How To Get Social Security Disability & SSI Disability

By Patricia A. Petow, Esq.

Available now as a paperback or Kindle eBook at Amazon.com.

HOW TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY & SSI DISABILITY was written to help applicants succeed in their claims for disability benefits under Social Security and under SSI.

HOW TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY & SSI DISABILITY provides line-by-line guidance for applicants and their representatives for the major disability application forms. The book also includes templates for applicants to organize their medical and prescription records.

Attorney Petow notes that many disabled people have difficulty articulating how their disabilities affect them. She recommends that disabled claimants enlist the support of a “personal advocate” as well as an attorney or non-attorney representative.

Attorney Petow argues that properly completed Social Security forms can serve as a low cost “day in the life video.”

About the Author

Attorney Petow has represented clients at Social Security at the agency level, in the Office of Hearings and Appeals/Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, and in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Attorney Petow was formerly a Staff Attorney in the Office of Hearings and Appeals/Office of Disability Adjudication and Review of the Social Security Administration, Boston, Massachusetts District, Region I.

Attorney Petow's blogs include one featuring excerpts from Massachusetts federal district court decisions. See D. Mass. Social Security Disability Case Abstracts. See also Attorney Petow's new companion blog to her book, How To Get Social Security Disability & SSI Disability: Social Security & SSI Disability.

Bar Admissions and Education

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

New England School of Law, Boston, J.D.

Suffolk University, Boston, M.A.E.

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, B.A.

P.O. Box 79097

Waverley, MA 02479-0097

617-993-3051

Attorneys and non-attorney representatives please call me at 617-993-3051 or send an email to p2 (at) petow.com to discuss my independent contractor services to review case files, do research and write memos and briefs for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cases.

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Excerpts from the Book

Introduction

[According to a Social Security study:] “The final award rate for disabled-worker applicants has varied over time, averaging nearly 45 percent for claims filed from 2001 through 2010. The percentage of applicants awarded benefits at the initial claims level averaged 28 percent over the same period and ranged from a high of 37 percent to a low of 26 percent.” http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/2011/sect04.html#table59

Chapter 1

“In applying for disability, some of the issues for which you need an experienced representative’s help are: the materiality of drug and/or alcohol abuse, credibility determinations, pain determination, evaluation of symptom validity tests” [21 other issues are identified in this chapter.]

Chapter 2

[A medical journal] “you should list chronologically every appointment or medical visit (such as to emergency rooms) you have with medical providers, including x-ray departments, lab offices, therapists and social workers and including any visits to Social Security consultative physicians or psychologists.”

Chapter 3

“The forms that you fill out when you first apply stay in your case file and may be looked at and relied upon during later stages of appeal, no matter how much time has passed since you completed the forms.”

Chapter 4

“Never request a medical report from your doctor ‘so that you can get on disability.’”

Chapter 5

“If your doctor or other authorized medical provider recommended that you take non-prescription medication, note that also—it may be that the non-prescription medication is the appropriate medication, and there is no 'better' prescription medication.”

Chapter 6

“It is important to keep in mind that Social Security has a particular legal definition of frequent and occasional, and that definition may not be the layperson or medical provider’s expectation when you are describing your job duties and when anyone else describes your functional capacity. Hours and minutes are more precise than saying frequently or occasionally.”

Chapter 7

“The answers to questions 5 and 6 are the basis of a successful disability claim.”

Chapter 8

“If pain is a major factor in why you cannot work, to persuade Social Security that you cannot work, you must explain how you experience pain.”

Chapter 9

“Simply put, if there have been changes, usually for the worse, in your illnesses, injuries or conditions, or any new illnesses, injuries or conditions, your medical records should reflect, at the very least, your complaining of these worsening conditions.”

Chapter 10

“At this stage, it is up to the claimant and representative to get the medical evidence in the file.”