Tips and Advice for Social Security Disability and SSI Claims

How to prove you are disabled
and win disability benefits

Avoiding Mistakes to get your Disability Claim Approved

Excerpt: Once your disability case is at the state disability agency, there are some things that you need to do to prevent your disability claim from being denied for non-medical reasons.
What is the difference between Social Security disability and SSI ?

Excerpt: More differences between Social Security Disability and SSI -- The SSI disability program has no required waiting period; SSI disability beneficiaries are potentially eligible to begin their disability benefits with the month they filed for disability.
Tips to Prepare for Filing for Social Security Disability or SSI

Excerpt: In preparing for a disability hearing, an attorney will typically attempt to obtain a medical source statement from your treating physician (essentially verifying that you have limitations to the extent that you are unable to engage in work activity that provides a substantial and gainful income).
Filing a Social Security Disability Application - How to File & the Information that is Needed by SSA

Excerpt: When should you file a claim for disability benefits with SSA?, How do you file for Social Security Disability or SSI?, What kind of information does Social Security need from your medical treatment history in order to process your disability application?
What types of information is Social Security Disability looking for?

Excerpt: What types of information is social security actually looking for in the claimant's medical records and work history? With regard to the work history, social security is first looking for relevancy. This means jobs that were performed within the past fifteen year period. Jobs that are older than this timeframe will not be the focus of a disability claim
Proving a Social Security Disability Case Often Means Getting a Statement from Your Doctor

Excerpt: To approve a disability case, the examiner will need to be able to find sufficient information in the claimant's records to show that their current physical and/or mental limitations will not allow them to engage in work activity at a substantial and gainful activity level. This can be difficult very often due to the fact that most doctors do not record information in their treatment notes as to what a person's limitations might be.
Social Security Disability Tips — how a claim gets worked on

Excerpt: In addition to current medical treatment information, your disability examiner needs to have information about your ability to function in daily life to make their disability decision. They may contact you or your third-party contact person (a person you list at the time of filing your disability claim who has an opportunity to observe you performing daily activities
Tips for Getting Disability Approved When you File with Social Security

Excerpt: Be sure to provide treatment information as far back as you can recall. Make sure to do this at least as far back as you are alleging that your condition, or conditions, began. While it is true that SSA cannot award disability benefits without current medical evidence, it is also true that social security cannot award the maximum amount of back pay that a claimant might potentially be eligible for without the necessary medical evidence to document the length of their illness, injury, or condition.
When You Apply For Disability, write Down Everything That Is Wrong With You

Excerpt: It is important to mention ANY mental conditions along with the physical impairment you have. Why? Because mentioning them may enable a disability examiner to rule out your ability to perform a past job that was not physically challenging but required you to stay on task, concentrate, perform complex tasks, remember instructions, etc.
How do you find out if a Social Security disability claim has been approved or even denied ?

Excerpt: Just a quick reminder: decisional notices are just one of several reasons that you should keep Social Security appraised of your current mailing address. If you move while you are awaiting a decision, you should notify both the disability examiner working on your case and the local Social Security office where you began your claim.
Social Security Denial - What should be done if your disability is denied?

Excerpt: It is not enough to simply send in an appeal. Ideally, you should always contact the social security office to verify that the appeal was actually received. There have been cases in which a claimant sent in an appeal and did not follow up the receipt of the appeal, having just assumed that it was received and processed...and then found out, months later, that it had never been received.
If I Get Denied Twice For SSD or SSI Disability, What Do I Do?

Excerpt: The trick to getting your disability claim approved if you are denied at the initial level (i.e. the disability application level) is to get to an administrative law judge disability hearing. You can only do that by filing a reconsideration appeal first (the reconsideration is the first appeal). If your reconsideration is denied, you may then file a request for a disability hearing. More people win their disability claim at a disability hearing than the initial disability claim and reconsideration appeal levels combined.
How do you prove your disability case if you have a mental condition?

Excerpt: Something, however, that both the disability examiner and the examiner's unit psychological consultant (disability examiners work in processing units to which both a unit medical consultant, and M.D. and a unit psychological consultant, a Ph.D.-level psychologist are attached) will be particularly attentive to will be evidence of episodes of decompensation.
A Social Security Medical Exam usually offers little to your case--nonetheless, do not miss the appointment

Excerpt: The most important thing to remember about a consultative exam is that it is a tool used to further the purposes of the social security disability agency (i.e., closing cases, denying claims) rather than those of the claimant (receiving benefits). The best thing to do is show up (failure to participate in the CE could be grounds for dismissal of your claim), and don’t worry about the results—they will not count carry near as much weight as your past medical history and the observations made by your regular treating physician or medical specialist.
Will the income of a Spouse Affect My Disability Benefits?

