first case we had seen with so many stumbling blocks, especially once a favorable decision had been reached. The good news is, at the end of the day, we were able to help another Kansan receive the benefits to which she was entitled.