Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

It took a few calls, but I have now spoken to the woman whose name and number were on the letter I got last week.

It turns out that what I need to mail them is: nothing. The online application is complete, and after looking at my earnings report, she said the last few years of freelance work, everything since 2014, don't count as "substantial gainful activity," so she doesn't need the 2021 tax return to tell her that last year's freelance income isn't "substantial gainful activity" either.

I think the process here is: tomorrow morning she will write a "work report" based on what I told her, about having stopped looking for full-time work because I realized I couldn't handle a full-time job, and what the Social Security Administration already knows about my work history. That goes to the local disability determination office, which assigns it to an examiner. The examiner will contact my doctors for medical records, which will then be looked at by a doctor or doctors who work for them.

Somewhere in there, I will probably get a call from an examiner, or a letter asking me to call them. They may want me to be examined by a doctor who works for Social Security, but when I said "fine, if I can keep my N95 mask on" the woman said I could ask for telemedicine.

I asked how long this was likely to take, and while she doesn't know exactly -- among other things, this may depend on how efficient three or four different medical offices are -- if I haven't heard by the end of May, I should call back.


For my reference: My contact is ( Read more... )