New York Disability Lawyer & Attorney : Turley, Redmond & Rosasco : Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Nassau, Suffolk, Bronx, Staten Island

One of our workers compensation and Social Security disability clients picked up her $500 check as a result of Turley, Redmond & Rosasco's First Annual Christmas Blessing on December 21, 2005 in our Shirley office. Our staff was overwhelmed by the volume of touching and heartfelt letters we received from many of our disabled clients. Almost every single letter requested help not for themselves, but for their young children on Christmas day. Our staff did their best to select the absolute neediest among our many deserving clients.

Finally, our staff selected a single mom with three children ranging from age 2 to 6. She had a 15 year solid work history as a Nurse's Aide until she hurt her back lifting a patient at work. She recently underwent back fusion surgery but the result is still in limbo as she continues to have chronic pain. She has no car and uses sporadic bus service on the east end of Long Island to go to doctor appointments and buy groceries. Her Social Security disability claim is still pending, and her only source of income is her paltry workers' compensation benefit.

When we called her on the phone to inform her of her blessing, she began to scream in joy so loudly that her children could be heard in the background asking what was the matter. We thank all our clients who participated in the Christmas Blessing and look forward to making it an annual tradition at Turley, Redmond & Rosasco. We wish you and your families a happy and healthy New Year!

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We know that many of our New York clients with workers compensation, Social Security Disability or long term disability claims might have a less joyful holiday this year. For this reason, the attorneys at Turley, Redmond & Rosasco have instituted our First Annual Holiday Blessing. The law firm will donate $500.00 by December 20, 2005 to the neediest disabled New York client who is out of work and cannot afford presents for his/her children.

To be eligible for the Blessing, please write a short note to our Office Manager, Janou Mauro, by December 20th telling us how the $500 would make your Holiday more joyful. A committee of staff from our workers compensation, Social Security disability and long term disability departments will select the neediest client at 12 noon that day and contact the client to pick up their check that same day. Please call us if you have any questions.

The attorneys and staff of Turley, Redmond & Rosasco wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy, Healthy Holiday Season. May next year be better than the last! In the words of Charles Dickens, "God Bless Us, Everyone!"

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In one of her farewell decisions as a Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor ruled for a unanimous Supreme Court yesterday that the federal government can collect delinquent student loans by withholding a claimant's Social Security Disability benefits. The full decision in Lockhart v. United States is here. While legally sound, the practical effect on disability recipients does not seem one bit fair.

Let's take the following real world example: John works for 20 years as a GM factory worker and then gets laid off. All those 20 years he paid into Social Security for disability and retirement benefits. Trying to better himself and find a new career, he enrolls in college to become an insurance claims adjuster. He takes out $7,500 per year in student loans to pay for tuition and books. In his sophomore year, he has a major heart attack which forces him to withdraw from his courses and prevents him from working. Since he is not enrolled in study, his loans come due. Because he can't work due to his disability, he falls behind on his payments. Eventually, he files for Social Security Disability. While Social Security finds him qualified medically, they don't pay him anything because they first want to recoup his delinquent student loans. Because John has no income and no Social Security Disability benefits now, he is forced to go on welfare. What's wrong with this picture?

First, the government is forgetting that John already paid for his Social Security Disability benefits through payroll deductions during the 20 years he worked at GM. It's his money! Social Security Disability is not welfare! This money was entrusted to the Social Security Administration to protect John if he became disabled. It's like a forced savings account. How do they expect him to pay back his student loans if he cannot work? How do they expect him to live now? Poor John.

I'm all for going after student loan deadbeats if they are driving a Lexus and not paying their loans. Most of them won't get hurt by the Social Security offset until retirement age. However, I would hope Congress would carve out an exception for the disabled so they can get by today. It would be the right thing to do

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I wouldn't! I think they both have major conflicts of interest. As the attached court decision Allsup v. Advantage 2000 shows here, I think Allsup and Advantage 2000 (A2K) Consultants are more interested in helping long term disability insurance companies, like UnumProvident, Cigna and MetLife, than they are in protecting the rights of Social Security Disability beneficiaries.

This is the way companies like Allsup and Advantage 2000 work: 1) You file for long term disability (LTD) through your employer's LTD carrier; 2) before the ink is dry on your LTD application, the LTD insurance company tries to solicit you to sign up with Allsup or Advantage 2000, at no financial cost to you, to help you apply for Social Security Disability. Sometimes Allsup will send you letters directly. I know - one of my LTD clients with Parkinson's Disease can't get Allsup to stop sending him annoying letters.

Why do long term disability insurance companies want you to use their handpicked Social Security Representative? A few reasons: First, most ERISA long term disability plans "offset" the benefits they pay by the amount you receive in Social Security Disability benefits. For example, if the LTD claim is supposed to pay you $3,000 per month, and you also win Social Security Disability that pays you $2,000.00 per month, the LTD insurance company now only has to pay you $1,000.00 per month. That's a whopper of a financial incentive.

And as the above case shows, they don't want you to even touch your Social Security money when you win! They want to electronically forward it to the LTD insurance company. Talk about you know what! You paid for your Social Security benefits, and they don't even want you even see it.

Even more disturbing is the relationship between Allsup (and their ilk) and the LTD insurance company. Remember - the Allsups of the world work first and foremost for the insurance company, not you. They are allowed to share any secrets, confidences and/or private medical information they obtain directly in the Social Security Disability claim with the LTD insurance company. I have seen such info used later to deny the long term disability claim. Unlike attorneys, Allsup has no ethical obligation to put your interests (and secrets) first. See here an Allsup brochure that seems to play on their trusting relationship with a client to the advantage of the LTD insurer. If you read it closely, this says it all.

To be fair to Allsup and other non attorney representatives like them, some law firms provide the same service to long term disability insurance companies. In my mind, this is even worse than Allsup's practices since an lawyer should know better. Allsup is just trying to make a buck from the insurance company.

Bottom Line - if you have a long term disability claim and need to file for Social Security disability, select an independent attorney with no relationship to any long term disability insurance companies. Most times your independent attorney can negotiate with the LTD insurance company so that the attorney's fee will be paid by the insurance company.

Thanks to the excellent Brininger Law Firm blog for publishing this info on the web.

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