DLI Salad: Statutory Blindness and "regular" disab

DrDemose · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 22

I have an odd little case with the following facts:

Claimant has insured status for statutory blindess, but otherwise a DLI of 6/30/00.
He was on disability from 2/96 to 3/98.
He spent several years in prison after that.

Claimant does have visual impairments but does not meet the listing at 2.02. The claimant had an ALJ that wanted to help, but when he found an onset date of12/5/06, the AC kicked it back. In fact, the AC issued a tentative reversal. One portion of the AC decision gave me pause, which reads as follows:

"In your case, you were previously entitled to a closed period of disability from February 1996 through March 1998. this period is noted counted in determining your insured status. Therefore, the last date that you had 20 quarters of coverage in a 10-year period was June 30,2000"

This paragraph sounds like a closed period of disability is treated, for DLI purposes, simply as a period of non-work in which there are periods in which there is no credit. Is that correct?

JOA · Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 1786

DrDemose · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 22

Well, yes I had thought that a closed period of disability is simply not calculated in determining insured status, and that the period of incarceration enter into DLI calculation and we had about four years of that to erode coverage. Is there a way to check the DLI calcuation?

JOA · Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 1786

DrDemose · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 22

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "D tab".

JOA · Joined: 13 May 2004 Posts: 1786

Dear DrDeMose:

I mean no insult with this very, very basic answer. And now that I'm home, I can give a fuller response than from the office.

Idunno how many years back, SSA switched from plain brown file folders to the mulipart, multicolor "modular disability folder," or MDF. POMS (that narrow, focused version of the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook) has a description:

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0470005005

The electronic folder carries forward with a digital version of the MDF, both for the divisions and the color coding.

Although POMS speaks of sections 1 to 6, these are also commonly referred to as sections A to F. When ODAR pulls a folder into order and marks material as exhibits, the material at each division gets numbered Exhibit IA and up, through Exhibit 1F and up. (I am leaving out complications related to streamlined versions of this process.)

So when I referred to the D tab, I was talking about the colored divider that marks out the D section of the MDF. That's typically where you find the application, and all the earnings record stuff related to DLI. If the MDF includes a DISCO report, typically it'll be at the D tab.

So you ought to find whatever it is that relates to an Administrative Law Judge decision or an Appeals Council remand about insured status prong-filed at D.

It happened to me today that I had to explain what I meant by "morning dress." So it might well be that not everyone shares my cultural landmarks. On this possibility, here's a link that explains about Junior Woodchucks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Woodchucks_Guidebook