Articles Posted in Social Security Disability Insurance

Let’s face it: It’s easy to attack the Social Security Disability Insurance program and those who need it.

Our Boston SSDI lawyers have heard a lot in recent months about how the rolls are bloated, there’s fraud and people don’t really need this “entitlement program” anyway.

For a moment, let’s set aside the fact that most of these arguments are deeply flawed.

Instead, let’s focus on the more difficult truth that most people don’t want to face. That is, if federal work safety oversight agencies had any substantial funding, staff or muscle, many of those who are currently seeking disability insurance would never be there in the first place.

It’s uncomfortable for us to admit that worker disability can happen to any one of us. It’s doesn’t sit well with many people that our workplaces aren’t as safe as they should be. So we conveniently ignore that and go after the victims.

But if we as a nation are serious about tackling the issue of rising number of workers claiming disability, we need to get serious about preventing those disabilities in the first place. That means putting a premium on workplace safety.

But that’s clearly not happening. A recent investigative report by The Center for Public Integrity gives us a detailed example of one federal agency that is floundering in its responsibility to keep workers safe. It’s the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

This is the entity that is responsible for launching investigations into dangerous chemical incidents or events and making recommendations that would serve to prevent such events in the future.

Discussion of this particular regulator is especially relevant today, as it just launched an inquiry into the explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas. However, we wouldn’t expect that investigation to be wrapped up anytime soon.

Consider two other major chemical disasters in 2010 – the Tesoro Corp. oil refinery explosion that killed seven people in Washington and the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people and began the world’s largest oil spill. Those CSB investigations are STILL open today, more than three years later.

What’s more, the board, which decides which of the 200 or so chemical incidents it will investigate each year, has been tapering off its incoming investigations. The number of incidents hasn’t lessened. The board is simply choosing not to investigate as many of them.

Consider that in 2006, the board (operational since 1998) produced a total of nine products, including including three full reports, three safety bulletins and three case studies. The following year, it was eight. Last year, it was two.

Agency representatives say they can’t do anymore than what they are with the cash they have. The agency has a $10 million budget and a staff of 39. Compare that to the National Traffic Safety Board, after which the CSB was modeled, which has a staff of more than 400 and a budget of more than $100 million.

Officials with the agency said they have requested more money and more satellite offices, but legislators have so far rejected those requests.

Hundreds of thousands of people each year suffer from some kind of chemical injury at work. Some are more severe than others, and some may even quality the injured for long-term, federal disability benefits. Thankfully, there is assistance available through SSDI. Call us today to learn more about how we may be able to help you obtain benefits.
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Lawmakers grappling with the issue of how to keep the federal disability insurance program fully functional for generations to come heard a novel idea recently from an analyst with the Congressional Budget Office.

In a hearing before the House Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee, analyst Joyce Manchester testified that employers have to be brought into the fold to help reduce the risk of a worker incurring a disabling condition to begin with.

Our Boston Social Security Disability Insurance lawyers know that this will of course be easier said than done, but it’s certainly an option worth exploring.

Interestingly, neither Manchester nor other witnesses harped on the issue of fraud or individuals seeking out benefits to which they weren’t rightly entitled. A report last year released by the Government Accountability Office found that was not a substantial concern nor a driving force behind the increase in disability rolls.

The greater issue is the baby boom. America had a birth rate explosion in the mid-1940s, but it tapered off dramatically by 1965. What that means it that we have a sizable population right now that is aging. The risk of disability increases with age. But we have a younger, working generation that is not large enough to support it.

So the question is what do we do with this. Some have suggested that tighten restrictions and make it tougher for people to get on disability in the first place. However, this ends up actually costing us more because these individuals end up relying on other social services in order to meet their basic needs.

So Manchester’s suggestion of holding employers more accountable for safe work standards makes a lot of sense.

To be clear, a disabling condition need not be incurred at work in order to qualify a person for benefits (unlike workers’ compensation). However, we may be able to significantly reduce the SSDI rolls if employers stepped up their game to make the workplace a safer place. Additionally, Manchester suggested that if employers could do more to encourage and support disabled workers, there would be less need for disability insurance. That might mean making certain accommodations such as flexible hours or improving disability accessibility.

