rosemary z. wessendorf,lnc social security dissability advocates,llc not responsable, all i'll take care of with no action after 10 months shaw afb, South Carolina

I am the owner of Social Security Disability Advocates, LLC.  I have never had a client complain to me that I am have not done a great job on their case.  The fact that SSA takes a long time to process disability claims is not something I can change.  SSA is understaffed and has TONS of claims to process.   Clients many times are not happy that a claim takes so long but 10 months isn't even close to the amount of time it takes to have a disability claim completed.  The wait to have a hearing is 18-22 months from the time a request for hearing is received by the Office of Disability Adjudication & Review. 

I do not know who this person is that is so unhappy that after 10 months his claim hasn't been completed but if a client is unhappy, they should call me or email me and ask what time frame they can expect to have so I can let them know that what time frame they can expect.  If this person had called me and told me that it had been 10 months and the claim wasn't completed, I could have them him/her that 10 months isn't even close to a realistic time frame.  A claim, from the application to the date of the  hearing is roughly 28-32 months, sometimes substantially longer.  Once a person applies for disability benefits, SSA has 120 days to make and issue a written decision.  If they deny the claim and it is appealed, that appeal can take 6-12 months for a decision, depending on how much work SSA has to do on that claim.  If they deny the claim, it will take another 18-22 months for a hearing to take place. 

I don't know how to help this person because I don't know who they are but I wish they would have called me to see if there was a problem rather than attacking me without talking to me first.  I am not adversarial (except in the court room) and would do whatever I could to help someone.  I have helped literally 1000s of clients and win more cases than most attorneys even though I am not an attorney because I am a nurse and understand the medical records.  I can then obtain physicians' comments easier because I can specify exactly what I need, having read and understood the medical records. 

I am sorry this client, whoever he/she is, was unhappy and if they'd called me and asked me about the time frame, I would have explained 10 months was not long enough and it would much longer before the case could come to closure.