Did you know that you may not have to wait months to receive Social Security disability benefits after a workplace injury? That is because in California and all across the United States, you, as a worker who has been injured in the workplace, may qualify for the compassionate allowance, also known as CAL.
Depending on your diagnosis and medical condition in the workers compensation claim, you may or may not be entitled to expedite the process of receiving the disability benefits. Our Los Angeles social security disability benefits attorney from the Law Offices of Kropach & Kropach explains that over 200 conditions qualify for the CAL.
The entire list of medical conditions that make you eligible for the compassionate allowance (CAL) is available on the website of the Social Security Administration here. If you find your condition on the list, do not hesitate to speak to an experienced lawyer as soon as possible to help you with the application process.
The compassionate allowance (CAL) was established in 2008, with lawmakers approving only 50 conditions for this allowance at the time. However, the number of qualifying conditions has grown since then, and now amounts to more than 200 conditions, including but not limited to various types of cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, lymphomas, acute leukemia, spinal muscular atrophy, and many more.
If you have any of the conditions mentioned on the list, you may be eligible for faster processing of your disability benefits application. The CAL is aimed at helping people with serious and life-threatening conditions go around the lengthy and complicated process of applying for disability benefits.
If you could not find your condition on the list, yet you consider it to be severely limiting or life-threatening, you can submit a claim to the SSA asking them to have your illness or impairment added to the list of qualifying conditions.
You will not have to wait an unreasonably long time to receive disability benefits if you apply for the benefits under the compassionate allowance. It is not a rare occurrence that the initial decision to allow disability benefits to the applicant is made based solely on the testimony of the applicant. That means his or her claim can still be denied when the SSA looks into his/her application and finds grounds to deny the claim (something that you can dispute with the help of a Los Angeles workers compensation attorney).
In other words, while the application process under the CAL usually requires only a diagnosis, your disability benefits could still be denied regardless of whether you have already started receiving benefits. If your claim is denied, you will have to go through the appeals process to fight for your right to continue receiving disability benefits.
If your claim is denied once you have already started receiving disability benefits, these payments will stop (until you have successfully appealed the denial of your claim), but you will not be required to pay back any of the benefits you have received so far.
If your application is approved, on the other hand, your disability benefits will continue. If you are wondering how fast you may be able to receive these benefits under the CAL, the answer is: within 30 days of submitting your application (as long as the application is filled out correctly with the help of a skilled lawyer).
Let our attorneys at the Law Offices of Kropach & Kropach help you with the application process today. Call our offices at 818-609-7005 or complete this contact form for a free case evaluation.
