HOW TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY & SSI DISABILITY was written by Patricia
A. Petow, Esq. to help applicants succeed in their claims for disability
benefits under Social Security and under SSI.
HOW TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY & SSI DISABILITY is available
from Amazon.com in paperback and on Kindle.
HOW TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY & SSI DISABILITY provides line-by-line
guidance for applicants and their representatives for the major disability
application forms. The book also includes templates for applicants to organize
their medical and prescription records.
Attorney Petow notes that many disabled people have difficulty articulating
how their disabilities affect them. She recommends that disabled claimants
enlist the support of a “personal advocate” as well as an attorney or
non-attorney representative.
Attorney Petow argues that properly completed Social
Security forms can serve as a low cost “day in the life video.”
Here’s a look at the chapters in the book:
Introduction
[According to a Social Security study:] “The final award rate for
disabled-worker applicants has varied over time, averaging nearly 45 percent
for claims filed from 2001 through 2010. The percentage of applicants awarded
benefits at the initial claims level averaged 28 percent over the same period
and ranged from a high of 37 percent to a low of 26 percent.”
http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/2011/sect04.html#table59
Chapter 1
“In applying for disability, some of the issues for which
you need an experienced representative’s help are: the materiality of drug
and/or alcohol abuse, credibility determinations, pain determination,
evaluation of symptom validity tests” [other issues are also identified in this
chapter.]
Chapter 2
[A medical journal] “you should list chronologically every
appointment or medical visit (such as to emergency rooms) you have with medical
providers, including x-ray departments, lab offices, therapists and social
workers and including any visits to Social Security consultative physicians or
psychologists.”
Chapter 3
“The forms that you fill out when you first apply stay in
your case file and may be looked at and relied upon during later stages of
appeal, no matter how much time has passed since you completed the forms.”
Chapter 4
“Never request a medical report from your doctor ‘so that
you can get on disability.’”
Chapter 5
“If your doctor or other authorized medical provider
recommended that you take non-prescription medication, note that also—it may be
that the non-prescription medication is the appropriate medication, and there
is no 'better' prescription medication.”
Chapter 6
“It is important to keep in mind that Social Security has a
particular legal definition of frequent and occasional, and that definition may
not be the layperson or medical provider’s expectation when you are describing
your job duties and when anyone else describes your functional capacity. Hours
and minutes are more precise than saying frequently or occasionally.”
Chapter 7
“The answers to questions 5 and 6 are the basis of a
successful disability claim.”
Chapter 8
“If pain is a major factor in why you cannot work, to
persuade Social Security that you cannot work, you must explain how you
experience pain.”
Chapter 9
“Simply put, if there have been changes, usually for the
worse, in your illnesses, injuries or conditions, or any new illnesses,
injuries or conditions, your medical records should reflect, at the very least,
your complaining of these worsening conditions.”
Chapter 10
“At this stage, it is up to the claimant and representative
to get the medical evidence in the file.”
