Hi I’m Sharon Christy your nurse attorney for Social Security disability benefits. If you’re thinking about applying for disability, I want to talk to you about four things that you need to know and understand before you even file that application. 

The first thing you need to know is what does it really mean to be disabled? Social Security has a very strict and technical definition of disabled. Social Security says disabled means that you are unable to engage in what they call substantial gainful activity because of your health problems and that this is either going to result in death or is going to keep you out of work for at least 12 consecutive months. That’s the general definition. So, what does that mean? The first thing you have to understand is that disabled means you can’t do the jobs you’ve done in the past or any other type of work. Even a simple one-step minimum wage job that you’re not able to do that because of your health problems you’re not able to do that kind of job eight hours a day five days a week. So that’s number one. So, if you’re thinking about applying for disability because you can’t do your current job think about whether you would be able to do anything less demanding than your current job.  

The second thing you want to know is are you even qualified to apply for disability under Social Security. Social Security requires that you have worked a certain amount of time paying your Social Security tax before you can even apply. There’s an easy way to check now first of all if you’re an adult and you’ve worked most of your adult life you are going to have enough what Social Security calls work orders. You’ll have enough but if you want to check here’s how you do it go to the Social Security website SSA govt and there’s a button or a link you can click on titled my Social Security. Click on that link set up your account it’s very easy to do and then you’ll pull up your Social Security Statement. You know that’s the statement that tells you how much you’re going to receive when you retire. Well, it also tells you how much you’re going to receive if you become disabled and if you don’t have enough work quarters to apply for disability it will tell you that too. So, check that out before you even take any other steps with regard to applying for disability.

The third thing you want to know is if you’re going to move forward and apply well when did I become disabled? Now remember that goes back to the definition it doesn’t mean when was I diagnosed with this condition in all cases in some cases it does but in all cases it certainly doesn’t. What it means is when did my health problems become so severe that I had to stop working. What is meant by the beginning of disability or as Social Security calls it your onset date. Then the fourth thing you want to think about is do I have any evidence that I’m disabled. What do I mean by that? Well medical evidence is extremely important in these cases. So, the first thing you need to know is that you have to be seeing doctors on a regular basis for your health problems because otherwise you will have no evidence to prove your case.  

But it’s not just that you’re seeing the doctors an important thing for you to remember is make sure you tell your doctors about how your conditions are limiting you because Social Security is looking not only for your diagnosis and your treatment and how you respond to treatment that’s all very important. But Social Security is looking for how these conditions limit you and then determine it doesn’t limit you enough. You can’t work so those are four very important points that you want to know before you even file your application if you’re thinking about moving forward, I recommend that you find a disability lawyer that does what we do in my office which is we will file the application with you. If we’ve determined that we think you do have a strong enough case. So, I hope you find that helpful and good luck with your application.