If a medical condition diminishes your ability to make a living, you might feel somewhat overwhelmed by the changes in your life and wish to seek insight on your options. While you might be eligible for aid via Social Security Disability Insurance, filing a claim for...
Social Security Disability
Doctors: How They Help or Hurt
Social Security has all your doctors’ records AND one of them even wrote a letter saying you are disabled….you’re all set! Right??? Maybe, but maybe not. Sometimes doctors’ records are helpful, sometimes they don’t have much information, and sometimes they hurt your...
The Decision: Possible Outcomes and What They Mean for Your Case
Following the conclusion of Social Security Disability hearing, majority of judges will take the case “under advisement.” What this means is the judge wants the opportunity to review your medical records as well as your testimony given at your hearing before they make...
The Issue of “Young Individuals” and Social Security Disability
In Social Security Disability the term “young individual” does not necessarily mean what many assume it to mean – young adults. Instead, the term young individual is used to include all individuals who are under the age of 50. This age category is important to note...
How a disabled adult can receive SSDI without a work history
As we have talked about before, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSD) benefits are based on your work history. The more time you spent working (and the higher your income) before you became disabled, the higher the benefit amount you might qualify for. There is...
The possible role of work credits in SSDI claims
There may be few things in life as harrowing as losing your ability to perform everyday tasks or maintain gainful employment in Minnesota. The onset of a physical or mental health condition could disrupt your life in various ways and leave you with questions about the...
Exertional Limitations
A medical disability can severely limit an individual’s exertional capacity to work. Exertional capacity addresses an individual’s limitations and restrictions of physical strength and defines the individual’s remaining ability to perform activities in the areas of...
Nonexertional Limitations
Many people recognize that a disability can impose exertional restrictions on performing physical activities at work. However, the inability to work does not just depend on exertional limitations. A medical impairment or combination of impairments can also affect...
Treating Source Statements
When you apply for Social Security Disability benefits, all medical records during the relevant time period of disability must be requested and submitted. Along with submitting mandatory medical records, you also may ask your treating doctor or health provider to fill...
Social Security Disability Hearing: The Vocational Expert’s Role
Along with the judge, every Social Security Disability hearing has a vocational expert who appears and testifies at the hearing. By definition, a vocational expert is a professional who provides impartial expert opinion evidence about a claimant’s vocational...
Medical Vocational Guidelines, Grid Rules
So from the five step process we know we need to prove you cannot do other work, not just the work you have done before. There are a few rules we can use to help us rule out other work, one discussed here (link to first post). Another way in which we can rule out...
What is the “worn-out” worker rule?
The process of obtaining Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits may be easier for some applicants, due to a little-known provision in the law known as the "worn-out" worker rule. Under this rule, applicants who would not normally qualify for benefits would gain...
SSI and Working
You applied for and won your disability case, congratulations! Maybe now you can pay off a few bills, fix your car, or get that new washing machine you’ve been needing. BUT, after you’ve spent the lump sum payment(s) you received in backpay (money owed you from the...
Can I work while waiting for SSI/SSDI benefits?
The short answer is yes, but it is a little more complicated than that. While you can work part time in most cases while awaiting your hearing or even while collecting benefits, the amount you can work is based on the amount of dollars you earn not the hours worked....
Five Step Process
Proving disability, whether before or at a hearing with a federal Administrative Law Judge is different than any other kind of court you may have been to or seen. It is an informal process with different rules. Below is the five-step sequential process Social Security...