Jim Allsup Publishes Guide to the SSDI Claim Determination Maze

Jim Allsup, who helped create the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program representation industry, has tried to give ordinary people a taste of what he knows.

Allsup, the founder and chief executive officer of Belleville, Illinois-based Allsup LLC, has published a free, 49-page guide to SSDI on the web.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the law that brought the SSDI program to life in 1956. Today, the program pays an average of $1,197 in benefits per month to 10.4 million people.

Jim Allsup has built a company that relies mainly on advisors who are not lawyers to help people with disabilities get through the SSDI claim determination process.

SSDI is of interest to issuers of private disability insurance because many private disability insurers offer coverage that wraps around SSDI benefits. The insurer deducts the SSDI benefits a claimant receives from the monthly private disability plan benefit payments.

Some of the insurers that offer private disability coverage designed in that way hire Allsup LLC to help policyholders get through the SSDI benefits application process.

Allsup LLC also helps individuals who seek help from the firm on their own.

In the new SSDI guide, Applying for Social Security Disability Insurance: Getting It Right the First Time, Jim Allsup notes that only 37% of the 2.4 million people who apply for SSDI benefits each year end up with benefits.

Allsup talks about what he believes workers, and their helpers, need to know about how the claim determination process works.

He covers topics such as SSDI eligibility criteria, the kinds of disabilities that might help people qualify for benefits, the elements of an SSDI benefits application, Social Security Administration application review procedures, and return-to-work options.

He has also included a glossary of SSDI terms, and plugs for his company's services.

A copy of the guide is available here.

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