As it stands, federal law does require that companies make reasonable accommodations for employees who are disabled. Additionally, a firm that uses private group disability plans may be offered insurer incentives to keep an injured or disabled worker on the job.

However, because of the way that SSDI is funded, through flat-rate payroll taxes on both employees and employers, employers don’t bear any burden of the costs associated with a disabled worker who goes on SSDI.

Comparatively, European countries have been reportedly given companies incentives to keep a person working by hefting some of the cost of disability benefits directly onto the company. For example, in the Netherlands, employers are mandated to cover the cost of disability benefits for at least two years.

In Switzerland, the SSDI equivalent charges high rates to companies that don’t offer its workers private short term disability programs, and lower rates for firms that do.

In other nations, employers that have high rates of disability actually get taxed more heavily by the government, providing even more incentive for companies to make safety a priority.
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Researchers in Boston are part of an international consortium that has recently discovered an underlying biological link between a handful of psychiatric illnesses, including schizophrenia, autism and depression.

This breakthrough research gets us one step closer to determining which genetic variants cause these conditions, and how we may be able to better treat them.

In the meantime, our Boston Social Security Disability Insurance attorneys want to make sure that sufferers of schizophrenia – and these other conditions as well – know that they may be eligible to receive federal benefits. For many, this could very well be a way out of poverty, a ticket out of a potential cycle of homelessness, crime and institutions.

Of course, your eligibility may depend on how consistent you are in taking your doctor-prescribed medication. There is no cure for schizophrenia, but medical treatment programs have proven effective in quelling some of the most severe symptoms.

However, the disease itself may be a limitation to an individual taking their medication with any regularity. And as this new research shows, we have a long way to go in terms of eliminating the barriers that these individuals must endure in an effort to live happy, stable lives. When medication is not fully effective – or when that medication poses debilitating side effects on its own – disability benefits are an important consideration.

In some cases, schizophrenia may develop suddenly and without much warning. In other cases, there is a gradual decline in function that foreshadows the first major episode.

Early on, sufferers might seem somewhat eccentric, reclusive or unmotivated. They may appear to lack emotions or be increasingly forgetful or say odd things or express a general indifference to life. They may find themselves suffering from insomnia, depression or inappropriate expressions of both joy and grief.

Part of the problem for many schizophrenia sufferers is that when they first begin to experience these symptoms, they try to mask it with substance abuse, which not only compound the issue but make it tougher to get a true diagnosis and treatment. Sometimes, those with schizophrenia may be wrongly diagnosed with other disorders. Often, it takes six months or more to even get an accurate diagnosis.

This ends up not only straining relationships, as close loved ones struggle to understand or help, but it is truly an impairment on every day functioning. Persons with schizophrenia may find they have trouble completing even basic tasks such as eating, bathing or running simple errands. They are also at a heightened risk of suicide.

Once the disease becomes more developed, it is usually manifested through delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or behavior or a lack of interest or enthusiasm about the world around them.

The Social Security Administration, under Section 12.03 Schizophrenic, paranoid or other psychotic disorders, holds that in order to qualify for benefits, these episodes must be severe, debilitating and frequent.

If an individual has been coping with this disease on their own for at least two years or if they have shown an inability throughout the last year to function outside of some highly-supported living arrangement (either an institution or with watchful parents, etc.) then he or she would qualify.
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Up until about two years ago, a person who experienced repeated episodes of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar, usually due to diabetes) might have been eligible for disability benefits on that basis alone.

However, our Boston Social Security Disability Lawyers know that as of July 2011, all endocrine disorders – including hypoglycemia – were removed from the Social Security Administration’s formal listing of impairments. The idea behind this thinking was that there have been great strides in medical advancements for those battling endocrine disorders, and that disability wasn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion anymore.

While existing patients who were receiving disability benefits under endocrine listings were allowed to hang onto those benefits, they have still been subject to the periodic reviews conducted by the administration and, absent those listings, they may have a harder time hanging onto them.

Plus, new patients with the disorder are going to have a harder time securing benefits for ailments such as hypoglycemia than those in years past.

