James Shtogrin worked for the same company for nearly four decades. When he could no longer work due to physical ailments, applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) was the last thing on his mind. He eventually realized that the FICA taxes he paid throughout his career entitled him to disability benefits. He shares his story here.

* This is a true story as told to Allsup

Pride almost got the better of this phone company worker who disliked the thought of taking government assistance.

He Didn’t Want to Be on Disability

Port Austin, Michigan—Pride almost cost James Shtogrin his Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Having worked for a phone company for 36 years, the former cable splicer insisted for almost two decades that he could do his job despite mounting physical ailments.

When he finally left work, he waited almost five years before applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. “I was too proud to go for it,” the Port Austin resident said. “I thought I didn’t need [SSDI], but I really did.”

As a cable splicer, he lowered himself into manholes and climbed telephone poles. In the mid-1990s he started to have health problems. “I had pain everywhere,” he said. One day in 1995, he couldn’t get out of bed. He said, “That’s when I went to see a rheumatologist.”

The initial exam showed Mr. Shtogrin suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Diagnoses in hand, and only in his mid-40s, he returned to work because that was what he really wanted to do, regardless of the pain.

But the longer he worked, the worse his condition became. He developed ringing in his ears. “Depression set in,” he said, “because I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do, and I couldn’t do my job.”

He left work in December 2003 at age 54. By that time his knees had deteriorated from years of work down into manholes and up on poles. His hands had started to turn out at angles due to his arthritis.

Almost four years lapsed before Mr. Shtogrin accepted the inevitable. He would never be healthy enough to work again. “I should have done it earlier,” he said, “but I was too proud. I didn’t want to be on Social Security.”

The day he retired, Mr. Shtogrin was given paperwork to apply for disability through Allsup, the nation’s leading SSDI representation company. Finally, in April 2008, he put pride aside. He called Allsup and got his disability application process started.

CEO and founder Jim Allsup started his company in 1984, after working for the Social Security Administration (SSA), to help people just like James Shtogrin collect SSDI benefits that he had paid for with FICA taxes throughout his working life.

A nationwide company with headquarters in Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis, Allsup’s success rate is a staggering 98 percent for those applicants who remain in the SSDI process until a final decision is reached. Since 1984, Allsup has secured disability benefits for more than 120,000 deserving clients and obtained about $10.3 billion in SSDI and Medicare benefits.

Even with expert help, as Mr. Shtogrin discovered, gaining SSDI approval is a rough road.

Besides seeing his family doctor and his rheumatologist, SSA sent him to different doctors, including a psychiatrist, for examinations. “One of their doctors said, ‘You’re in tough shape. I don’t see how you can do anything.’ He wished me luck, and they denied me,” he said.

As with most first-time SSDI applicants, Mr. Shtogrin was turned down. “I was very discouraged. It was depressing,” he said. “With the depression I already had and my arthritis, this wasn’t helping matters any.”

The denial hurt, but he was not surprised. “I heard through everybody that you’re always denied on your first try,” he said. Indeed, his Allsup representatives told him about the likely refusal, and they were ready to move ahead with an appeal before an administrative law judge.

“Working with Allsup was all fine,” he said. “They notified me in a timely manner when things came up. Everything went smooth—a lot smoother than I thought it would go.”

Much of the credit for the company’s service goes to its large team of SSDI experts. Indeed, Jim Allsup said, noting one of the company’s core values, “Allsup is expert at what we do. As those who developed the industry, we are the experts—understanding what it takes to serve our customers and creating a unique environment so we can deliver on our brand promise every day.”

An Allsup senior representative took charge of Mr. Shtogrin’s case, gathering his medical information and compiling the records into a brief to submit to the administrative law judge. The package and argument proved so persuasive that the judge agreed to render an on-the-record decision. Mr. Shtogrin never had to appear for a hearing.

He was unaware of the background activity when, unexpectedly in January 2009, Mr. Shtogrin received a letter from SSA stating that he had received a fully favorable decision.

“I was happy,” he said. “I really didn’t know if I was going to get [SSDI] or not. I was really hoping I wasn’t going to get turned down again.”

Receiving monthly SSDI payments, along with the lump sum of retroactive payments, “helped quite a bit,” he said. Now at age 60, he said, “I haven’t had to dip into the money I received from the phone company buyout as I did before to survive.”

The extra money, he said, will help a little to ease his pain. However, his bad knees will have to be replaced, and his arthritic hands are turned at 45-degree angles from his palms.

Looking back on the help he received throughout the SSDI process, Mr. Shtogrin said, “Allsup was great. When I received information from Social Security, I’d call Allsup, and they already had it in hand. It was great service. I’d recommend them to anyone.”