CAN I GET SOCIAL SECURITY DISABIITY FOR....?

Having a plan or strategy is very important to winning your Social Security disability appeal. Judges have very limited time to spend on a case.  They are required to issue up to 700 decision a year, or over 50 per month.  One case may have thousands of pages of medical records and other documents to review.  Your attorney or representative can help the judge, and your chance of winning, by pointing out what the judge needs to know. Is this claimant insured for benefits? What kind of past work did the claimant do? Does he or she meet a Listing or grid rule? Are there any transferable skills? Does the medical record support the alleged onset date?  If so, where?  These are things the judge must know to decide the claim.  A good representative will read and analyze the medical records, which are the foundation of every case.  The important evidence will be pointed out to the judge.  Are there MRIs or imaging studies to prove the alleged ...

Having a doctor say that you are disabled may not qualify you for a Social Security disability benefit.  In fact, the very term "disabled" has very little to do with meeting the qualifications. What is more important to Social Security is what kind of work related activities you can still do.  How often can you do these activities?  And what is the underlying cause of your functional restrictions? Also, just having a serious disease or medical condition may not qualify for payments.  It's quite possible to have rheumatoid arthritis, epilepsy, or even cancer and still not qualify for an SSDI payment. However, if you can prove that you can't perform any of your past work OR any other job that exists in the nation's economy, you may be on track to get benefits.  So, you need to establish what the physical and mental demands of your past work were; and that you are no longer able to meet those demands. If your past work required you to stand for 6 hours per ...

Why can't you apply for Social Security disability benefits while you're still working? The logical thinking goes like this:  I am really not able to work but I'm forcing myself to work because it's the only way to feed my family.  I should be able to keep working while Social Security decides whether I meet their rules for a disability benefit.  Once I am approved, I will stop working. Why does Social Security shoot down that argument? Because of federal law. The very first determination that Social Security must make when they examine your claim is, "Is this claimant now working at substantial gainful activity ?"   If the answer is yes, the claim is denied at Step 1, regardless of how old or how sick the claimant may be.  Simply put, the law does not permit a person to apply for SSDI benefits while they are engaged in substantial work activity. DEFINITION OF "SUBSTANTIAL GAINFUL ACTIVITY (SGA)":  Work is substantial and gainful in 2018 if...

Most disability benefits today happen because the claimant convinces a judge that he or she is not able to work.  This is particularly true for claimants under the age of 50. How do you convince a judge? Good medical evidence is the key .  Review the doctor's records in your Social Security file and see what they say.  If they don't support severe medical problems, you probably don't have a case. Writing down your symptoms can be useful.  Start with the ones that you feel would keep you from performing 8 hours of work each day. Assess you areas of physical and mental function .  How long can you sit and stand without pain?  If you were working, what would your lifting maximum be, in terms of pounds?  Any problems with posturals:  bending, crouching, kneeling, etc.? Think about how your last job ended .  If you stopped working for any reason besides a medical impairment, it sends the wrong message to Social Security.  If you we...

When your Social Security disability claim is denied, you will file an appeal and ask for a hearing before an administrative law judge.  The hearing will last about 45 minutes.  What happens at the hearing?   Here is the typical format: The administrative law judge (ALJ) will explain the purpose of the hearing and how it will be conducted.  He/she will introduce everyone present and place those who are going to give testimony under oath. The judge may allow the claimant's representative to make an opening statement--a summary of the case and the claimant's legal position--why benefits should be awarded. The ALJ will question the claimant. The judge will usually begin by verifying when the claimant last worked.  Employment records and wages are available to the judge. Often, there will be questions about the type of work the claimant has performed over the past 15 years.  One question is common, "Tell me how your last job ended." Then, the jud...

When Social Security denies your disability claim, you have only one good option if you want to get paid:  file an appeal. What does an appeal do for you?  Several things. 1.  It protects the original filing date and alleged onset date of your claim, making it possible to get retroactive or "past due" benefits back to the earlier date. 2.  It moves your claim to a special division within the Social Security Administration--where a federal administrative law judge will eventually give you a hearing, evaluate all your evidence, including new evidence, and give you a new decision. 3.  It puts you in the best possible position to get your benefits approved and paid. I think many people see an appeal as a last, desperate measure that has little chance of success.  This is absolutely wrong.  The appeal is your absolute best chance for an approval. In fact, your odds of being approved at the hearing are about twice as good as with the applicatio...

