New LASP SSI Initiative: Providing help with Social Security applications

(Jan. 26, 2022)

need help with your Social Security application? Legal Aid of Southeastern PA may be able to help! Click for one-page flyer.

Social Security applications, formerly done in-person, are now submitted by phone or online. LASP clients can have a difficult time with this process. Nationwide, 80% of Social Security applications are rejected on the first try. To help improve the success rate, Staff Attorney Deborah Steeves has implemented an internship program with 13 University of Pennsylvania law students during spring semester.

Over winter break, the law students took the SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) training. The SOAR program trains advocates on the SSI/SSDI application process and improves the success rate by 35%. “In the field of Social Security, this is a big leap,” Steeves said.

The internship program started in late January 2022. Even before students began, LASP attorneys and paralegals – many already SOAR-certified – had already started helping 11 clients with their SSI/SSDI applications through the initiative.

How to get help

  • Are you unable to work full-time due to a disability?

  • Have you earned less than $1,300 a month for the past year?

  • Have you had your physical or mental impairment for longer than 12 months?

  • Do you have a child that has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), or functions differently than other children?

  • Do you live in Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware or Chester County?

If you answered yes to these questions and need help filling out an SSI application, call Steeves at 610-436-5410 or email dsteeves@lasp.org.

LASP provides free civil legal services for low-income, vulnerable people in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. If you have civil legal needs, call Legal Aid of Southeastern PA at 877-429-5994 Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. or apply online at lasp.org/apply.

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Legal Aid of Southeastern PA Staff Attorney Deborah Steeves presents a Jan. 26, 2022 Zoom training for University of Pennsylvania law students. As part of LASP’s new SSI Initiative, the students enrolled in the SOAR program during winter break, learning how to help SSI and SSDI applicants with their online applications. Nationwide, 80% of Social Security applications are rejected on the first try. LASP’s program addresses this issue in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.

Marion Fraley