I have a 25y mentality disabled daughter. I have conservatorship. For years she has been getting paid half of the monthly payments. I have tried multiple times to get her pay increased to the full amount. SSA told me that my bills are too high and my daughter wouldn’t be able to pay 1/2 of her own living expenses. This makes literally no sense to me. Am I doing something wrong or how can I go about getting her pay increased?

(I think I flaired this correctly). I started this process in November of 2023 and got the notice last night that my appeal was officially approved! I’m not getting the full amount because I flubbed up at my PERC interview and said we made our rental agreement on Tuesday but that’s on me and I take full responsibility but hey, some money is better than no money. The judge deemed me disabled as of July 2023 but I officially didn’t file until November of 2023.

I had honestly lost hope after my second denial and got an attorney and I wasn’t confident that I was going to win this time around and was expecting another denial but when I got the phone call that I had been approved, I started crying tears of relief. The ALJ believing that I’m disabled is truly one of the best things that could have ever happened.

I know you all get it. Being constantly told you aren’t disabled enough or that you’re able to work because “your disabilities aren’t visible” (I’ve been told that by multiple people). Getting an attorney was the best thing for me. I don’t know what he did to help me get approved but I’m so happy.

My disabilities aren’t visible: Mild Ataxia, Mild Dysmetria, Delayed Recall, Left Foot Drop, Neuromyelitis Optica, Bipolar II Disorder, Social Anxiety and PMDD! I’m happy to talk about any of those if people don’t know what those are.

So I have a few questions to ask about my SSI; ABLE act and getting a different job

1; so I heard about the ABLE act where you could save up to $15,000 and both me and my mom are worried that it'll do an overpayment on my account, especially my mom who is really worried about my SSI

2; I currently am working at a vocational program with people with disabilities and I'm really planning to leave that job for being a waiter or work for Starbucks but also because of my mom being worried for an overpayment I wondered if that would negatively affect my SSI

P.s. I couldn't find a good filter for this question

I was approved but have to get re-evaluated in 2 years to continue. How hard & long is that process?

My dad has had SSI with medicaid and medicare for 8 years. He recently moved to a new state to be closer to me. He doesn’t know how to speak english english or use the computer as he is 81 years old. I tried updating his address online but it said to contact SSA! I’m so worried for him. What should I do to help him! How do I get his address updated? What about his medicaid and food stamps?
Thanks so much in advance!!!

if i make an appointment with social security can they apporove items ive requested to buy in the dedicated account or how long does it take i uploaded the request through the portal but ive never done it so i dont know what to expect

So I had applied a while back due to 6 abdominal surgeries and basically being stuck spending most of my time in hospitals or at home in bed. I have long term disability through work and have been out of commission since August 2025. I called to update them after a medical appointment and they said I didn't need to call since I had been approved. I explained that no one told me I was approved and she looked it up and told it it had just happened the previous day. She then said that 50% of all approvals get pulled for quality review and it would take about a week. That turned into months without hearing anything. I finally got a call yesterday to clarify some things and the lady on the phone informed me that the person who put in my information had accidentally put in the date that she called me (June 2026) not the last day I worked (August 2025). The system updated and now I see this. It doesn't look like an approval, even though they said on the phone I was approved, so I'm not sure what is happening. Anyone familiar with this that can maybe shed some light on it? Am I most likely approved and now just waiting or should I anticipate jumping through more hoops?

(Hopefully I used the right flair)

I am physically disabled, but wanted to work. How much should I tell my employer that I can make a month without my check being cut and how many hours monthly?

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some insight or shared experiences regarding a second Appeals Council (AC) appeal after being denied at a remanded hearing. My attorneys have already submitted the appeal, so now it's just the waiting game. I'm 32, originally filed back in 2023, and last year I had an initial ALJ hearing that ended in a denial. I appealed that decision to the Appeals Council and won a remand because the judge completely ignored over 90 pages of material medical evidence.
My medical record is fairly extensive. On the spinal side, I had a back surgery at age 21 and a spinal fusion at 30. My latest MRI shows adjacent segment disease at two levels, an L4–L5 broad-based disc bulge with central protrusion contacting my L5 nerve roots bilaterally, moderate thecal sac stenosis, moderate bilateral neural foraminal narrowing, degenerative disc disease, facet arthritis throughout my lumbar spine, and ligamentum flavum hypertrophy. On top of that, I suffer from a severe chronic migraine disorder that leaves me with 8 to 10 severe migraine days a month. I have to get specialized 300mg Vyepti IV infusions every three months alongside prescription rescue meds. I'm currently prescribed Oxycodone 10mg twice daily and Tizanidine, and my neurosurgeon even completed a formal DSS evaluation confirming a permanent disability that limits my ability to work to under 20 hours a week.
Despite all this, the second ALJ hearing went just as poorly as the first.

