You’ve just been injured or a disease has stricken you down, and you can’t work anymore. What do you do? Applying for Social Security Disability Insurance is the answer, but you’ve heard rumors that it’s really hard to get SSDI. Well the rumors are true, it is a very difficult process, and your application will probably get rejected a few times, but there are steps you can take to make this process easier and hopefully shorter…
Four Ways To Make Your Disability Application Successful
- Don’t Work: After you’re injured—and your job proves too much to handle—you should stop working and start compiling what you need to apply for disability. Working a full-time job right up until you apply for disability makes it look like you still have the ability to work, even if you were going to extreme lengths just to make it until your application.
- Don’t Claim Unemployment: Unemployment is for people who are willing and able to work but can’t find a job—that’s not what SSDI is for. Disability insurance is for people who can no longer work, so claiming unemployment implies the exact opposite. It may seem like a good stop-gap for your expenses, but in the long run it will be hard to explain to an administrative law judge.
- Get Your Medical Records: You are trying to prove that you have a condition that keeps you from working, and medical records are the best way to do that. See your doctor regularly after your injury, and collect the records about your injury before you apply. The Social Security Administration could make a decision on your claim while waiting on your records, which hurts your chances of having a successful application. Have your records ready to go, and have copies ready to submit with future paperwork—that’ll keep the chances of your records getting lost low.
- Get A Lawyer: There are tricks to wording your application that will not only help the process move faster, but it will also keep you from writing something that could make the process take months longer than it has to. Having a lawyer at the beginning of the process will help you get the benefits that you need.
No trick guarantees a speedy SSDI application, but making a mistake on your application can cost you years trying to get it approved—a message from Troutman & Troutman, Tulsa disability attorneys.