Top Three Ways to Strengthen Your Social Security Disability Case

Here are the top three ways you can help strengthen your Social Security Disability case. My name is Kaitlin Wildoner, and I’m an attorney who focuses on helping individuals apply for and obtain their Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits as quickly as possible so they can focus on getting better. Today we’re going to talk about the top three ways to strengthen your Social Security Disability case.

First Way to Strengthen Your Social Security Disability Case

Number one, above all else, be honest. I always tell my clients, it’s important to remember that honesty truly is the best policy. First, you don’t want to sugar-coat things, you don’t want to make it seem as though things are better than they are. You want to be honest with Social Security about the limitations that you have on a daily basis. If you’re able to stand up and do the dishes, let’s say you’ve got a sink full of dishes, you just cook dinner for just yourself even, but you’ve got to wash a pan, you’ve got to wash a plate, a fork, a knife, spatula. Even that, let’s say small amount of dishes, instead of what used to maybe take you two minutes to do, now it’s going to take you fifteen because you’ve got to stop, you’ve got to rest on the counter and you’ve got to go sit down for five minutes after washing that pot because that took a lot of energy, or it tweaked something in your back, and so now you’ve gotta go sit down, kind of regain that energy, massage the back a little bit, calm down. And then you can get back up and do the dishes again. So don’t sugar coat things.

When they say, can you do the dishes? Sure, you might be able to do the dishes, but not in the traditional sense. You have to make certain accommodations and you’ve got limitations now, so be honest, don’t sugar coat.

In that same vein, of course, is don’t over-exaggerate. Social Security, they’ve got your medical records, they can see what your doctors are saying as far as what your limitations are, what your impairments are, so if you’re over-exaggerating what your limitations are as compared to the medical records, Social Security is gonna have a conflict there. This means it’s important to not try to make you sound better, but just to be honest and to be honest about the limitations that you’ve got.

Second Way to Strengthen Your Social Security Disability Case

Second, you’ll want to tell Social Security about all of your conditions, all of the doctors, all of the clinics, all of the hospitals, everything relating to the conditions that impact your ability to work. You might be thinking that something doesn’t matter, it’s minor, but Social Security evaluates the whole person, they look at everything! They don’t just look at the most significant reason that’s impeding your ability to work and ability to function. While you might have multiple back surgeries or multiple knee surgeries that are be the biggest thing that’s preventing you from working, the mental impact that such pain and medication can have shouldn’t be ignored. If, of course, you have that mental impact (a lot of people do, it’s nothing to be ashamed about!) it’s just a matter of fact, letting Social Security know that that’s also part of what you have going on.

Third Way to Strengthen Your Social Security Disability Case

And third, and finally, the third way to strengthen your Social Security a case is to respond to all paperwork that’s sent to you by the Social Security Administration, or if your case is at the initial or reconsideration level, all paperwork that is sent by your State Disability Determination Services office, they are the ones that are reviewing your case, applying social securities rules, but they work for your state, they will often send paperwork like a work history report, adult function report, pain questionnaire, supplemental anxiety questionnaire, cardiac questionnaire, different types of questionnaires to give them a better understanding of what your day-to-day life and limitations are like, this is where, again, you want to be honest, you don’t wanna sugar coat, you don’t wanna over-exaggerate, you wanna be honest about your limitations that you’ve got.

Social Security Disability Lawyer

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