News
Understanding Eligibility for Railroad Disability Annuity
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Monday, January 15, 2024
Railroad workers facing health challenges often consider applying for a railroad disability annuity to help them pay bills and keep afloat financially while they unable to work. In determining whether you may qualify for railroad disability, let's take a closer look at two critical components: the definition of disability and the work and service prerequisites.
Defining Disability under Railroad Retirement
What Constitutes Disability?
The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) defines disability as the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity due to a medically determinable physical or mental impairment expected to last at least 12 months. This definition goes beyond just having a diagnosis and focuses on the impact of the condition on a person's ability to work.
For example, consider Maria, a railroader diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. If medical assessments determine that Maria's back condition makes it impossible for her to perform her regular job duties and this is expected to last for at least 12 months, she may meet the disability criteria set by the RRB.
The Nuances of Disability Determination
It's important to note that the disability determination process involves a comprehensive evaluation of medical evidence, work history, and the nature of the impairment. Medical documentation, including reports from treating physicians, diagnostic tests, and treatment records, plays a crucial role in establishing the existence and severity of the disability.
Work and Service Prerequisites
Recent Railroad Service Considerations
In addition to the definition of disability, the RRB considers an individual's work and service history in determining eligibility for a disability annuity. The RRB may require a specific amount of creditable railroad service within a defined period (typically the last 12 months, but sometimes more) to meet the work and service prerequisites. This recent service is a critical factor for determining eligibility because without this "current connection" to the railroad, you will not be eligible for benefits.
Navigating Complexity with Professional Assistance
Understanding the intricate details of the definition of disability and the work and service prerequisites is vital for railroaders considering a disability annuity. While the criteria provide a framework, the application process can still be complex.
This complexity is why seeking professional assistance, such as hiring an attorney with experience in railroad retirement law, becomes invaluable. Our attorneys and paralegals know how to navigate these nuances, ensuring that the application process is approached strategically, with comprehensive documentation and a thorough understanding of eligibility criteria.
For a free consultation on your Railroad Disability case, call us at 205-879-3033.
Question: I Can't Work, Why Can't I Get Disability Benefits??
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Thursday, October 26, 2023
Guest Post by our paralegal Sheri:
Many people who call us for help getting Social Security disability have chronic, debilitating, medical conditions (Lupus, MS, Cancer, Heart Failure). Often, their doctor has told them that they cannot work, but SSA says they don’t qualify for benefits—why is that?
Well, you can qualify for disability in a few ways:
Have worked and paid Social Security taxes from your paycheck substantially for at least the last 5 out of 10 years prior to your alleged disability onset date. (If you don’t have enough work history, you don’t meet the qualifications established by SSA.)
If you don’t have enough work credits, and your income is below limits established yearly by SSA, then you may qualify for SSI. The amount of SSI paid to you is based on ALL other household income (including your spouse and others who reside in your home). This is like the food stamp program. You must meet a household and dependent threshold to even be considered eligible for this income-based program.
If you are a disabled widow/er, between age 50-60, apply within 7 years of your spouse’s death, and are considered disabled based on SSA’s terms, then you may qualify.
In each situation, you have to play by SSA's rules. If you do not meet any of these basic qualifications, then unfortunately you are more than likely not eligible for these benefits—you might not have worked enough to qualify (see #1 above) and have too much income/resources, (like a spouse who works, see #2 above). Or, you may have missed the window for applying after your spouse’s death (see #3).
When someone calls us asking for help, these are some of questions we will ask so that we have a full understanding of that person’s eligibility. If you don’t meet these eligibility requirements, your medical information won’t be considered by the Social Security Administration.
Being told that you do not qualify, in No Way Invalidates the fact that you are disabled. These are just the rules that must be applied when considering taking on your case. These are not OUR rules – we wish we could help everyone who needs our assistance. These are rules established by the Social Security Administration. They are not personal, nor meant to discredit your condition in any way. They are just the rules.
CALL OUR OFFICE AT 205-879-3033 TO DISCUSS YOUR CASE WITH ONE OF OUR LAWYERS.
Appealing Social Security Denial: Your SSDI Hearing
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Monday, December 5, 2022
Your Social Security Hearing
A Social Security hearing occurs after your application and reconsideration for benefits are denied. Hearings can range from fifteen minutes to an hour and include you, your representative, the judge, a vocational expert, and sometimes a medical expert and witnesses. Since you are discussing a personal matter with a Judge, it is easy to be intimidated if you do not have an attorney present.
"Why Do I Need an SSDI Hearing?"
The purpose behind SSDI hearings is for a judge to evaluate your medical records, search for inconsistencies, and gather facts from you about your condition. Hearings also provide an opportunity for the Judge to hear how your conditions affect you, as medical conditions affect people differently. The best way to advocate for your case during an SSDI hearing is to explain the facts leading up to your application and tell the truth with supportive legal help to guide you during the hearing.
