WHO WE ARE:
The Social Security Disability Coalition was created because we are concerned about what transpires when a claimant files for Social Security Disability Insurance/SSI benefits, from the first point of contact with the Social Security Administration, through all stages of the benefit claims process, including their final claim resolution. We are a national grass roots organization made up of disabled individuals, social services representatives/organizations, and others who are deeply concerned about the way fragile populations in this country are suffering under the SSDI/SSI application process. Our objective is to accumulate a constituency and the data necessary to help implement change in this area. We’re currently gathering information that will assist us in tracking trends and other information necessary for a full assessment that can be presented to legislators and media. We are moving very rapidly to lay a foundation for change, offering to our members, FREE information and support with a major focus on SSDI/SSI Program reform.
OUR GOALS:
We hope to one day achieve our main goal of complete reform of this outdated abusive system. A major step towards reaching that goal is that the SSD Coalition, now provides constant feedback directly to the Social Security Administration and Congress. We want disability benefits determinations to be based solely on the physical or mental disability of the applicant. Neither age, education or any other factors should ever be considered when evaluating whether or not a person is disabled. Discrimination of this form is highly illegal in this country, yet this is a standard practice when deciding Social Security Disability determinations and should be considered a violation of our Constitution. This practice should be addressed and eliminated immediately. We want to eliminate the extraordinary time it takes to process a claim from the original filing date. Why should we have to become homeless, bankrupt, starve, lose our healthcare coverage, suffer untold stress on top of our illnesses, and even die trying to get our benefits? We are now being told that because of the backlog that these are the only circumstances that anyone will even look at our paperwork now no matter how sick we are. Why should we have to file for welfare, food stamps and Medicaid after we have lost everything due to this backlog - another horrendous process - because of the inadequacies in the Social Security Disability offices and then have to pay Social Services back from our measly benefit checks? Nobody else who files for public assistance has to do that – why are disabled people being discriminated against? If we provide sufficient medical documents when we originally file for benefits why should we ever be denied at the initial stage, have to hire lawyers, wait years for hearings, go before administrative law judges and be treated like criminals on trial? Too much weight at the initial time of filing, is put on the independent medical examiner’s and caseworker’s opinion of your claim. The medical examiner only sees you for a few minutes and has no clue how a patient’s medical problems affect their lives after only a brief visit with them. The caseworker never sees you at all! The decision should be based more on the treating physicians opinions and medical records. The listing of diseases that qualify a person for disability should be updated more frequently to include newly discovered crippling diseases such as the many autoimmune disorders that are ravaging our citizens. We want to know why our elected officials are ignoring this crisis and doing nothing to reform it? We hope to raise awareness of this problem and join with our elected officials in implementing legislation that will correct this crisis situation.
Write your elected officials at: http://www.congress.org
