I applied for ssan in Sept 08, they denied me my benefits and told me that I needed to go back for an appeal. I had also applied for my deeceased husbands widows pension. In NY it takes 13 months or more to get a hearing. My hearing was July 29 2010 and I was awarded full disability. Now I got a notice on my husband's back pay on my pension that Social security stated that they only owed me 1 yr retro back pay because they are only allowed to pay retro pay for a year and since it took me all that time to get my court date(which I don't feel is my fault because of the court calendar) I lost over 11,000. I felt that in this country we had the right to have a speedy trial and if Social security has those restrictions then I feel all cases should be handled in that time period through the court system that handles it. They were very nasty in telling me that they know that no one will get over the years back pay becasue the courts can't get us hearings in that time period. So in other words for every claim that has an appeal of this nature we get ayer of the income in back pay and the government keeps the rest because they cannot service us within their own time frame. This was money that he and I put aside and paid in for and it should be ours. I am sure many people are facing the same problem and being on a fixed income I am still trying to Pay bills from the last three years. Would you please advise me if you can help me or tell me of an organization that might be helpful in this matter. It just doesn't seem legal for them to keep our money we paid in for social security when it was awarded from the court system for them to proceed with the judge's decision. The lawyers I talkto told me that many disability cases get denied because they don't have the money and this forces them to go for the appeal processes in which in these cases they keep the money anyway. Please help. It has been going on for over 2 1/2 yrs now.
Pam Marks
516-404-6607
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