Excerpt: If you are receiving Supplemental Security Income, a.k.a. SSI disability, your spouse’s income may affect the amount of your monthly disability benefit...If your spouse has income it will not affect your Social Security disability amount.
Getting Social Security Disability Help for your Case

Excerpt: Many disability lawyers and non-attorney representatives offer their services only after a claimant has filed and been denied. Some, however, will represent a claimant throughout their entire disability case beginning with the initial claim (i.e. the disability application). Some representatives will even assist a claimant with the actual initial filing of their claim.
Will my disability case be reviewed after I have been approved for disability benefits?

Excerpt: Why are disability benefits ususally continued following a review? Because for a disability examiner to discontinue, or cease, a person's benefits, they must obtain recent medical evidence that indicates that the claimant's condition has improved. In other words, the records must show that the same level of physical or mental limitations that were in place at the time benefits were granted no longer exist.
Advice for a Social Security Disability Continuing Review

Excerpt: If you have engaged in any type of work activity, be prepared to give details as to the length of time you worked, how many hours per week you worked, your hourly pay, and what your job duties were, or are.
Can I get my Social Security Disability Hearing Request Expedited, Speeded up?

Excerpt: If you choose to try to get your hearing request speeded up, however, you will need to demonstrate that one of the following situations applies to your particular case...
Speeding up the Request for a Social Security Hearing - Documentation that is needed

Excerpt: A request to speed up, or expedite, a disability hearing will often go to a hearing office director. But in many situations, it will simply be sent to the hearing office director because the case has not yet been assigned to a specific ALJ (administrative law judge).
Dire Need and Getting a Social Security Disability or SSI Case Speeded Up

Excerpt: Unfortunately, dire need requests typically have zero effect at the disability application and reconsideration appeal levels. This is because there is usually nothing to expedite, meaning that disability examiners cannot make the process go any faster than it does. There are cases in which a claim will be flagged for involving a terminal illness or a presumptive disability and this can result in a decision that is made much faster and without the standard medical evidence requirements. However, most claims will not fit into this category.
Financial Help When You Are Filing For Disability

Excerpt: If you are considering filing for social security disability (SSD) benefits, you are likely suffering from a medical condition that is seriously compromising, if not outright inhibiting your ability to perform tasks associated with work. You may already be experiencing a loss of earnings as a result of your condition, or be facing calls from bill collection agencies, or even the prospect of losing your home.
How does a Disability Lawyer prepare for a hearing?

Excerpt: Most applicants for disability benefits are not aware of the fact that, although the social security administration will gather medical records to develop a claimant's case when it is being processed at the first two levels of the system (application and reconsideration), SSA will not gather records for a disability hearing.
Why does Representation increase the win ratio at a Social Security Disability or SSI Hearing?

Excerpt: Disability representatives, whether of the attorney or non-attorney variety, will usually employ time-proven, systematic techniques for establishing the credentials of a case.
Using a lawyer at a hearing to speed up the case

Excerpt: Back to the speed aspect, however, having a lawyer for your administrative law judge appeal may make the disability process faster by requesting the judge make a decision on the face of the record, or on the record. What is this?...
How do you get Disability Approved when you file with Social Security?

Excerpt: Correctly, or incorrectly, matching the job title in the DOT with the information provided by the claimant when they apply for disability is critical--because even similar jobs (such as various truck driving jobs) can have very different skill and exertional requirements.
What Can I Do to Improve My Chances of Winning Disability Benefits

Excerpt: You may be able to help your case simply by going down to your doctor’s office and picking up the documents yourself, then hand-delivering them to the state disability determinations office.
Tips to shorten the length of time for a disability decision

Excerpt: Some disability claims take longer to process due to a variety of reasons, which may include a lack of current medical evidence, an inability to contact the disability claimant, and missed medical or psychological exams which have been scheduled by Social Security (these are known as consultative exams).
How to File for Disability - Tips for filing

Excerpt: You should have documentation of your birth, citizenship or alien status; Your work history; The names, addresses, phone numbers, and treatment dates of all the physicians, clinics, and hospitals that have treated you during your illness...
More Advice on filing for disability

Excerpt: The ideal situation, then, is for a claimant to have their disability application approved quickly by the disability examiner at the first level of consideration, the state disability determination agency. This is indeed a rare occurrence, but it does happen, and at any rate you can help speed up the process if...

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SSD and SSI are Federal Programs

The title II Social Security Disability and title 16 SSI Disability programs operate under federal guidelines and, therefore, the program requirements--medical and non-medical--apply to all states:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Recent approval and denial statistics for various states can be viewed here:

Social Security Disability, SSI Approval and Denial Statistics by state

Special Section: Tips and Advice for Social Security Disability and SSI Claims