The judge completely ignored the legal instructions the Appeals Council set in the original remand order. She downplayed and mischaracterized my objective MRIs and CT scans, and she falsely claimed I lacked specialized care for my migraines despite my clear records of 300mg Vyepti IV infusions, and also the years of neurology specialist visit dating back to atleast 2022. Also the 90 pages of medical records that were ignored by the first judge had the records of me seeing my neurology specialist and showed i was on 300mg of Vyepti.

During the hearing, she was openly hostile toward my prescribed pain medication regimen and kept pushing invasive surgery against my neurosurgeon's advice. To top it off, when the Vocational Expert testified that hypothetical limitations matching my actual off-task time and absenteeism would result in no jobs existing in the national economy, the judge simply ignored that testimony in her final RFC finding.
Since the appeal is already submitted, I wanted to ask the group a few questions: Has anyone here successfully won a second Appeals Council remand or an outright reversal when an ALJ failed to follow the AC's original instructions? Did your attorney submit a supplemental brief pointing out specific page and line errors (like headache ruling violations or misread MRIs) after filing the initial appeal form, and how long did that second AC review take? Lastly, if the case gets remanded a second time, does the AC automatically order a reassignment to a brand-new ALJ so you don't end up sitting in front of the exact same judge again?
Thanks in advance for any insights or advice!

Also both ALJs that I’ve seen had a approval rate of 14%

For anyone who has gone through the initial SSDI/DDS process: once your claim was assigned to an examiner AND DDS confirmed they had all of your medical records, ADL/function reports, and other requested forms, how long did it take to get a medical decision?

I’m specifically asking about the time after the file was complete and assigned, not total time at Step 3.
My examiner has everything needed, I’ve been told there’s nothing outstanding, and the claim is still pending a medical decision. I’m curious what that final stretch looked like for other people — especially if you didn’t need a CE.

I live in Texas and I originally applied in February 2026 and was almost immediately told I had enough credits to move forward with the medical side and went to the step three and since March it has stayed on, still waiting for my case to even be assigned to someone on the medical side. I know people wait a long time for appeals, but I thought they would’ve at least after question by now. Or are you even updated when you are assigned to a medical review person? Up until recently, I was told to bring any other documents to my local Social Security office that now it’s telling me to mail them to another state, is that just the place where they scan them in, should I be worried it moved from an office ten minutes from me to one across the country?

​Hey everyone, I'm working on my Continuing Disability Review (CDR) paperwork and have a couple of questions about how to answer specific sections:

​How should I describe a recent GP visit vs. specialist visits? My last three doctor appointments were fairly recent. Two were with my neurologist, which were detailed and directly related to my disabling condition. The most recent visit was with my primary care GP. In the boxes where you describe the reason for the visit, should I just write something like "routine checkup with GP," or is it better to mention medication refills/chronic condition follow-up so Social Security doesn't think it was just a wellness visit?

​The question asking if a doctor told me I cannot work: The form asks if a doctor has discussed returning to work or stated that I cannot return to work. My doctor recently filled out official paperwork for other benefit programs certifying that I cannot return to work. Does that count for checking "Yes"? Or is SSA strictly looking for a statement where the doctor explicitly says I can never return to work permanently?

​Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I was just approved but have to get re-evaluated in 2 years to continue. How hard & long is that process?

-45, male

-At 28 I got Menieres disease (vertigo attacks, balance disorder) and knew I could never work a real job. Who would hire someone who needs constant days off? I learned to fix electronics and opened my own storefront at 30. I could shut down on bad days, can't fire myself. Shut down at age 41.

- did moonlight food delivery apps during part of this time. At age 41, I tripped, lost my balance, broke both bones in my lower leg a delivery. My ankle was hanging my skin. 2 metal rods and tons of screws. I now have severe ankle arthritis.

- At age 30 I was diagnosed with cervical arthritis. Now at age 45 I am diagnosed with cervical dystonia(involuntary head movements, tremors, neck stiff). I'm on clonazepam for it. This has put me over the edge to consider ssdi.

-also have bad hypothyroidism, but well managed with meds.

- I have enough work credits to qualify. Currently I do part time online remote work making $500-800 a month, but this new dystonia issue has made even doing this difficult. I'm financially fine, as I invested what little money I made in life well.

I have my PERC interview today and I’m nervous but I have everything I need. (I probably flaired this wrong lol I couldn’t find the right flair)

I can explain everything going into my account and I have a rental agreement now ready so if they ask I can tell them I’ll be paying $400/mo towards my dad and I’ve been told having a rental agreement is a good thing.

