Obtaining
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) can be a time-consuming and stressful experience. Two out of every three applicants initially are denied. A lifetime of hard, manual labor finally took its toll on Scott Stuck’s body through arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome and back pain. But Crohn’s disease would be his physical undoing. Read how a tip from his aunt turned Mr. Stuck’s life around.
* This is a true story as told to Allsup.
A lengthy illness caused his employer to lay him off work. After 14 years on the job, he felt like he had been thrown away.
Scott Stuck’s ‘Best Christmas’
By Chris Birk
Omaha, Nebraska — Scott Stuck spent nearly 15 years on the front lines of a throwaway society.
Five days a week, he would cling to the back of a trash truck as it wound through Omaha. A former roofer who made a living doing manual labor, Mr. Stuck would hop down from his perch, toss the contents of household garbage cans into the truck and climb back to his post.
Block after block, he performed the same routine, all the while ensuring he had a firm grip on the truck’s lone railing.
“It wasn’t too bad once you learn how to put yourself on there — if you didn’t have any crazy drivers,” said Mr. Stuck, 43, an Omaha native. “Most of the drivers I had weren’t too bad.”
He would occasionally find discarded items in near-mint condition, like tools, pictures and other household items. He could never understand why people put them out for the trash. Besides those unexpected finds, it was mostly grueling work that he didn’t mind doing.
But not too long after he took the job, Mr. Stuck began experiencing wrenching stomach pains. A physician prescribed medication, and Mr. Stuck went back to work. As the years progressed, a lifetime of physical labor began to take a toll on his body.
His knees, ankles and legs became increasingly arthritic, casualties of the decade he spent in roofing. His back had been a problem since childhood. Joints ached, and his fingers would swell after a day spent grabbing hold of the trash truck.
He eventually developed carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands. Still, he soldiered on. But so did those increasingly brutal stomach pains, starting just above the belt line and quickly spreading across his abdomen. A few years after that first physician visit, his company changed insurance plans and Mr. Stuck sought out a second opinion.
What he got was a diagnosis: Crohn’s disease, a bowel disease that causes inflammation of the digestive track lining. Crohn’s can cause severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and in some cases malnutrition.
Mr. Stuck’s stomach had been ravaged by the disease, which had gone unchecked for so long. “It felt like Freddy Krueger was in my stomach trying to get out,” said Mr. Stuck, referring to the razor-clawed villain of A Nightmare on Elm Street movies. “All I could do was lay with a pillow on my stomach, tears coming down.”
Soon after receiving the diagnosis he went to see a surgeon, who was shocked by what he found. The condition required near-immediate intervention. Within a couple days, the surgeon removed 40 percent of Mr. Stuck’s stomach and his colon.
It took six months of recovery before he could return to work. He slowly rebuilt his stamina and spent the first couple of years back on the job in relatively good health, battling the constant back pain and diarrhea.
But then bouts of stomach pain began to flare up. Between doctor visits and the diarrhea, he was missing 10 to 15 days of work a year.
Then, out of nowhere, came one last punch to the gut: The sanitation company fired him in May 2008 in what officials claimed was a cost-cutting move. Mr. Stuck suspected the layoff had more to do with his medical condition than the company’s bottom line.
He felt as if he had been thrown away. “You’d think after 14 years they could have found something easier for me to do,” Mr. Stuck said.
A week after being laid off, he started experiencing muscle spasms in his back and shoulders. Three physical therapy sessions, massages and prescriptions did little to provide relief. Mr. Stuck knew his working days were likely over.
At that point, he decided to apply for Social Security
Disability Insurance (SSDI), a federal insurance program overseen by the Social Security Administration (SSA). SSDI provides monthly benefits to people who are under full retirement age (age 65 or older) and who can no longer work because of a disability expected to last for 12 months, or have a terminal condition.
Applicants must have paid FICA taxes to be eligible. Mr. Stuck tried to obtain
SSDI benefits on his own, starting at his local SSA office. He filled out the requisite paperwork and obtained information from his physicians. Months later, the SSA denied his application.
A few months after that, the agency denied his appeal. Mr. Stuck couldn’t understand the rejection.
“I don’t think they knew how bad my back was,” he said. “I could only stand up for a little while.”
One of Mr. Stuck’s aunts learned of his SSDI struggles and suggested he call Allsup, the nation’s leading non-attorney Social Security disability representation company. The Illinois-based firm helped him obtain the benefits he deserved.
Since its founding in 1984, Allsup has secured disability benefits for more than 130,000 clients and obtained about $14 billion in SSDI and Medicare benefits. Allsup received Mr. Stuck’s case in April 2009. Allsup’s claims experts gathered more documentation and submitted a second appeal, this time to an administrative law judge.
Eight months later, on Christmas Eve, Mr. Stuck learned that the SSA had approved his claim.
“That was the best Christmas I could have,” he said. “It was the best feeling you could ever have.”