Those may sound like terms you would use when shipping glassware, but they apply equally to Social Security disability claims.
Far more claims are denied than paid. In fact, recent statistics show that over 70 percent of disability claims are denied for one reason or another. The most common reason is failure to prove disability according to the federal rules.
What kind of things can break your disability claim? Here are a few:
- Failing to turn in all your doctors, hospitals and other medical providers. Social Security only contracts the medical providers you tell them about. You should provide each doctor's name, address, phone number--and approximate dates of treatment.
- Failing to complete all the forms they send you promptly and completely. You will get a big package of forms in a brown envelope after you apply. Most claimants either ignore these forms or fill them out in the most skimpy manner--leaving out the details that could get them approved.
- Failing to provide exact details about your past work on the Work History Report. It's one of those forms that come in the big brown envelope. If you are age 50 or over, getting a benefit depends largely on whether you can still perform any of your past work. To decide this, Social Security needs to know a lot of details about the jobs you have done during the past 15 years. How much walking, standing, lifting, bending, kneeling, crouching, crawling, handling, etc. did you do on each job. The Work History Report form gathers all this detail. If you leave this information blank, Social Security will draw their own conclusions in a way that will not benefit you.
- Working after the date you say you became disabled. Social Security, by law, is for persons who are no longer able to work. If you work after claiming to be disabled, it is taken as proof that you are not disabled. File your claim AFTER you have stopped working, not before.
- Putting false information on any form or to any Social Security employee. Credibility is tremendously important and it is lost when you give false information. I often tell my clients that Social Security knows more about us than we know about ourselves and it is not only useless to lie to them, it is harmful. For example, they have a record of every penny I earned from my after-school job as a teenager right up to this month! If I ever drew unemployment benefits or workers compensation, they know it, the dates, and the exact amounts.
- Failure to file a timely appeal to a denial or unfavorable decision. Nearly all Social Security decisions can be appealed and it is usually the appeal that pays the claim. However, there is a strict 60-day deadline to file an appeal. Miss the deadline and your appeal is deader than a roadkill. Almost no excuse will do.
- Failing to prepare for your appeal hearing. I'm amazed at individuals who walk into a hearing alone and think it will go well. Then, the judge begins to talk about transferable skills, past relevant work, residual functional capacities or amended onset dates and the claimant panics. They don't even speak the language. So, by all means, take someone to the hearing with you who can at least formulate a legal plan to present to the judge as to why you meet the federal requirements for a benefit. Otherwise, you waste the best opportunity you will ever have to be approved and paid. Going in alone and unrepped doesn't save you money, it costs you everything.
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