Blog posts

Lately, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has been receiving a lot of things, but most of them are not awards and praise. The Administration has been receiving criticism from all fronts and budget cuts from the Senate, all the while embroiled in the center of heated political party debates. In the midst of a financial crisis and pressure to reform, it is hard to see the positive. But there are indeed positive things happening in the SSA, and the Graduate School USA was pleased last week to bring attention to one of them.

Scleroderma is a disease that most people have probably never heard of, yet it affects around 300,000 people in the United States. Since June is National Scleroderma Awareness Month, it is a good chance to become familiar with the disease and find out how to apply for SSDI benefits if you or someone you know becomes disabled due to Scleroderma.

Citizens with disabilities have a much higher rate of unemployment than most other people group in the United States. Physical, mental, and situational disabilities significantly narrow or eliminate any chance for employment for these individuals, especially without outside assistance. This is a statistic which has had the U.S. Labor Department concerned in the last several years, and actively seeking solutions.

Travis Wright, a 52 year old Alabama resident, was formally sentenced this week after admitting to Social Security Disability fraud early this year. For the last ten years, Wright has been collecting disability benefits from the SSA totaling around $70,000. In those ten years, it was discovered that he made an additional $146,000 from working for a trucking company, all of which was unreported.

A front-page article in the New York Times created quite a stir last week, resulting in a flurry of state and federal investigations which have led to the suspension of Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), David B. Daughtery, who formerly served in the Social Security Administration (SSA)’s office in Huntington, West Virginia. The article revealed that Daugherty approved 100% of the 729 cases he has heard so far this fiscal year. Furthermore, Daugherty approved 1280 of the 1284 cases he reviewed last year.