My son is low-functioning autistic, and I am about to start the SSI application for him. This is not going to be fun.

Surprisingly application itself was pretty painless. A phone interview, and then visit to the office to drop off some support documents.

Literally the only way people can get approved is by giving a chunk to an attorney who specializes and even then… <3

May have to hit you up in a couple of years to get words of wisdom when we start the process for our daughter 😩

The thing with SSI/SSDI that you have to remember is that it's not a medical decision making process. It's a legal process based on medical information. That's why you go in front of a judge on appeal rather than a MD. You're already aware of how byzantine and counter-intuitive the legal system is.

Low-functioning isn't super hard. The easy way is to keep track of the listings. If you meet the black letter, it's an automatic approval. Childhood autism: www.ssa.gov/disability/p...www.ssa.gov/disability/p...

good luck. so i managed to get the ssi payments for my son quite easily, but we are still working on the medicaid. getting guardianship during covid was a blast.

I'm no expert in this, but from what I've observed it is probably good to enter with the mindset that you are going to initially lose, but that's not reason to dismay, it's reason to see your task as creating an impeccable appellate record.

I would very highly recommend getting a lawyer to help. My younger brother applied several (3, 4, 5?) times and it wasn't until he had a lawyer involved that he finally got approved. They just know which i's to dot and which t's to cross

Good luck! Perseverance.

i’m sorry. i know that process and i hope it’s relatively easy for you.