How Can I Afford To Hire An Attorney To Help Me With My Claim For Social Security Disability Benefits
We do not charge an attorney fee up front for assisting you to obtain Social Security disability benefits.
We do not charge an attorney fee if, after representing you in a claim for Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) benefits, and/or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the Social Security Administration (SSA) does not decide to award your claim and to pay you disability benefits.
We only charge an attorney fee if, after representing you in a claim for SSDI, and/or SSI, the SSA awards you disability benefits, and the SSA awards you “past due benefits,” which may also be known as retroactive benefits. Past due benefits are paid to a person who applies for disability benefits if the SSA decides a person was disabled more than five months before the date of the SSA’s decision to award Social Security disability benefits to a person. In a claim for SSI, past due benefits are not calculated prior to the date of application for SSI.
In order to decide whether or not a person is disabled, the SSA reviews the person’s medical records. The SSA may also require the person to visit a medical provider chosen and paid for by the SSA. This additional evaluation by an SSA chosen medical provider does not include treatment by the medical provider who performs the evaluation.
Disabled people, their friends, and family often ask us how to afford an attorney to help them obtain Social Security disability benefits. A person who applies for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration is referred to as a “claimant.” A claimant may hire or appoint an attorney to assist, or represent them with an application or claim for Social Security disability benefits, that is SSDI and/or SSI. A claimant who hires us to assist with a claim for Social Security disability benefits does NOT pay us an attorney fee up front.
When we agree to represent a claimant, we send the claimant a document called a “Fee Agreement.” The Fee Agreement explains how, and when we are paid. In order for us to represent a claimant, the claimant must sign the Fee Agreement. The Fee Agreement is submitted to the Social Security Administration. The Fee Agreement requests the SSA withhold an attorney fee from the claimant’s past due benefits if any are awarded. If the SSA honors our request to withhold an attorney fee, and if the SSA approves payment of the attorney fee in the claim, the SSA electronically transfers the attorney fee from the claimant’s past due benefits to the attorney, and electronically transfers the balance or remainder of the claimant’s past due benefits directly to the claimant. We cannot receive an attorney fee unless the fee is first approved by the Social Security Administration.
We do not set the amount of the attorney fee we charge to represent a claimant who applies for Social Security disability (SSDI and SSI) benefits. The amount we are permitted to receive as an attorney fee is the same amount for all attorneys who represent people in claims for Social Security disability benefits. The amount of the attorney fee is regulated by the United States Congress. The amount an attorney may receive for assisting a claimant to obtain Social Security disability benefits is the lesser of twenty five (25%) percent of all past due benefits awarded by the Social Security Administration to the claimant and family, up to the statutory maximum fee, which is currently $7,200.00. The $7,200.00 fee was published June 30, 2022 in a Federal Register Notice (FR 39157), and effective November 30, 2022.
In order for us to receive $7,200.00, a claimant we assisted with a claim for SSDI and/or SSI, would have to be awarded at least $28,800.00 in past due benefits. If a claimant we assisted with a claim for SSDI and/or SSI, is awarded more than $28,800.00 in past due benefits, we do not receive more than the statutory maximum fee set by Congress, which is $7,200.00.
If, for example, a claimant we assisted with a claim for SSDI and/or SSI, were awarded $1,000.00 in past due benefits, we would be paid twenty five (25%) percent of $1,000.00, or $250.00.
If, for example, a claimant we assisted with a claim for SSDI and/or SSI, were awarded benefits effective the date of the SSA decision, and therefore there were no past due, or retroactive benefits awarded, we would not receive an attorney fee. That is, we would not receive an attorney fee, no matter how much time we spent on the claimant’s behalf, because there were no past due benefits awarded.
If, for example, a claimant we assisted in a claim for SSDI and/or SSI, were not awarded any disability benefits, we would not receive a fee, no matter how much time we spent on the claimant’s behalf.