Posts by steelcanyon51

I can frame it this way, quoting directly from the Social Security Administration website:

"Pensioners are permitted to engage in contract work while continuing to receive their full monthly benefits. (From an employer's standpoint, hiring retirees via independent contractor agreements is quite advantageous, as they are exempt from paying Social Security and Medicare taxes on top of standard income tax withholding.)"

slylynx26 said:So, basically, there's no downside to filing an appeal, right?
Since I'll be handling the appeal myself, do I actually need to cite specific clauses or pull out those percentage charts I saw online...? I know exactly where they shortchanged me, so I'm hoping I can just lay it all out clearly and explain my side. 😉

To be honest, and this comes from a good place, just pay an attorney $200 $100 to draft the letter and send it out for you. It’ll give you much better peace of mind.

slylynx26 said:Sorry if I'm double-posting here, but I couldn't find a thread quite like this one...

So, we finally got a decision regarding the settlement amount for a recent injury (a broken arm). Honestly? It’s nowhere near what our lawyer calculated—not even close. We were looking at things like how long the cast had to be worn, the fact that they couldn't work, all those little complications that add up...
We reached out to State Farm, and they basically told us to just file a formal appeal. Now, I’m sitting here wondering: is it actually worth it to spend months fighting them on this? Like, is there any real chance an appeal will actually move the needle for us?

Has anyone here gone through something similar?
And really, is there anything to lose by sending in the appeal?

Based on my own experience—it was a slipped vertebra from a car accident rather than a broken arm—it involved about five months of braces and physical therapy.
Our lawyer filed the initial claim, we got an offer, and we turned it down. We pushed for more, they bumped up the number, we accepted, and that was that.

In any case, they almost always start with a lowball offer. Filing an appeal to push for a higher amount is standard practice, though I can't speak to specific dollar amounts or percentages since I'm not an expert in those details.

Old School, one of the absolute best... R. I. P.