Parkinson's Disease Support Group

Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder often characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor, a slowing of physical movement, and in extreme cases, a loss of physical movement. The primary symptoms of Parkinsons are due to excessive muscle contraction, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine, which is produced in the dopaminergic neurons of the...

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aliveo 08/25/2010

I LIVE IN AUSTRALIA AND RECIEVE A DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION. I FEEL FORTUNATE TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY THAT CAN AFFORD THIS. TO QUALIFY FOR THIS A DOCTORS REPORT WAS REQUIRED AND MY CLAIM WENT THROUGH IN ONE WEEK.
TO SATISFY MY NATURAL CURIOSITY AND SO I CAN SEE THE BIG PICTURE I WONDER AT THE NEED FOR A LAWYER.
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK TO EASE MY IGNORANCE ON THIS PROCEDURE IN USA.
ALIVEO.

Joanee63 08/25/2010

It is Social Security Disability. I think it must be similar to what you are getting in Australia. Only here it is not that easy to get. You have all kinds of paper work to fill out and like with me I had to go and see what they called an independant doctor to get their dx along with my own doctors.Then my request also went through 2 diferent panels before I was granted the diability payments. All in all it took more than 6 months to get it done and I was one of the lucky ones. Seems like most people take more than a year and lots of times they do have to hire a lawyer to deal with it before they are finally approved. Sometimes it is a real joke trying to get it done, but not the kind you laugh at. And some of the people you have to deal with can be real jerks. In most cases, not a good experience..

deleted_user 08/26/2010

The attorney fees are only paid if the case is won and the person is granted SSD, which is what is called a contingency basis. The government will give backpay also from the starting date the illness began. Since the USA has many more people living here then Australia there is much more of a backlog of applications also. They scrutinize everything for this. Then on the other hand there are some people like my husband's sister that got disability for being a "compulsive gambler". That makes no sense. She owns and runs her own business besides.

deleted_user 08/26/2010

I am curious about SSD as well. I work full time , hit the gym , and except for the driving incident , I lead a pretty normal life. Here is the question though- Do I file for disability for the future ? Since apparently this disease gets worse or do I wait till I am disabled and can't pay my bills?
Can I work part time and collect all my SSD benefits ? I only qualify at this point fo rlike $800 a month and definitly can't live on that
Hope there is some good advise on this

Thanks !

deleted_user 08/26/2010

I think a person is allowed to earn a certain amount of money and still be considered disabled but I think then they question closer the disability. But I don't know the amount they could earn. They seem to look at what your disability is at the time you apply though.

Maybe look on the Social Security website or type it in Google---I found alot of sites come up on there.

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