Social Security Disability

Social Security Disability Claims

Hello I’m Neal McCurn Jr. I’m a partner with Oot and Associates law firm where I’ve been practicing social security law and personal injury law for well over 20 years. Have you been disabled from work for 12 months or likely to be disabled from work for 12 months? If so, you might want to consider filing a claim for Social Security disability benefits. Social Security disability benefits are available if you meet the definition of disability under the statute. That depends on the particular age, education and former work experience that you may have.

For instance, if you are under the age of 50 we would need to establish that you are not only precluded from your past relevant work, but moreover from all work completely. If you are between the ages of 50 and 55 we need to establish that you cannot perform your past relevant work and also that at best you can perform sedentary or the lightest level of work that exists. If you’re over the age of 55 we need to establish that you are incapable of performing your past relevant work. Social Security considers your past relevant work any jobs that you have done over the 15 years prior to the onset of your disability date. Social security claims are very complex there’s a lot of time constraints, a lot of paperwork and some very complex issues.

If you believe you may qualify for Social Security disability benefits I strongly encourage you to seek representation. I would be more than happy to sit down with you to discuss your claim at your convenience. Please feel free to call me at any time. Understand if we do take your claim there is no fee for our services unless we are successful in securing benefits for you, thank you.

How to file a Social Security Disability Claim

If you’ve been injured and are out of work and expect to be out of work for 12 consecutive months, you should consider filing for Social Security Disability. Social Security Disability is available for individuals who have sufficient quarters of coverage based on the work history. Other individuals who do not have sufficient coverage can apply for SSI, the medical criteria are the same or similar, but we can make that determination based upon our review of your case. In order to qualify for Social Security Disability, as I said, you need to be out or expect to be out for 12 consecutive months and then you also have to have a significant disability.

The degree of disability depends on your age category. Social Security puts you into three different categories primarily. There’s a younger individual, which are people under 50. People approaching advanced age which is 50-55. And advanced age where you’re over 55. If you’re under 50 we have to prove that you’re not able to perform your past relevant work. Social security will look at the 15 years prior to your onset of disability date and they’ll consider every job that you’ve done over that period of time.

If you have the ability to perform any of those jobs you do not qualify. Furthermore, if you’re under 50 we have to prove that you’re not able to perform any other work that exists in the national economy. So it’s a significant burden, however, we have many many clients in that age category and we’ve had great success in getting benefits for them. When you attain the age of 50 they put you in advanced age category. In that instance we need to establish 1, that you’re not able to do your past relevant work and 2, that at best you can perform what they deem sedentary level work and that’s the lightest level of work that exists. If you meet those two criteria then you should qualify. Lastly if you’re over the age of 55 Social Security is going to look at your past relevant work only and if you can’t perform your past relevant work you typically qualify.

There are other criteria that come into play, which we won’t get into here, that’s more complex talks about transferable work skills etc. In every case is different in that regard so I won’t spend time talking about that now. If you feel that you may qualify for Social Security disability under the criteria that I have identified, please give me a call and we’ll sit down and talk about it and if appropriate file a claim. Thank you.