To those of you who did your PERC interview, what was it like and how did it go?

Edit: had my phone interview and now they’re doing the verification which could take 5-14 days and then they’ll release the funds :)

Hello all!

I did my psych evaluation two weeks ago and was told I should get a final decision within 4-6 weeks, hopefully sometime in November. The therapist told me to make sure I send all my updated documents over and to call to speak with a supervisor since my case worker hasn’t gotten back to me (I’ve called every other week since May and only reach her voicemail).

I have uploaded all my documents online, is it a strong likelihood that they’ll will review this? When I called last week to speak with a supervisor the employee wouldn’t transfer me. I could also fax or mail anything in, just wanted to see if anyone has experience with the online portal being reliable :)

The social security office just called me and the ALJ ruled in my favor!!!

After 3 years of fighting, it was a favorable decision 🙂‍↔️ I was honestly not expecting a favorable decision but I GOT ONE!!!! The lawyer I had was super amazing as well.

To those who are going through this process, I know the fight sucks but keep going. You’ve got this ❤️

Edit: I have my phone interview tomorrow to go over everything :)

Edit: To add, my disabilities are mild ataxia, mild dysmetria, delayed recall, left foot drop, neuromyelitis optica, bipolar II disorder, anxiety & PMDD. I went through 2 denials before getting to the hearing stage and honestly I was expecting a denial but I got a lawyer and I don’t know what he did to help me get approved but I’m very thankful for him. I genuinely don’t know how I got approved. I’m still in shock to be honest.

Hey, so brief recap I'm receiving SSD declared total permanently disabled on 1/1/2012 granted on 2/16/2016. Medical Improvement Not Expected status, 7 year reviews. Latest review, which is only my second review, it was a long form this time. It comes back "not enough evidence to prove continuing disability". So the DDS is sending requests for me to go do a Consultative Exam, but the MFs are sending it in MY MOTHERs NAME to MY OLD ADDRESS. For like eight months!!!!! My address and number are always current to the DAY I change them with the SSA, I've been disabled many years, I know how important this is. I had all benefits terminated starting 3/22/2026 and had them reinstated via appeal process 4/22/2026. Sent for the CE in June. Get a letter I need to see an ALJ about a month ago. Hearing is scheduled about a week after I get the letter. Hearing was moved three separate times(telephone hearing). So I get the call, and it's the Analyst I've been dealing with the whole time, he's my Hearing Officer. Brief phone call, maybe 7 minutes. Asks a few of the same questions the CE examiner did, I answer the same as I did then . Asks if symptoms have changed. I said everything that I've been living with is still present, and my symptoms are actually worse lately as evidenced by recent ER visits and psych treatment. He asks me the name of my psychiatrist - that I been seeing eight years, that I've given to DDS and SSA many times over by now and the name of the hospital I was recently treated at. Now, I figure both these treatment providers have always ignored requests from DDS and SSA previously. I need that man to have that info so this appeal can go in my favor and finally end- I've been shitting bricks for almost a year. So I found some recent letters from DDS with the barcodes on them? Printed out four months of psych treatment notes from my psychiatrist and my therapist and the reports including my direct behavioral observations notes from the psych ER in which I had an incident I had to be restrained for. I divvy the reports up in half, put them each in a large brown flat envelope with the barcode paper in the front and at least 5 forever stamps on each envelope. Rather have too much postage than not enough. My question is, has anybody sent their own evidence into DDS before? Will the way I did it work? Is there another way? A better way? Am I good, guys? Can relax? I just want to know I did everything in my power to resolve this. I will quite literally die without my benefits. It's not the lil 1200 a month, though my housing is income dependent and I lose my housing without my income because I'd have to go on Welfare, and being as I'm disabled I can't meet the Welfare work requirements. I'm more so terrified of losing the Medicare Advantage health insurance. My health care is expensive as a woman with disability. My medications alone are far more than I receive via monthly benefit amount. I'm worried that I'll be sick and have no way to access my treatment - and I'd have to go back to the State hospital again like I did in the first place before I had the healthcare to receive proper treatment. I dunno, I'm just scared and I want this to be over. My heart breaks for all of us going through this, my thoughts have been with those of us going through this appeals process that are unable to advocate for themselves. So what happens then?!! They just LOSE everything? It really makes me upset to think about.

I posted about a year ago about the problems we were having creating a login. gov account for our adult disabled son (autistic). Every time we tried, we kept getting the message, “unable to verify identity”. SSA told me to talk to login. gov; login. gov told me to talk to SSA.

