Ask Me Help Desk - Back pay

I became disable in DEC of 2003 and got approved for disability in Aug of 2005-but the problem is my lawyer sigh a paper and said I agree with him as my onset date being in Aug of2005-which I never sighed a paper and it shows that on my paper work-so that cause me to ot receive any back pay-not even a penny.Is there anything I can do about it -or is it to late?You might say I am lucky to get my disability-but when your bills don't stop for those years-and now everybody is trying to take me to court-and mess up my credit-because I can't afford to pay any pass hospital bills or nothing-

Quote:

Originally Posted by wandawallace

I became disable in DEC of 2003 and got approved for disability in Aug of 2005-but the problem is my lawyer sigh a paper and said i agree with him as my onset date being in Aug of2005-which i never sighed a paper and it shows that on my paper work-so that cause me to ot receive any back pay-not even a penny.Is there anything i can do about it -or is it to late?You might say i am lucky to get my disability-but when your bills don't stop for those years-and now everybody is trying to take me to court-and mess up my credit-because i can't afford to pay any pass hospital bills or nothing-

If I am correct you stopped working due to a disbility in December 2003.

You were approved for SSD in August 2005. Your first six months of disability are exempt from SSD so your SSD benefits could have started on July 1, 2004.

You were not paid from July 1, 2004 to (presumably) August 1, 2005.

Your Attorney is claiming your disability began in August 2005 (not the date you are claiming, July 2004) and claims you signed an agreement to that effect, an agreement which you did not sign.

Here is my problem with this - you are entitled to disability from the date a Physician said you were disabled. It's not just what you say, what you sign. In fact, you have very little to do with the beginning date of SSD. You, of course, have to file for benefits in a timely fashion.

The Attorney who represented you is paid a percentage of your benefits BY LAW for representing you - no more and no less. If he/she somehow causes you to receive a lesser amount it ultimately costs him/her money so there's absolutely no benefit to that, aside from the ethics question of settling for less than you are due.

I think you need to post more information or, if I am wrong, correct me - otherwise, I don't understand what happened here.

Judy is correct about the dates. You don't get disability from the time you stopped working. I worked for an attorney who did disability cases and could not accept a client unless they were first turned down by Social Security Disability at least once. You can't be found to be immediately disabled unless determined by a doctor and a lot of medical records.

Your attorney is paid according to what you are paid. He can't charge you more if you don't collect more and believe me if he can collect more, he'll have the correct date on your paperwork to ensure that he is paid more.

If you were approved back in 2005, it is way too long now to start trying to correct what you think is an error. Your attorney would have caught this error back in 2005.

The paperwork you signed was paperwork prepared by Social Security Disability and not your attorney.