In both scenarios, we highly recommend hiring an experienced disability lawyer. Even if your condition no longer meets a specific listing, side effects from endocrine disorders can be severe and therefore produce significant functional limitations with regard to your ability to work.

Let’s look specifically at hypoglycemia. This is a condition in which your body’s sugar/glucose is either used up too quickly or it’s released into your system too slowly or you have too much insulin being released into your system. Insulin is the hormone that regulates your blood sugar.

Most commonly, you’re going to see hypoglycemia in people who have developed diabetes. Those who don’t have diabetes may have the conditions as a result of heavy alcohol consumption, pancreatic cancer, thyroid dysfunctions, a heart, kidney or liver failure, a body-wide infection or as a side effect to weigh loss surgery.

When your sugar gets too low, you could experience a range of symptoms, including double vision, pounding heartbeat, anxiety or nervousness, headaches, hunger, shakes, sweats, tingling, weakness, insomnia or difficulty focusing. If your sugar gets below a certain point, you might faint, suffer a seizure or even go into a coma. In some cases, it may cause permanent brain damage.

It’s true that most people with this condition have been given the tools to monitor and control it. However, if you are following your doctor’s prescribed regiment and are still suffering repeated bouts of severe low blood sugar, you might be eligible for disability under other sections of the SSA’s blue book guide.

For example, someone who suffers repeated seizures due to hypoglycemia would now be evaluated under Section 11.00 Neurological impairments. In these cases, the degree and frequency will be major factors in the disability determination. If controlling those seizures requires a large level of medication that carries its own debilitating side effects, those should be noted as well.

In cases where an individual has suffered an altered mental status as a result of one or repeated hypoglycemic episodes, his impairment would be evaluated under Section 12.00 Mental Disorders.

If you have taken measures to control your hypoglycemia and have found it has not improved and further is impeding your ability to work, we can help.
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Individuals and families of those who have been diagnosed with Down syndrome may be somewhat familiar with federal benefits through the Supplemental Security Income program, which is often extended to parents and caregivers of disabled persons under age 18.

However, once that child becomes an adult, our Boston Social Security Disability Insurance attorneys understand he or she may need to apply separately for SSDI benefits. They may still qualify for SSI benefits as well, but the SSDI benefits will allow them to further hold some measure of autonomy.

Down syndrome is characterized by the presence of an extra copy of a certain chromosome. It’s one of the most common birth defects, and it causes impediments in the way both the body and brain develop.

There are two basic types of Down syndrome: Mosaic and Non-Mosaic. In non-Mosaic individuals, that extra chromosome copy appears in every single cell in the body. In Mosaic patients, that extra chromosome may be noted only in a portion of the body’s cells.

Either way, the individual may face significant impairments to work ability, though a person with a diagnosis of non-Mosaic Down syndrome – which are 98 percent of Down syndrome patients – will receive a seemingly automatic approval of SSDI benefits. However, those with Mosaic Down syndrome may have a somewhat more uphill battle.

In children with this condition, mental and social development is often impaired. Common development problems include impulsive behavior, poor judgment, slower learning and short attention spans. They may also experience poor muscle and skeletal development that may make it difficult to find some form of sustainable employment.

Even for someone with Mosaic down syndrome, all of these would factor into the increased probability of SSDI benefits.

Other problems that those with Down Syndrome in general may expect to experience are:

• Birth defects, particularly relating to the heart;
• Severe vision problems;
• Gastrointestinal dysfunction;
• Hearing problems, often prompted by regular ear infections;
• Dementia;
• Sleep apnea;
• Chronic constipation;
• Hip dislocation or impairment;
• Teeth that appear later than usual and in locations that could cause problems with proper chewing;
• Hypothyroidism.

Down syndrome may affect a person with varying degrees, from moderate to severe.

A person with non-Mosaic Down Syndrome is not going to have to prove the degree to which they have been affected, but someone with Mosaic Down syndrome applying for SSDI benefits will need some help building a case for it.

That will include any and all information about cognitive performance, physical impairments such as hearing or vision loss, thyroid issues, muscle weaknesses and breathing or heart disorders. Any one of these side effects of the condition may be enough to singularly qualify a Mosaic Down syndrome patient for benefits, so that combined with the original diagnosis could be sufficient to win your claim. Obviously, though, the more information you can cull together, the better.

