SSDRC

Filing an Application for Disability Benefits

Social Security Disability List of Impairments

Social Security Disability and SSI Back pay

Social Security Disability Status

SSI Disability Benefits

Social Security Disability and SSI Requirements

Social Security, SSI, and Mental Disability

How Long Does It Take To Get Disability Benefits?

Qualifying: What do you Need to Prove to Qualify for Disability?

Facts about Cerebral Palsy and Filing for Disability

1. Cerebral palsy encompasses a variety of motor disorders that develop under the age of three, including during pregnancy. Movement and posture are primarily affected, but disabilities in cognition, communication and behavior may also be involved.

2. Cerebral palsy is a physical and not a mental disability, and therefore does not affect intellect. Those with cerebral palsy do have increased risk of learning disability.

3. Cerebral palsy does not affect life expectancy. However, independent ability, particularly the ability to feed one-self, seem related to longevity.

4. Cerebral palsy does not affect the ability to reproduce. Those with cerebral palsy can have children and many are able to care for and raise their children.

5. A 2003 study by MMWR estimated the lifetime cost of cerebral palsy, including medical expenses and lost income, at about $900,000 per individual.

6. Prevalence of cerebral palsy has increased in recent years. The cause of this increase is likely medical advancements that have decreased deaths among babies with low birth weights, since low birth rate is a risk factor for developing cerebral palsy.

7. In the United Kingdom, a 1952 charity called The Spastics Society described those with cerebral palsy as spastics. Spastic and spaz became derogatory terms are often taken with great offense among cerebral palsy patients and advocates in UK, while in the United States these terms are considered a mild insult that has no connection with any developmental disability.

8. Cerebral palsy has been recognized through a number of pop culture entertainment avenues, as well as through many notable people with the condition. This type of pop culture referencing has helped increase public awareness and understanding of cerebral palsy and it's affects.

9. The severity of disability among those with cerebral palsy varies greatly. Some may be able to live completely independently, while others may require assistance in all daily activities. Many others need assistance for only some activities but are otherwise independent.

Can you qualify for disability benefits with this condition?

Whether or not you qualify for disability and, as a result, are approved for disability benefits will depend entirely on the information obtained from your medical records. This includes whatever statements may have been obtained from your treating physician (a doctor who has a history of treating your condition and is, therefore, qualified to comment as to your condition and prognosis).

It will also depend on the information obtained from your vocational, or work, history if you are an adult, or academic records if you are a minor-age child. The important thing to keep in mind is that the social security administration does not award benefits based on simply having a condition, but, instead, will base an approval or denial on the extent to which a condition causes functional limitations. Functional limitations can be great enough to make work activity not possible (or, for a child, make it impossible to engage in age-appropriate activities).

Why are so many disability cases lost at the disability application and reconsideration appeal levels?

Speaking as a former Disability Claims Examiner, I can state that there are several reasons:

1) Social Security makes no attempt to obtain a statement from a claimant's treating physician. By contrast, at the hearing level, a claimant and his or her disability attorney will generally obtain and present this type of statement to a judge;

2) Prior to the hearing level, a claimant will not have the opportunity to explain how their condition limits them, nor will their attorney or representative have the opportunity to make a presentation based on the evidence of the case. At the hearing level, of course, this is exactly what happens. And a number of disability representatives will also take such steps even earlier, at the reconsideration appeal level;

3) Disability judges, unlike disability examiners who decides cases at the first two levels of the system, can make independent decisions without being overturned by immediate supervisors--which happens frequently.