Steve Perrigo (Credit: Allsup)
The Social Security Administration closed the offices that handle Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) matters March 17, in response to the COVID-19 emergency.
SSDI is famous for having an enormous backlog of cases. Simply getting an initial claim reviewed can take six months, and appealing a rejection can take 500 days or longer, according to Steve Perrigo, a vice president at Allsup.
COVID-19 itself may end up causing disability, by hurting people's lungs, kidneys and other organs.
But Perrigo said in an interview that, so far, the SSA team members, who are now working through telework systems, seem to be maintaining a comparable level of service to what they were offering before.
Allsup helps people get through the SSDI claim determination process.
Many group disability insurance providers save money by using a benefits formula that subtracts SSDI benefits payment amounts from the plan's own benefit payment amounts.
The disability insurers that apply the SSDI benefits offsets often hires companies like Allsup to help with the SSDI claim process, to minimize the amount of benefits the group disability plan has to pay.