Having an experienced SSDI attorney by your side to help you do it only serves to improve your chances.
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If your spouse was able to secure Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, you know he was able to overcome perhaps one of the greatest obstacles of all time, as the process is rigorous, time-consuming and difficult.

But our Boston SSDI attorneys understand that it doesn’t always end there. Many widows and widowers of deceased disability benefits recipients are more frequently having to cope with the question of whether they can continue to receive those payments now that their spouse is gone.

The answer is: It depends.

You would do well to contact an experienced SSDI attorney to help you handle your request for continued benefits, as it will depend on a number of factors. Plus, we understand that in the wake of the loss of your spouse, this is really not something you want to have to worry about. Still, it’s an important consideration because it affects your ability to be able to pay off your bills and, in some cases, support your children.

When an SSDI recipient passes away, his benefits may go to his dependents. This includes his spouse, children and sometimes even his elderly parents.

The criteria for being able to collect SSDI benefits as a surviving spouse are:

• You are responsible for the care of the SSDI recipients’ dependent child under 16. This would make you eligible for 75 percent of your spouse’s benefits.
• You are at least 50 years-old and you are disabled and that disability began either before your spouse died or within seven years of your spouse’s death. In this case you will receive about 70 percent of your departed spouse’s benefits.
• You are a minimum of 60, but you haven’t yet reached retirement age. In these cases, you may be eligible for between 70 and 99 percent of your spouse’s benefits.
• You are of full retirement age. In this case, you may expect to receive100 percent of your spouse’s SSDI benefits.

However, nothing with government is ever straightforward. As such, there are important exceptions that could impact your eligibility.

To begin, if you have remarried before you turned 60 years-old, you won’t be able to receive your deceased spouse’s benefits. However, if you get married again after age 60 (or after age 50, yet you yourself are disabled) your benefits won’t be affected.

Secondly, if you are entitled to your own retirement benefits, you will be allowed to choose between that and your former spouse’s SSDI benefits – whichever one happens to be more.

Also, widow benefits for those under 50 who had been receiving the benefits due to care of a minor child will usually find those benefits cut off by the time the child turns 16. The exception would be if the child is disabled as well.

You’ll want to consider as well that if you are working, your SSDI survivor benefits are probably going to be reduced, but it will largely depend on how old you are and how much you earn.

And finally, in order to be eligible to receive these benefits, the government usually requires that your marriage have lasted for a minimum of nine months. There have however been exceptions made in cases where a person died a violent or unexpected death, such as in a car accident.
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The anxiety roller coaster of a young mother in Boston was recently chronicled by CNN in its investigation into whether anxiety medications where truly the best answer for parents suffering from severe bouts of depression and anxiety.

Our Boston Social Security Disability Insurance lawyers know that while this mom has learned to cope by taking five-minute “breathers” in the laundry room, not everyone with an anxiety disorder is able to make that method work. Many are debilitated by the extreme levels of anxiety, which are manifested in severe panic attacks, obsessions or compulsions or stress that can result in major difficulties in maintaining everyday life activities, relationships and basic function.

What’s more, anxiety disorders are increasingly common. The Centers for Disease Control reports that some 40 million American adults are coping with anxiety disorders. Of course, not every single one of those will qualify for disability benefits, but there are some extreme cases where that may be the only option.

CNN reports that parents are more vulnerable to anxiety disorders and when they are diagnosed, they tend to be more severe. It makes sense that if you are already someone who is prone to depression or obsessive compulsion, the added emotional, physical and mental strain of rearing a child could increase those risks.

One mother revealed waking up every night at midnight and suffering from panic attacks so severe she truly believes she will die – every single night.

There is also the risk for new mothers of crippling postpartum depression. Proving eligibility for SSDI of postpartum depression can be difficult because although it is often quite serious, proving that it lasts more than a year can be tough.

Anxiety disorders, on the other hand, can last years if not decades, even when an individual is faithful about seeking and following treatment plans.

