Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog

Social Security Launches New Retirement Estimator

The Social Security Administration has made available a new online tool for calculating retirement benefits. Here is the description from the Social Security Administration Web site:

Social Security is proud to announce the new “Retirement Estimator” at www.socialsecurity.gov. Getting a personalized online estimate of your future retirement benefits is now easier than ever before.

The Retirement Estimator is a planning tool that allows you to get an immediate and personalized estimate of your potential Social Security retirement benefit.

The Retirement Estimator is convenient. Since it is tied to your actual Social Security earnings record, there is no need to manually enter years of earnings information. The Retirement Estimator is also interactive, allowing you to compare different retirement options by changing your “stop work” dates or expected earnings.

The Retirement Estimator is secure. To protect your privacy, only your benefit estimates are provided online. The Retirement Estimator does not reveal any personal information, such as your address, earnings or other information.

Visit www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator to see just how easy it is to get an accurate estimate of your future benefits.

Pilot Program Works In Catching Uninsured Drivers

I've written before about the pilot program underway in Texas to catch uninsured motorists. The program has been in test mode long enough now for some results to come in. According to the Dallas Morning News, it's working in Austin. Here are excerpts from a story today:

A pilot program to catch uninsured motorists in Travis County has found that more than one in four drivers is violating the law by not having insurance coverage – a figure that was slightly higher than officials expected.

The insurance verification program, which is about to wrap up a 60-day trial period, will be expanded to Dallas and the rest of the state later this year after officials fully examine the results.

With one week to go, more than 5,000 drivers in the Austin area have already been checked through a new insurance database that verifies whether a motorist has coverage. The 25.5 percent who lacked insurance were ticketed, subject to a fine of up $350 on the first offense and up to $1,000 for the second offense.

Mark Hanna of the Insurance Council of Texas said Tuesday that insurers believe the program is nearly ready.

However, he added: "The numbers show that Texas has an even larger number of uninsured drivers than we had realized. And troopers tell us that some areas of the state may have more than half of their drivers uninsured – and that's scary news for everyone else on our roadways."

Mr. Hanna noted that some areas of Dallas have uninsured rates approaching 50 percent, according to DPS.

Featured Link - Cuil.com

There's a new rival to search engine powerhouse Google —this time from former Google employees. Their new site is Cuil.com, and here is their explanation:

Welcome to Cuil—the world’s biggest search engine. The Internet has grown. We think it’s time search did too.  

The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but search engines have not kept up—until now. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.

Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its concepts, their inter-relationships and the page’s coherency.

Then we offer you helpful choices and suggestions until you find the page you want and that you know is out there. We believe that analyzing the Web rather than our users is a more useful approach, so we don’t collect data about you and your habits, lest we are tempted to peek. With Cuil, your search history is always private.

Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil.

Compromise Reached On Product Safety Bill

The House and Senate have finally reached a compromise agreement on a products safety bill that has been many months in the planning. The result seems to be a victory for consumers.

The bill, which is expected to be signed by President Bush, will increase funding of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and will require more products, such as children’s toys, to be tested before being released to the public.

The new legislation is partially in response to a flurry of incidents involving unsafe products from China, and to consumer concerns that the Commission lacked the resources to keep hazardous products off store shelves.

Featured Link - Gas-Guzzler Trade-In Calculator

Edmunds.com has an interesting Gas-Guzzler Trade-in Calculator on its Web site. If you're trying to decide whether it makes sense to keep your old SUV or trade it in, you can get your answer here. This is the site's description:

Many people these days are thinking of trading in their SUV and buying a fuel-efficient car to cut fuel costs. Sure, they would save what seems like a bundle at the pump. But when you look at the big picture — total cash out of pocket — a very different situation is often revealed.

To bring this financial transition into sharper focus, Edmunds.com has created the Gas-Guzzler Trade-in Calculator. The calculator clearly reveals that there are many related costs whenever you switch from one car to another. And these costs take a long time to pay back even with the money saved on gas.

Yet Another Texas Child Left Inside Hot Car Dies

Another North Texas infant has died after being left in a hot car yesterday. This is so terribly tragic, so utterly predictable, and so completely preventable. It's summer in Texas, people. It gets hot. Yesterday was about 105 degrees. That's in the shade. The interior of a car in the sun will be much, much hotter than the official temperature. Kids (and even some adults) simply cannot survive sitting in an unventilated vehicle in that kind of heat. Yesterday was the 17th day so far this summer that the official temperature in Dallas has been 100 degrees or higher, and today will be the 18th. We'll have plenty more to come this year.

