Disability Benefits and MS
Share your experience with disability benefits and MS. Get the conversation started.
I have been sick with multiple sclerosis for over 6 years now including an entire year that I didn't walk. I am now not able to work anymore. It literally ran me into the ground as I continued to work through all of these years. I have had a terrible time getting any kind of help, and I don't have any income coming in and I am single and have no family members to help me physically or financially . I live in Florida now and there just isn't any help ...how am I supposed to survive and continue to live on nothing ?? Someone please explain to me what am I supposed to do ? Thank you for your time
Hi Kelly,
The BEST advice someone gave me was to go online (if you can), and start to fill the application. The date at which you start the application becomes important later to when your benefits begin.
You have an account and it saves your answers (even just name and address). I printed it all out and wrote out my answers before completing it a month or more later.
I was approved in October of last year. I’m also single and was in dire need. It was very stressful.
The second piece of advice I got was just to get a lawyer. I thought my case was obvious, but I was rejected twice first. I got a lawyer and a hearing, and that worked.
The govt does everything it can to deny and discourage people. If you have a lawyer, they take you more seriously. It’s all on a contingency basis and there is a maximum % any lawyer can charge.
Susan
Hi Kelly,
When I could no longer work, I filed a claim for Social Security Disability. To get the process started, go to the SSA.gov site and fill out a short preliminary claim form online and submit it. You will get a call from them within about a week. Inform your neurologist that you are filing a claim and s/he will prepare an evaluation of your disabilities and submit it using the appropriate forms.
You might hear horror stories about people having their claims denied and having to hire lawyers. I never did, I won my claim and began receiving SSDI five months after I filed.
Also fill out an application from your county health and human services department for Medicaid and food stamps, cash and emergency assistance, housing if needed. Your local HHS should also have a list of private charity organizations that might help as well. The county should have a free clinic, and there are usually other private non-profit charity clinics where specialists donate their time. I took advantage of such charity clinics, as well as a Care for the Poor program at a local Catholic hospital where I received free MRIs and blood tests.
You may also contact the National Multiple Sclerosis Society at 1-800-344-4867 for info on financial assistance. If you need a neurologist in your new area, the local Florida chapter of the NMSS can provide a list of MS specialists.
Hope this helps. It can take a while to find charity resources in your region since they aren't advertised, but a phone call to the NMSS and your county HHS should get the ball rolling.
Good luck.
Kim
I worked at a manufacturing company for 17years, I was the supervisor of one of the departments, and one day the production manager called me and told me that he is going to let me go, because my employees on my supervision are complaining of my mood swings. I think that my manager use this to get ride of me do to the MS. I found another job doing the same thing, but only worked for three weeks, they notice that I was limping, balance issued, getting weak ect........ I applied for SSDI, but been denied twice, got a lawyer for the hearing case. Now I have to wait for 12 to 17 month for the hearing date. What are my possibility to get it? Is it hard to prove the case to the judge?
Hi it took me 5 years to get on disability.i I had a lawyer because the process was so complicated! I got denied twice then went to a judge who finally approved my case. It isn’t much but at least it’s something! Good luck!
