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 Macular Degeneration and Filing for Disability

1) Macular degeneration is an eye disease that is caused by deterioration due to damage in the retina caused by aging. It most often affects those who are over the age of 50. It is the leading cause of vision loss in the United States for those over 60.

2) Although this eye disease doesn’t cause blindness, the disease does affect central vision and causes blind spots and blurring that make it difficult to perform daily activities.

3) Macular degeneration comes in two forms – dry and wet. The dry form is called central geographic atrophy, and the wet form is called neovascular or exudative. The dry form causes retinal atrophy and the wet form causes blood and proteins to leak from the blood vessels.

4) Vision changes due to macular degeneration may include difficulty recognizing and reading faces, blurriness, distorted vision, decrease in colors, druse, trouble adapting to low lights, and a need for bright lights.

5) Some people experience hallucinations due to damaged vision. This is called Charles Bonnet syndrome and is not related to mental illness.

6) Though mostly caused by natural aging, macular degeneration is more common in those who smoke, have a family history of the disease, are obese, have light colored eyes, and those who have cardiovascular diseases. It is more common in women than men, and tends to be more common in Caucasians.

7) Wet macular degeneration is more severe than the dry form of the disease. Dry macular degeneration is most commonly treated with high doses of zinc, vitamin C and antioxidants, while the wet form of the disease is usually treated with laser therapy, photodynamic therapy, implanted optic devices, vascular endothelial growth factor antagonists, and macular translocation surgery.

8) In some cases, macular degeneration can lead to the patient becoming legally blind.

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.