How many of you have seen the commercials on television--attorneys advertising their services, assuring people that they can help them apply for and receive Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits?  Well, I am here to tell you that the only cases they will take are the ones they are sure they can win.  Why?  Because that is the only way they can get paid.  There is a cap on what they can receive from your benefit, but that is the way it is. 

Social Security is archaic, understaffed and underfunded.  The waiting time for those who apply (after they have been denied the first time) is, last I knew, almost two years.  What is one, a bonafide American citizen, who, through no fault of their own has become disabled in some fashion--unable to work, supposed to do in the interim for their cost of living? 

I was lucky.  I was able to gain the services of my NYS US Senator, Hilary Clinton.  Within about two months of writing to her, my appeal for benefits was approved.  I might hope that this could be an issue that AARP may be able to address.