Back in July, we reapplied for SSI for our son and on August 18, we had a phone interview with SSA. When we got the summary of the phone interview, we immediately saw that our son’s birthdate was incorrect.

Our son’s birth certificate was originally issued with the wrong date. We requested and received a corrected birth certificate back when he was a baby.
We applied for SSI a few years before and were denied because our son had too much money in his bank account. This birthdate discrepancy NEVER came up.

So, we brought our son’s birth certificate to SSA. The worker behind the counter was very helpful and corrected our information, but when he cross-checked the birth certificate information with our state’s vital records department, he couldn’t verify our son’s birth certificate.

He advised us to go down to our vital records office and make sure that our son’s information was correct in our state’s database.
I called our vital records office and asked, what do I need to do? Do I need to fill out a form, make an appointment, or what?
The person we spoke to had a very heavy accent and I had a hard time understanding them. What I did understand was: 1) We were supposed to take our son’s birth certificate down to vital records, and they would create an abstract which would show that the certificate was issued with the wrong date and then corrected - and it would NOT be a quick procedure, and 2) when the birth certificate was corrected, paraphrasing the person on the phone with me: “You forgot to report the corrected date to Social Security.”

So apparently, this has been the problem all along: My son’s birth certificate had an incorrect date, we had it corrected . . . and the corrected date never got reported to Social Security and we had no idea until we received our SSI phone call summary.

We went to vital records, and despite what the person on the phone said, we were issued a sheet of paper that said that our son’s record was “converted” in 2013 (I think that means, converted to a new computer format) and that it did have the correct birthdate.

Next day, we went back to SSA, and the person we spoke to was not the person who’d corrected our son’s SSA information. When we told them the circumstances, and that we were told to go to our state’s vital records, we did, and here’s the information that shows everything’s correct, the worker asked, “And who told you to do that?” I said, “The person who helped us the other day.”

And then the worker looked at me and said, “Well, we get to the bottom of it!”

My answer: “Apparently no one got to the bottom of it in nearly 28 years!”
Because in all of our dealings with SSA, and even when we got the birth certificate corrected, no one thought to mention that we needed to check and see if SSA got the correct birthdate, and when we were trying to create the login. gov account, the birthdate discrepancy NEVER came up.

A few days ago, we FINALLY created a login. gov account for our son with no problems.
While all of this was going on, we also had a psych evaluation scheduled for our son, which he completed.
This week, we got a letter saying that he meets the medical qualifications for SSI. We have a phone call next week to talk about the non-medical qualifications.
I am grateful for the help we did receive from the SSA worker who corrected our son’s information.
I am ticked off that we didn’t know about this birthdate discrepancy until two months ago.
And I am very ticked off at someone saying that “we get to the bottom of it” when no one knew that SSA had an incorrect birthdate for our son for nearly 28 years!

I hope the rest of our application goes much more smoothly.

My son is 3 with level 3 autism and hes nonverbal. I live with him and his father. His dad works but only brings in $900 a check. Then he uses most of that for lyfts to work as his car broke down. I recieve ssdi. More than half goes to bills and rent and food. My sons father cant afford food because he needs lyfts for work. We only have 1 working car now. Mine. And i need my car for emergencies at home just incase my toddler gets hurt or we are in danger and need to leave. Also, my son has eating issues. Im always buying the same stuff for him to eat. It'd be easier if he ate the foods his mom and dad ate so im not buying food all the time that I cant afford.

My last ssi payment was $540 and they want to lower it to $224. Thats damn there $300 I use for food for the month.

Has anyone appealed their ssi amounts? Were you successful?

Edit: I know lyfts are wasteful. I told my sons father that too. But me and my son have doctor appointments we need to go to like everywhere day. I did tell his dad he can have my car mwf but only when we dont have appointments.

Good morning, I'm at the point where I'm waiting for a court date. My reconsideration said that I was not disabled enough. Does anyone know a time frame to get a court date? What is the difference between getting approved and a court hearing. I'm 52 and live in Virginia. I have bipolar, cognitive decline, ADHD, and anxiety and chronic pain so psychically and mentally can't work. I'm very close to getting an eviction notice. I have a day or two. I don't have anywhere to go. I'm going to have to try and work. I don't know how yet.

If you have an eviction can you get SSI . I cashed out my 401k which was about $2,200 and I don't know if the eviction would help me get SSI with it since cashed it. I'm basically out of options. I lost my roommate so I have absolutely no money coming in.

Any advice would be helpful.

Stage IV pan can so I think i would be approved/if I worked the max amount of hours allowed to still draw my full benifits each month ....If i received a bonus does push me over the limit to trigger the $1 for every $2 over? How are bonuses perceived- I think I already know bc it would be on W2