Obtaining Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) can be a time-consuming and stressful experience. Two out of every three applicants initially are denied. The exhaustion of chronic fatigue syndrome, the relentless pain of fibromyalgia and brain cancer cost Kristi Bendel Spaulding her career. She could no long work through the pain and mental haze. Read how Allsup found financial relief for Ms. Spaulding.

 

 

Gilbert, Arizona — Kristi Bendel Spaulding grew up with a love for computers and for helping people.

 

She graduated high school a semester early and immediately found a job that combined those two passions. Drawn to her computer skills, a mortgage company in her Minnesota hometown hired her as a loan officer.

 

Ms. Spaulding, now 40, soon came to love working with prospective home buyers. “Helping people make their dreams come true, helping them save money, it doesn’t get much better than that,” she said.

 

But after a while the long hours and grueling schedule started to wear her thin. She applied for and secured a job as a title officer with a local company, which allowed her to stay in the mortgage industry and continue using her computer skills.

 

That firm eventually closed, and Ms. Spaulding suddenly found herself unemployed. She decided to move to Arizona and live with her parents while she looked for work. She arrived in June 2002 and landed a job with a title company within a month.

 

The company and the climate had changed, but the work was as rewarding as ever. Three years later, everything started to change. Ms. Spaulding felt tired constantly. She couldn’t focus at work and was always sick. Her body ached, and menial tasks rendered her nearly exhausted.

 

She missed 86 days of work in 2005. That fall, Ms. Spaulding was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, severe exhaustion not caused by another illness that is not helped by rest, and fibromyalgia, a chronic condition marked by widespread pain in muscles, tendons and ligaments.

 

She was relieved to have a diagnosis but concerned that people wouldn’t understand the diseases or even consider them legitimate.

 

She continued to work through the pain and mental haze. In early 2006, her doctor suggested she ask her employer for flexibility to work from home or to scale back her hours.

 

She said the company fired her upon the request.

 

After working through the initial shock and panic, Ms. Spaulding listened as friends and physicians suggested she apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), a federal insurance program that provides monthly benefits to people under full retirement age (65 or older) and those who can no longer work because of a disability.

 

She contacted the Social Security Administration (SSA) and filed an SSDI claim, which was denied. She filed two more disability appeals, both of which were rejected. An SSA representative told Ms. Spaulding she wanted to help but couldn’t do much.

 

Instead, the SSA employee suggested Ms. Spaulding contact Allsup, the nation’s premier SSDI representation company. Founded in 1984, the Illinois-based firm has helped more than 170,000 people across the country receive the Social Security disability benefits they paid for throughout their working lives.

 

Ms. Spaulding contacted Allsup a week later, and the company took her case in July 2007. After months of stressful applications and painful denials, the process at Allsup was hassle-free.

 

“What would normally overwhelm me and wipe me out for the rest of the day was completely done,” she said. “It was just so reassuring. It was like you were the only person they were working with.”

 

Her Allsup representative gathered medical records and other documents to bolster her case. Because of her multiple appeals, the next stage was a hearing before an administrative law judge.

 

Ms. Spaulding’s health got significantly worse before the hearing date arrived. In August 2008, she suffered a seizure in a home improvement store as her partner and children watched helplessly. Days later, surgeons removed a cancerous tumor from her brain.

 

Her Allsup representative added the latest medical information to Ms. Spaulding’s already comprehensive file. When her hearing date finally came, the representative attended the hearing with Ms. Spaulding to help her through the process.

 

They were optimistic after the one hour hearing. In February 2009, three years after she was fired because of her health, Ms. Spaulding received a letter from the SSA awarding her benefits and back pay.

 

The sense of relief proved overwhelming. She and her partner have been cutting pills in half to make their thin budget stretch a bit further.

 

“Now we’re going to have a little breathing room,” said Ms. Spaulding, whose brain cancer remains in remission. “I’m able to contribute to my family. I feel like I’m a person again.”