Finally I got the application from the service dog program I am hoping to work with! I have almost finished filling it out. It asks for pretty basic information, doesn't even ask for a full list of tasks I want my dog to help me with. It asks me to list three things. But I am going to print out my long list and enclose it when I return the application.
There is a form that must be completed by my doctor. It doesn't specify which doctor but I am going to take it to my psychiatrist. I made a copy of the form and I'm going to basically fill it out with all the information I need to have on it and then give that to him, along with some printed information of service dogs and how they can help people with mental illnesses. He'll have his secretary type the answers and then sign it.
I've done this with him for other things I've needed. Before I had my gastric bypass surgery, I was required to have a psych eval. That's a pretty common practice before a patients has bariatric surgery. I asked the receptionist at my surgeon's office what they were looking for in the psych eval, wrote down what she said, and gave that to my psychiatrist. He had his secretary type it up on his letterhead and signed it. So I essentially wrote my own psych eval. I did basically the same thing when I was trying to get my student loans forgiven due to my disability.
My psychiatrist's office has a policy of charging a fee when they have to fill out paperwork like this, but in the past they have not charged me. So I don't know if I'll have to pay the fee this time or not. I may drop off the paperwork tomorrow, but I might need to wait a couple days until I get my disability payment if I have to pay the fee when I drop off the form.
I also have to have two reference letters from people that know me but that are not related to me. These are just forms my references are supposed to fill out, they don't actually have to write letters. I don't know who to ask. Well, Mike will do one of them, but I don't know who the second person should be. It's not like I have many friends, certainly not close friends. I think I'm going to ask Mike's mom or dad to do it, but they don't know much about my disability. They can say that I take good care of my cats and am good with animals, though.
I'm glad you finally got the app and know what you need to do next! I'm wondering about whether you got slapped with a bunch of state and federal taxes when your student loans were forgiven due to disability. I have income sensitve repayment on my student loans and am eligible for forgiveness after 25 years of repayment but I've heard that there are huge taxes due on the amount of forgiven debt. I figure I would be exchanging one debt for another and it would be owed to a more aggressive creditor - the IRS! Was that your experience or not?
ReplyDeleteWhen your student loans are forgiven due to disability, or at least at the time mine were forgiven, I did not have to pay taxes. Um, I hope I wasn't supposed to pay taxes on it, because I sure didn't. Um, I hope I didn't mess up! It was a real pain in the butt to get them forgiven. I mean, it was definitely worth it, but it was much easier to get Social Security disability, if that tells you anything. I feel so incredibly blessed that I was able to have them forgiven, though, because there was just no way I could ever repay then on disability.
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