Section 12.06 of Social Security Disability’s impairment listings addresses anxiety-related disorders. Essentially, these conditions are defined as the medically-documented finding of one of the following:

• General, persistent anxiety (accompanied by motor tension, autonomic hyperactivity, vigilance or scanning, apprehensive expectation);
• An irrational, persistent fear of a certain object, situation or activity;
• Severe, recurrent panic attacks that bring about an unpredictable and instantaneous apprehension, terror fear or sense of doom at least once a week;
• Obsessions or compulsions that are recurrent and a source of marked distress;
• Intrusive and recurrent recollections of some traumatic experience that causes a significant source of distress.

In addition to this, the administration requires that this condition be the source of some serious restriction of daily living activities, social functioning, concentration, ability to function outside of one’s home.

The CDC reports that anxiety disorders primarily affect women, and rates tend to be higher in developed countries.

Specific anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and certain phobias.
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Every time Laura Willmott stared into the mirror, she saw a young woman who was grossly overweight and needed to become more disciplined in shedding the pounds.

In reality, Wilmott was only 99 pounds, her skewed personal perception a symptom of her illness, anorexia nervosa. The British 18-year-old recently died after collapsing from cardiac arrest, after spending the last five years starving herself.

Our Boston Social Security Disability Insurance attorneys know that anyone who is familiar with this heartbreaking disease knows that it takes every ounce of energy to fight. Although it manifests itself in the severe reduction of food intake, the Mayo Clinic purports it is more about a distortion of coping with emotional problems.

As such, the disability impairment listing for this disease falls under section 12.00 mental disorders, specifically, section 12.07, somatoform disorders.

(Note: For those under 18, it is possible to obtain Supplemental Security Income for anorexia nervosa, but primarily our focus in this article is adult sufferers.)

A somatoform disorder is one in which there are clear physical symptoms, but there is no demonstrable organic findings or physiological causes for it. In order to qualify, the person has to have had a history of multiple physical symptoms over the course of several years – beginning before age 30 – that would have caused an intense frequency of medication, doctor visits or significantly-altered life patterns. Alternatively, there would have to a be a non-organic disturbance of vision or speech or hearing or use of a limb or movement or sensation or an unrealistic belief that he or she is overweight that would result in at least two of the following:

• Major restrictions in daily living activities;
• Major difficulties in keeping up with social functioning;
• Major problems maintaining concentration and persistence;
• Repeated episodes of the condition worsening, each for an extended period of time.

Short-term effects of eating disorders might include a yellowing or dryness of the skin, emaciation, abdominal pain and constipation, dizziness and fatigue, anemia and lowered blood pressure, depression and social withdrawal. Long-term, the stresses to one’s body caused by eating disorders can result in a weakening of the bones and damage to major organs, including your kidneys, heart and brain.

Adults who are working to recover from anorexia or other eating disorders may be especially emotionally fragile. They can’t afford not to obtain benefits, but at the same time, the process of applying would be difficult and emotionally-draining for anyone. That’s where having an experienced Boston SSDI lawyer can be invaluable. We will help you gather all the necessary information – psychiatric testing and reports, lab tests, extensive individual reports, medical doctor evaluations, etc. – to help bolster your chances of a successful claim.

We want you to focus on recovery. Let us handle the rest.
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Valentine’s Day is an apt time to raise awareness about the fact that heart disease is the leading cause of death among both men and women in the world, resulting in approximately 40 percent of all deaths in the U.S. – more than all forms of cancer combined.

Our Boston Social Security Disability Insurance attorneys know that the effects of heart failure could easily make you a strong candidate for benefits. However, simply handing in a sheet of paper with your diagnosis isn’t going to be enough to sway the administration’s review staff that you can’t work.

It’s important to not only have a full grasp on what your condition is and how it is affecting your specific abilities to work and function, but also the avenues for treatment and whether even major changes or drastic procedures will be enough to mitigate the damage.

Chronic heart failure may be a result of many different things, but it’s generally characterized by one of these common scenarios:

• Systolic heart failure, which is when the heart muscle has an inability to effectively pump blood out of the heart;
• Diastolic heart failure, which is when the muscles of the heart are stiff and don’t fill up easily with the blood they desperately need.

