Legal Question in Social Security Law in Texas

I'm currently trying to get on SSI for my disabilities. Until it goes through, I'm unable to get indigent health insurance or even foodstamps due to an error made by workforce solutions and my lateness in discovering their error.

How do I go about expediting the process and getting the benefits I need to ensure three well-being of myself and my family?


Asked on 3/17/23, 10:06 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Roxana Orrell Law Offices of Roxana K. Orrell, PLLC

The bad news is that you probably can do little to nothing to expedite your case. While there are certain narrow exceptions to normal case handling, such as loss of housing, inability to access medical care, or expectation of imminent death, those factors which allow "expedited" handling still are subject to the wait to be assigned to a evaluator at the initial application and reconsideration stages of the case, and to a lesser degree the time it takes to have a hearing scheduled after a second appeal. The DDS evaluators in Austin are currently terribly backed up, handling the first two phases of claims, after losing something like 50% of their staff. What has historically taken around 3-4 months to complete these phases on average, has taken more than double that time period since last year.

Your best bet to help you win, but likely not expedite your case in any significant way, is to hire a disability attorney. In order to win, you will need medical records to prove your disability. If you are not seeing a doctor, it is unlikely that you will have a chance to win your case, and unlikely that an attorney would accept you as a client. Medical records proving disability are the single most important factor in winning a case. I suggest finding a well-recommended LOCAL disability attorney to talk to, who can give you a solid opinion on the good, the bad, and the ugly in your particular claim.

Since by the zip code you entered it appears you live in Johnson County, you have fewer options for low cost or free medical care than in many parts of Texas. If you are receiving no medical care at all, the one clinic that you may find of use is the Hope Clinic, (817) 641-5858. If you suffer from mental health issues, the MHDD system provides free mental health care in every county. In yours, it would be the Pecan Valley Center for Behavioral and and Developmental Healthcare, (817) 558-1121. Because you are close to the Ft. Worth area, there also may be one or more private free/low cost clinics in that county that may cross over and provide some care to indigent folks in your area, separate from the county Indigent Care Services.

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Answered on 3/17/23, 11:51 am


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