Depression is never an easy Social Security disability case to prove, as there needs to be a lot of medical records and proof lined up that the disease is truly affecting someone’s work life, but a recent study may give some more weight to this disorder. Dr. Edo Richard of the University of Amsterdam and colleagues recently found that depression in the elderly may be associated with an increased risk of dementia and prevalent mild cognitive impairment.
For those with more serious conditions that need attention quickly, the Social Security Administration announced earlier this month that they have placed 35 more medical conditions to the list of “Compassionate Allowances.” These are serious diseases and medical conditions which allows for quicker consideration for those who believe they have conditions that warrant benefits quickly. The SSA said that means there are now 200 of the most serious conditions on this fast track.
Dealing with trying to collect disability benefits from the Social Security Administration and living with a handicap is hard enough, but according to a recent report from the National Council on Disability, there may be another big problem. The council said disabled parents are more likely to lose their children due to discrimination, with as many as 80 people with intellectual or psychological disabilities lose custody of their children, something which the NCD said may be due to a lack of understanding of these disabilities.
Although there have been promises by the United States Department of Veterans Association to shrink the amount of backlog claims that are building up, NBC News is reporting that the average wait time has grown grown larger. Currently, the news source is saying that the wait is 262 days, or about nine months. The VA’s benefits-aspiration page shows that the process time was 223 days in October 2011, 246 days in April 2012 and 260 days in August.
