Thank you to all of those with comments and questions about the government shutdown. Despite the shutdown, they did deem the workers at the Social Security and ODAR hearing offices to be critical workers and they are again fully staffed.  We anticipate that due to the several days they were not fully staffed that there would be some delay in processing cases and social security disability appeals, but we cannot say with any certainty how much longer that may affect a case not yet decided by the Judge.  As for cases or social security disability appeals where benefits were awarded, the shutdown is not supposed to affect these payments.  However, there is the possibility that if they do not resolve the budget ceiling issue by October 17th, that the distribution of checks could be delayed.  Let’s hope Congress does their job and reaches an agreement!