An Underserved Market: Americans with Disabilities

Entrepreneurs will vary in whether they feel this is legitimate.

But all of us as employees have to pay huge sums into Social Security.

When folks are disabled through no fault of their own. Trying to recover the benefits you allegedly paid for is a night mare.

There is an entrepreneurial opportunity for folks who want to help these people because NO SPECIAL DEGREE IS REQUIRED. Attorneys at the moment want everyone to believe they are the only ones entitled to represent Social Security claimants, but many people with backgrounds in nursing, medical transcription, vocational rehabilitation, social work, etc. could with specialized training begin representing people.

Best of all, Social Security determines the fee. It’s worth up to 25% of back benefits with a $5,300 max fee per client.

If you have to travel to represent someone before an administrative law judge, Social Security (within their guidelines) reimburses travel and lodging.

I’ve had insiders tell me that often, just keeping the case alive and noticing prior discrepancies results in a 70% approval rate with representation. His exact words were “An idiot can do this!”

This could be a field for an entrepreneur who wants to help people wade through a big bureaucracy to get the benefits they’ve paid for.

It can take up to 180 days for payment from claimants and you really need to be prepared to reprsent people well.

Having studied the field myself, I can see why there’s no shortage of opportunity here. Finding LEGITIMATE clients (not bums) may be the real trick for the ethical entrepreneur.

IF you can get decent people with good cases referred, over time it could produce a steady pipleline of revenue.

My contacts routinely pull in $5,300 fees. They (3) average $1,500 to $3,000 per case.

I see I need to clarify something.

I said above…

“Entrepreneurs will vary in whether they feel this is legitimate.”

The occupation is perfectly legal and goverened by federal regulations.

Some may question its legitimacy because they don’t like the Social Security system in general and wonder if fees obtained are encouraging the system.

Others will conclude that while the system could be privatized as it has been in Galveston, TX… these people who had no alternative have been forced to pay and still need assistance to obtain even their inferior benefits.

In that case this position is no different than a claimant’s advocate seeking to help person’s not getting benefits from an insurance company. One WOULD need to be an attorney in that instance.

Sorry for this vague reference.