This is the second child in a week to die this way, and there will probably be others before the summer ends. We see the same thing every single year. Yes, we're all busy, we all have other things on our minds, but please, use your head–-don't forget that you have a child in the back seat.

Here are some safety tips from KidsandCars.org:

1. Make a habit of checking the back seat when getting out of a vehicle, whether a child is there or not.
2. Put a stuffed animal in the front seat to remind you when a child is in the back seat.
3. Place items that are needed for work—such as a cell phone, purse or briefcase — in the floorboard of the back seat so that the child will be noticed when retrieving the items.
4. Ask school and child-care workers to call if the child hasn’t arrived as planned.
5. Use drive-through or pay-at-the-pump services when available to eliminate the temptation to leave a child in the car while running an errand.

Featured Link - Inflation Calculator

Ever wonder what a dollar's worth of groceries in 1929 would cost today? Well, I can tell you that one — $12.61. But if you have any other questions like that you can visit the inflation calculator on the Web site of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minnesota.

Featured Link - Texas Department Of Assistive And Rehabilitative Services

From the Web site of the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services:

The Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, or DARS, administers programs that ensure Texas is a state where people with disabilities, and children who have developmental delays, enjoy the same opportunities as other Texans to live independent and productive lives.

The department has four divisions:

• Rehabilitation Services
• Blind Services
• Early Childhood Intervention Services
• Disability Determination Services

The Disability Determination Services department is the one involved in deciding whether Social Security disability applicants qualify for benefits. The department has a very good question and answer section on their Web site, and I am going to reproduce it here in order to help Social Security disability applicants:

The DARS Division for Disability Determination Services (DDS), funded entirely through the Social Security Administration (SSA), makes disability determinations for Texans with severe disabilities who apply for Social Security Disability Insurance and/or Supplemental Security Income. Texans with disabilities apply for benefits at their local Social Security Office and their applications are forwarded to DDS for a disability determination; however, SSA is responsible for making final decisions as to whether or not a person is eligible to receive benefits.

To apply for disability benefits, call the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 or visit their website at www.ssa.gov to learn more about the application process for disability benefits. If you have already filed a disability claim with Social Security, you may contact Disability Determination Services about processing your claim at 512-437-8000 or 1-800-252-7009 with information or questions concerning your claim.

Frequently Asked Questions about DDS

Following are some answers to frequently asked questions about DDS and the disability determination process.

• "I had a heart attack two months ago and am now disabled. My doctor tells me not to work. What can I do?"
• "My spouse died last year. I can't work because of arthritis. Can anyone help me?"

Often you may hear questions like these about disability. This page explains what you should know about the disability program administered by the Social Security Administration. It also describes the agency in Texas responsible for making disability decisions - Disability Determination Services, a division of the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services.

The Social Security Administration administers two disability programs which help people who are unable to work because of severe physical or mental impairments. They are designed to replace part of the income you and your family lose if you become disabled. Many times a person qualifies to apply for both of these programs.

The first program is Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). It is related to work. A person earns coverage for themselves and family members by paying Social Security tax. The program covers workers who are disabled, disabled widows/widowers and disabled adult children of workers.

The second disability program is Supplemental Security Income (SSI). It is related to means - what you have or own. If you do not own much or have much income, you may be able to qualify for this part. Income and resources possessed are considered. This program covers adults and children who are eligible.

Federal law and the Social Security Administration provide the instructions used to determine whether a person is disabled. Therefore, a person filing for disability in Rhode Island is evaluated using the same guidelines as a person filing in Texas.

Friday Fun

Not all of this is strictly for fun, but I'm including it as Friday Fun anyway. There are an astonishing number of do-it-yourself video sites popping up on the Internet. I think that's fantastic. What better way to learn to do something than to watch someone else do it? So whether you want to learn how to breakdance or to cut an onion without crying, find out at the 5 Minute Life Videopedia.

Featured Link - CiteHealth.com - Health Care Ratings

The Web site CiteHealth lets you "Give your health care providers a checkup." From the site:

CiteHealth is a health care ratings website for consumers to evaluate their health care providers quality in an effort to enable them to make informed decisions about medical care they may be receiving. We accomplish this by providing free reports on health care providers and communities and also by providing a vehicle for patients to convey their experiences and questions to one another. The information contained on each health provider comes from numerous government and commercial sources, direct contact, and from the user base. We currently cover hospitals, nursing homes, dialysis centers, home care agencies, rehabilitation centers, pharmacies, and medical providers.