"Subjective medical evidence and SSDI"
Many disabilities are subjective in nature. If a judge does not have objective medical evidence to go on, or if the medical evidence does not clarify degrees of severity or impact on functioning, they need to hear how these conditions affect you. An example is chronic pain. Even if the judge knows that you suffer from moderate to severe arthritis, that knowledge does not specify your own day-to-day experience and how the arthritis impacts your life.
Psychological cases present another subjective medical situation. For disorders such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, or bipolar, there is no X-ray or CT scan to rely on for evidence. The best way to prove your condition is through examination and treatment by a professional psychologist or psychiatrist. Their training allows them to confirm the severity of your medical condition.
"Objective medical evidence and SSDI"
After a hearing the Judge will often ask, “Counsel, is there any objective evidence of disability?” The judge is asking whether there is a medical chart, such as an MRI or an X-ray or a doctor's evaluation. Objective medical evidence may be needed for the Judge to declare that you meet the rules for disability.
When this occurs, it is vital to have an attorney present to point the Judge to the evidence that proves your case. As lawyers, we can help prevent misunderstandings that may appear contradictory to your claim.
If you are applying for SSDI, or have an SSDI hearing in the future, reach out to us at 800-728-0434
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Working While Applying for Disability
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Thursday, November 17, 2022
Can I Work While Applying for Disability?
The answer is yes, but it’s tricky and may not be your best option.
"Are you truly unable to work?" This question is inevitable when applying for Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income. In 2022, there is an earnings threshold of $1350/month. That means if you can work and earn this much each month, you do not qualify for Social Security Disability benefits. In the long run, you will benefit more from continuing to work if you are able to meet or exceed the earnings threshold.
Can I work at all?
Qualifying For Railroad Retirement Disability
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Friday, October 28, 2022
Railroad Retirement
Have you or someone you know worked on the railroads and suffered a disability that prevented future employment? You may qualify for a railroad retirement disability annuity. Railroad Retirement Disability provides benefits and Medicare programs comparable to Social Security disability.
Tier I & Tier 2
Railroad Retirement benefits are separated into two tiers. Tier I is the amount you would get from Social Security Disability. Tier II is an additional disability benefit similar to a pension plan. Tier II benefits are based on the employee’s salary and years of service.
Tier II benefits are calculated as:
(employee’s highest earnings over 60 months x number of years of service) x 0.007
Railroad Retirement Disability Eligibility
There are two types of RR Retirement Disability:
TOTAL DISABILITY ANNUITY — To qualify, you cannot be able to work in any capacity and must have a minimum of 10 years of railroad service. You may qualify if you have five to nine years of experience that occurred after 1995 and you meet the earnings requirements for Social Security.
OCCUPATIONAL DISABILITY ANNUITY — To qualify, you must be disabled from performing your own regular railroad occupation. There is no age requirement for this annuity as long as you have 20 years of creditable railroad service. Otherwise, you must be at least 60 years old and have ten years of railroad service.
The main difference between the two is that with Total Disability Annuity, you must prove you are unable to work in any field. For Occupational Disability, you only need to prove you can no longer perform your current railroad occupation.
How much does Railroad Retirement Disability pay?
According to the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), “The average age annuity being paid by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) at the end of fiscal year 2021 to career rail employees was $3,815 a month, and for all retired rail employees the average was $3,045. The average age retirement benefit paid under social security was approximately $1,550 a month.”
I’ve Been Denied by the RRB. Now What?
If you have been denied Railroad Retirement Disability, you have the right to appeal through a “three-stage” appeals process:
You may request a reconsideration.
If denied again, you may appeal to the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals. You have the right to a hearing. If the hearing is in-person, it will likely be at the RRB office closest to your home. In some cases, video conferencing or phone hearings are an option.
If you are unsatisfied with the decision made by the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals, you may then appeal to a three-member Board. This three-member board typically does not accept additional evidence or conduct a hearing.
Most hearings are over an hour and consist of the Hearing Officer asking questions. Afterward, your lawyer may ask follow-up questions. After you provide testimony, the next witness is typically a vocational expert (VE) who testifies about what jobs you could do based on various assumptions established in the hearing. This testimony can include intangibles, like your ability to concentrate and focus during an eight-hour workday or your ability to adapt to new workplaces.
Friedman Law Firm can help you at any stage of your claim, beginning with filing the initial application. The advantage to retaining representation is that we can guide and advise you regarding which information is most important to your case. Often it is difficult to know which information is important and which is not. Our goal is to help you obtain benefits based on the initial application in order to avoid a lengthy appeals process.
If you have questions about the above information or need representation for your case, reach out to us to schedule a free consultation. You can call us at 800-728-0434, or message us through our Contact page.