Then there are cases in which the blood may start backing up in other body systems, such as the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, liver, legs or arms. This is congestive heart failure.

Causes of heart failure could be: Congenital heart disease, heart valve disease, an infection that weakens the heart muscles, heart attack or arrhythmias. You might also be at risk if you have emphysema, a malfunctioning thyroid or severe anemia.

Symptoms of heart disease might develop rather slowly or suddenly, depending on the cause. Either way, you are commonly going to see:

• Irregular heartbeats;
• Swelling of the abdomen, liver, feet and ankles;
• Loss of appetite;
• Extreme fatigue or weakness, feeling faint;
• Cough;
• Being awoken by shortness of breath or a need to urinate.

If your doctor diagnoses you with heart failure, there are some things you can likely do immediately that could make a significant difference in your longevity. Those include quitting smoking, limiting your alcohol intake, staying active and exercising, lowering your cholesterol and getting enough rest.

In some cases, your doctor will put you on a regimen of medications designed to keep your heart pumping strong, stop the blood from clotting and reduce damage to your heart.

In severe cases, you may need to undergo surgery such as an angioplasty or have a device, such as a pacemaker or defibrillator, installed.

End-stage heart failure could necessitate the need for a heart transplant (if you are a viable candidate) or the instillation of a balloon pump or ventricular assist device.

Your condition needn’t be this severe for you to qualify for SSDI benefits. Under SSA’s Cardiovascular System Section 4.02 on chronic heart failure, you would qualify for benefits with systolic failure or diastolic failure if your heart rate or size meets certain criteria. Additionally, it’s expected that sufferers will have either a severely limited function of everyday activities, or three or more separate episodes of acute heart failure in a year-long time frame or have an inability to successfully complete an exercise tolerance test.
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One of the worst physical feelings in the world is being unable to breathe.

There is the immediate, survival-mode panic that accompanies the wheezing, incessant cough, tightening of the chest, cold sweat and virtual inability to communicate.

For chronic asthma sufferers, this is a regular occurrence. Our Boston Social Security Disability Insurance attorneys know that sometimes even with treatment, the symptoms won’t subside. In these cases, the fact that these asthma attacks can and do strike suddenly and without warning can prevent sufferers from having any real ability to work.

Section 3.03 of the Social Security Disability Insurance blue book definitions of respiratory disabilities specifically addresses asthma. The listing allows for disability benefits in cases of chronic asthmatic bronchitis (which is evaluated under the section for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or attacks that are severe and frequent despite following prescribed treatments. These attacks must be severe to the point that they require a doctor’s intervention and occur at least one time every two months or a minimum of six times annually.

Anytime an in-patient hospitalization for an asthma attack lasts longer than 24 hours, it is allowed to count as two attacks.

You should also be aware that not every single asthma attack you have is going to count toward your qualification. If you’re able to control your condition with an inhaler or nebulizer, it’s not going to count. But it absolutely doesn’t hurt to list those incidents too, as well as any accompanying proof. It goes to further illustrate the overall impediments to functioning your condition causes.

Having meticulous documentation of these incidents is critical, as the administration requires an evaluation period of at least one year in determining the frequency of your asthma attacks.

In addition to meeting these criteria, our SSDI lawyers have found it is often helpful to have a complete mock-up of information regarding your ability to:

• Walk, stand, lift, sit, push, pull, carry, handle or reach;
• Speak, hear, see;
• Cope with changes in a routine work setting.

Absent fitting this criteria exactly, you could still be eligible for benefits if the administration decides your condition renders you unable to handle basic work functions. if you’re younger than 50, this is generally going to mean your ability to lift up to 10 pounds, walk or stand for up to two hours or sit for six hours during an eight-hour day.

Those with chronic asthma often also suffer from fatigue, an inability to walk very far or very long, lift heavy objects or work in certain conditions where they may be exposed to cold or hot temperatures, chemicals, smoke or dust. These types of limitations can significantly reduce your ability to do the job you already do, as well as other types of work.

Older applicants of often have an easier time securing benefits. But younger folks shouldn’t have to suffer for years in conditions that tend to make their illness worse. An experienced SSDI lawyer can help you explore all your options.
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