The Biggest Challenges People Face When Dealing With Social Security Disability Benefit Decisions

The biggest challenge in disability claims is that you will need to continue to document the medical evidence of your impairment throughout your case, a process that can take a long time and become very frustrating to the person seeking Social Security Disability and/or Supplement Security Income benefits.

Your medical records will support your testimony about your physical or mental impairments and the symptoms that limit your ability to work. Your testimony, along with your medical records, and any medical opinion from your doctor regarding the limitations associated with the symptoms your impairments cause, is going to be used when determining you are “not able to work” – and therefore eligible for SSDI and/or SSI benefits.

To do this, you will need to:

• Consistently go to your doctor’s appointments;
• Report your symptoms associated with your conditions to your medical providers;
• Follow your medical providers treatment recommendations;
• Fully document your symptoms.

What’s difficult about this is that, when somebody is not working and they don’t have income coming in, their insurance situation is often problematic too. Fortunately, with Medicaid expansion and other State run insurance programs, people who are not able to work can get access to the medical insurance and subsequently medical treatment they need easier than ever before.

You must continue to seek medical treatment, documenting your symptoms associated with your impairments so that you have evidence of how your impairments interfere with your ability to work. This can present a challenge, especially if you don’t have money coming in, because even with more affordable health insurance options, some claimants must deal with copays and prescriptions expense. Nevertheless, you can’t claim that you’re disabled without the medical evidence to back it up. The Social Security disability programs wants to know that the limitations that still exist after getting the treatment available to you.

Dealing With Denials

Unfortunately, most initial applications are denied. Do not be discouraged! If your application is denied, you have 60 days to file a Request for Reconsideration. When you file the request for reconsideration, you updated Social Security on any new conditions, new doctors or new appointments that they didn’t previously consider, and your case is sent back to disability determination services for them to do the following:

• Review all the medical evidence
• Review your work history
• Come up with a vocational profile
• Come up with a medical profile
• Have medical experts and vocational experts review your case
• Issue a decision on your application

One of the greatest challenges in SSD claims, is not letting the denials discourage a claimant from going forward with their claim and making sure of the deadlines that are involved so that an appeal can be filed within the appropriate time as these timelines are crucial to keeping your claim alive.

Upon filing the Request for Reconsideration, the second appeal stage, a claimant will fill out more forms many are almost identical to those filled out in your initial application. This can cause claimants to get frustrated. However, these forms are a chance to show what has changed in your original conditions, inform Social Security of any knew medial impairments and document changes in symptoms and how they further limit your ability to work, since you filled them out during the initial application stage.

Dealing With Denials… Again

At the request for reconsideration level, most people will get denied again. Do not be discouraged! The next appeal is called the Request for Hearing, and again there is a 60-day deadline to get a file request for a hearing.

It’s at the hearing level, where you the disabled claimant has an opportunity to tell a Judge through testimony the following:

• The symptoms associated with your physical and/or mental issues
• Your experience of hardship that has been caused by your disability
• Present all the medical evidence to support your case regarding your limitations to work
• And much more…

It is at the Hearing stage, where a majority of cases are won. However, it’s not always easy to push a case through to this point – and it is especially difficult if you are not well-versed in the SSD claims process. This is why it is critical to work with an experienced social security disability attorney, so that they can provide the expert guidance needed to get your social security disability benefits and the financial support they deserve.

For more information on Social Security Disability Law in Arkansas, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (866) 253-2226 today.