Filing Your Disability Claim: Common Questions
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Many people ask whether we’ll file initial applications for them, and whether it’s important to have our help. Most disability lawyers do not file initial applications; at Friedman Law Firm, we do. We believe that if we can help you get Social Security benefits earlier, then we should. Also, if an appeal is needed, we can be sure that we have established a strong foundation for your claim since we have worked on it from the beginning.
Here are some questions to help you understand the initial Social Security Disability application process.
Q: What do you think is the biggest problem with getting the right information to file an initial application?
A: The biggest step is getting enough medical evidence to prove disability. We need documentation to prove the conditions. Sometimes it’s a challenge to get all the information together, and it’s hard to remember where you've been treated. But gathering this information is crucial because ultimately that’s how you’re going to win the claim.
Military Sexual Trauma: Evidence & VA Disability Ratings
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
What is MST?
PTSD
Depression
Anxiety disorders
Substance abuse
As a result, these conditions associated with MST may be connected to military service.
MST VA claims are evaluated in the way all other mental disorder claims are, using a rating formula that references degrees of occupational/social impairments. In other words, the VA pays disability benefits for the conditions and symptoms resulting from the MST. Most often, these are PTSD claims.
Proving Military Sexual Trauma
The most common reservations survivors have about filing a claim for MST are:
They did not come forward when the event occurred
They feel that they do not have the standard of evidence associated with filing criminal charges against the perpetrator
That the VA will expect an unreasonable level of proof that the MST incident(s) occurred
They fear having to face the perpetrator
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
What is MST?
Burn Pits: The 21st Century's Agent Orange
By Douglas I. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Thursday, September 1, 2022
If you served in Operation Desert Storm or Operation Iraqi Freedom, then you’ll need no introduction to burn pits. However, in case you do: burn pits are excavations filled with any and all waste from a deployment and set aflame with jet fuel or diesel. Waste products commonly disposed of in open burn pits include:
Chemicals, paint, medical and human waste
Metal and aluminum cans
Munitions and unexploded ordnance
Petroleum and lubricant products
Plastics, rubber, wood, and food waste
The Department of Defense estimates 3.5 million exposed service members. One of those victims, Biden believes, could be his son Beau.
In his State of the Union address, Biden talked about burn pits, saying exposure could have led to the death of Beau, who served a year-long tour of duty in Iraq and later died of brain cancer. Biden’s son Beau was a major deployed to Iraq in 2008. He was later named Delaware’s attorney general before being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013. He died two years later at 46 years old.
During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars starting in 2001, military bases throughout the Middle East relied on burn pits for waste disposal. While this practice long predates the recent conflicts, the conflict in Afghanistan, at its peak, saw burn pits used for over 400 tons of waste daily.
That’s more than 2,000 tons a week — literally a ton of tons.
“The fumes from a burn pit may be a nuisance but it’s not the most dangerous thing, front of mind, when you’re over there. It’s only years later that we’ve come to realize how damaging this stuff might have been.”
VA Denial
Veterans returning from the Middle East conflict came to face a plight not unlike that of Vietnam veterans who, after being exposed to the toxic herbicide mixture known as Agent Orange, returned home and began reporting symptoms, including various types of cancer. In fact, one of the most dangerous and harmful pollutants produced by burn pits is hexachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, or simply dioxin, and is the same chemical found in Agent Orange.
Yet, despite this, The Department of Veterans Affairs has denied about 75% of veterans’ burn pit claims. In their own words, they concluded that “there is only limited evidence suggestive of an association between exposure to combustion products and reduced pulmonary function in these populations.” (IOM Report, 2011)
“I served with honor so it was frustrating to be told, in effect, you’re old and broken and we don’t need you,” he said. “You have to prove you were exposed and that exposure caused what you have.”
Burn Pits & You
Factors that may indicate a higher or lower risk of short/long-term health effects:
Types of waste burned
Proximity, amount of time, and frequency of exposure
Wind direction and other weather-related factors
Presence of other airborne or environmental hazards in the area
Burn Pits & You: What The 2022 PACT Act Means For US Veterans
By Jessica M. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Friday, August 12, 2022
Burn Pits: What The 2022 PACT Act Means for US Veterans
For those asking: "What are burn pits?"
Burn pits are pits filled with waste from a deployment and set aflame with jet fuel or diesel. Common waste products include:
Chemicals, paint, medical and human waste
Metal and aluminum cans
Munitions and unexploded ordnance
Petroleum and lubricant products
Plastics, rubber, wood, and food waste
“A lot of the places where our soldiers were sleeping were literally a quarter-mile, a half-mile away from it, and where they ate their chow. I mean, it was there all the time — toxic smoke thick with poisons spreading through the air and into the lungs of our troops.”
-- President Joe Biden, The White House