People With Disabilities Foundation has two cases in District Court and one case in the United States Court of Appeals through the Ninth Circuit.  In District Court, we are waiting for an order in the case of AV (Case No. 4:16-cv-023580-JSC), involving a case of a woman who has fibromyalgia, generalized back pain and other impairments.  The case of PWDF versus the Social Security Administration (SSA) PWDF v. Colvin – Case No. 3:06-cv-06108-EMC involves a 42 USC§406 B which was amended in OBRA 1990 to attract more attorneys to represent disabled individuals before the SSA.  It requires the attorneys to be paid 25% of retroactive benefits providing they win the case.  These amendments did not require attorneys to itemize their hours; however, there was a limit on the amount of attorney fees which were $4,000 and are now $6,000.  The Social Security Administration has since 2006 made it, and continues to make it, more difficult to get an attorney fee which in turn means less representation by attorneys who specialize in this area of law.  Instead of speeding up fee payments, the SSA is slowing down payment and refusing to honor attorney fee agreements enabled since July 1, 1991 by congressional amendments.

Our case in the Ninth Circuit Court CB (Case No. 1:15-cv-02995-NJV) involves a disability issue where the SSA and a magistrate judge sitting as a judge in a U.S. District Court did not follow the law as set forth by the United States Court of Appeals.

PWDF is considering filing a complaint in federal court against the SSA on the basis that SSI beneficiaries are being suspended without a required pre-termination due process hearing.  If there is an ongoing recoupment of an overpayment during these illegal suspensions or terminations, the SSA is offsetting 100% of the SSI check amount, instead of the 10% maximum allowed by law.  If and when these individuals’ benefits are reinstated, the SSA is refusing to reinstate the full amount minus the 10% for the checks that were illegally withheld.