Using a disability attorney to file your claim for benefits is helpful because of how daunting the appeal process can be. If your initial application is not 100 percent accurate, and does not prove that your are eligible, your claim will be rejected. Work with a lawyer to submit the initial claim to reduce the risk of being denied disability benefits. Your attorney will make sure that you're not rejected because of one of the following most common reasons.
Your Income is Too High
The Social Security Administration sets the guidelines for how much you can earn and still get disability benefits. They factor in wages from a job and contract work, but exclude such things as food and medical assistance, and monetary gifts from friends and family. Your attorney will know which forms of income need to be included on the disability benefits application and which should be left off.
The Disability is Short-Term
Your disability must keep you off of the job for at least one year, says the Social Security Administration. While an injury, such as a broken arm or pulled back, may be painful and cause you to be away from work for several weeks or months, it will still not make you eligible for disability claims. How the supporting documents submitted with the initial application are worded is important. Your attorney will work with the health care providers to get the right information. For example, your doctor's statement that a specific treatment for back pain WILL get you back to work in less than a year is interpreted differently than if your doctor says that you MAY go back to work in less than a year. The second statement indicates that your disability may be a long-term problem.
The Initial Application is Missing Medical Information
Your claim can be rejected because you didn't include information that you thought was irrelevant to the application. Perhaps you left out information from sessions with a counselor when you felt depressed because of your physical injury. The actual information you left out may not be grounds for rejecting your claim, but the fact that you left it out does disqualify you. Your attorney will know exactly which information needs to be included in the initial application.
Failure to Follow Recommended Treatment
If your doctor suggested a specific treatment, and you didn't follow through with it, your benefits can be denied. There could be good reasons for not getting the treatment, such as your insurance didn't cover expensive procedures or it was too far to drive to where the treatment was offered. This all needs to be documented in the initial application. A disability attorney will know how this needs to be presented in the application to show that your reasons for rejecting treatment were justified.
Don't waste your time preparing the initial disability benefits application yourself and risk being denied. Work with a disability attorney like Bruce K Billman to give yourself the best chance at getting approved during this first step of applying for benefits.
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