Veterans who have served years in the armed forces often leave the service with a myriad of physical and behavioral impairments.  Common physical problems include back, joint, knee, hip and foot issues which make it difficult to sustain work.  Psychological or behavioral issues include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression or a combination of these. Military personnel pay into the Social Security disability program during their years in uniform.  If they leave the military with serious impairments, they are entitled to VA disability benefits and Social Security disability (SSDI) benefits.   Some things you should know about  SSDI benefits: 1.  You must apply to Social Security separately.  It's a totally different process than the VA benefits. 2.  The rules for SSDI benefits are similar to the rules for VA disability; however, they are not the same.  For instance, the VA may give you a partial disability; how...

Back and neck pain continue to be the leading causes of disability.  Social Security pays out millions of dollars in disability claims each year for bad backs. The medical term for a bad back is usually degenerative disc disease or simply "DDD." What will you need to get approved for benefits? a doctor's diagnosis, preferably supported by an MRI or at least X-ray imaging of your spine medical records of past treatment and evaluations proof that your condition is severe and functionally limiting (limits standing, bending, lifting, etc.). Besides medical evidence, other factors that will be considered include:  your age, education and type of work you have performed over the past 15 years. A high percentage of viable disability applications will be denied initially and will require an appeal to be paid.  When you file an appeal, you are asking an administrative law judge to review all the facts in your case and render a totally new decision.  Most of the ...

Most Alabama workers are covered by Social Security disability because they pay FICA withholding tax out of every paycheck.  This provides coverage against long term disability and loss of income. However, Social Security can be difficult to deal with and there are complex rules that must be met before they will part with any money.  It can take anywhere from 4 months to 4 years to get approved. Here is the sticky part.  Social Security will often agree that you cannot perform the work you once did.  However, they will say that you can still perform some jobs which exist in the national economy.  These jobs are often unskilled minimum wage jobs, such as hand packager, inspector or copy colater.  It doesn't matter that you can't actually find one of these jobs. If you file an application and are denied (as up to 75% are), you have 60 days to file an appeal.  The appeal puts you in line for a hearing before a US administrative law ju...

Veterans who served after 1955 are covered for Social Security disability benefits, in addition to VA benefits, if they become disabled.  And while the two programs have some similarities, they also have several differences. The Forsythe Firm handles dozens of veterans cases each year and with great success.  I thought it might be useful to point out a few of the major differences in Social Security disability (SSDI) vs. VA disability. SSDI requires total disability, i.e., the inability to perform full-time work, in order to get a benefit.  There is no partial disability, as there can be with the VA. The application process is separate and different for SSDI.  Social Security and the Veterans Administration don't network or cooperate.  You must apply for SSDI separately. SSDI will usually get denied at the application level and a hearing will be required to get benefits approved.  This hearing is presided over by an Administrative Law Judge (federal)...

A Social Security disability hearing is held for one reason:  to determine if the claimant meets the regulations in federal law to receive a disability check. The administrative law judge will walk through a five-step process to determine if the regulations require a disability payment to be made.  It is unwise to walk into a hearing without knowing what the regulations are and what rules must be met in order to get paid a benefit.  Nobody is that lucky. There is evidence that must be presented.  First, that evidence must be found, analyzed and presented.  It the evidence is good enough, it will support your case and you will get paid.

Responding to the severe backlog of hearings and the long wait time to get a hearing, Social Security is now doing a large percentage of their disability hearings by Video-Teleconference (VTC).  But do you really want to have your hearing by VTC? You have a choice.  You can opt out of video hearings, if you do so according to the rules.  (More on that later). The major advantage of a video-teleconference is that it shortens the wait time for a hearing.  However, my research indicates that it only shortens the wait time by 1 or 2 months.  Therefore, you are waiting 20 months instead of 21 or 22 months, not a significant reduction. What is the approval rate of VTC hearings vs. in-person hearings? Again, my research indicates that in-person hearings result in awards about 5 percent more often than video hearings.  A 5 percent increase may not sound like much, but it is significant. What if you want to opt out of a VTC and insist on an in-...