Will you qualify for disability benefits?

I assist qualified Greenville Social Security disability claimants–and claimants in surrounding areas–whose applications for disability benefits have been denied.

To persuade the Social Security Administration that a qualified but denied applicant should be awarded benefits, I figure out what needs to be proven, obtain supporting evidence, and present the best case possible at the disability hearing.

Simple analysis of eligibility

Even if your Social Security disability application has been denied, I can likely help you obtain benefits if your answers match these:

  • Are you gainfully employed? No
  • Do you have a severe impairment? Yes
  • Will your impairment last 12 months or result in death? Yes
  • Do your disability meet one of SSA’s listed impairments? If yes, you qualify. If no…
  • Are you able to work? No

More specific summary

The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a five-step sequential evaluation process to determine eligibility for Social Security disability benefits. If SSA finds that you are disabled or not disabled at a step, then the determination stops there. The five steps are:

  1. If you are doing “substantial gainful activity” then you are not disabled.
  2. If you do not have a “severe” impairment then you are not disabled.
  3. If your impairment meets or “equals” one of the impairments in SSA’s Listing of Impairments and meets a duration requirement, then you are disabled.
  4. If you can still do your “past relevant work,” then your “residual functional capacity” (RFC) shows that you not disabled.
  5. If you can make an adjustment to other work, considering your RFC, age, education, and work experience, then you are not disabled.

Be careful when applying this sequential evaluation process to your case, for the terms in quotation marks have precise meanings in the law of Social Security disability, and are not necessarily what you would expect.

Statutory definition of disability

Congress has defined the term “disability” as an inability “to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.” 42 U.S.C. §§ 423(d)(1)(A) and 1382c(a)(3)(A).

An individual shall be determined to be under a disability only if his physical or mental impairment or impairments are of such severity that he is not only unable to do his previous work but cannot, considering his age, education, and work experience, engage in any other kind of substantial gainful work which exists in the national economy, regardless of whether such work exists in the immediate area in which he lives or whether a specific job vacancy exists for him, or whether he would be hired if he applied for work. For purposes of the preceding sentence (with respect to any individual), “work which exists in the national economy” means work which exists in significant numbers either in the region where such individual lives or in several regions of the country.

42 U.S.C. §§ 423(d)(2)(A) and 1382c(a)(3)(B).

“Physical or mental impairment” is defined as “an impairment that results from anatomical, physiological or psychological abnormalities which are demonstrable by medically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques.” 42 U.S.C. §§ 423(d)(3) and 1382c(a)(3)(D).

The definition of disability in the Act specifically provides that an individual is not “disabled” if drug addiction or alcoholism would “be a contributing factor material to the Commissioner’s determination that the individual is disabled.” 42 U.S.C. §§ 423(d)(2)(C) and 1382c(a)(3)(J).

Applying the law to your case

One of the initial ways an experienced Greenville disability lawyer can help is by sifting through the legal complexities to what counts, and assessing your likelihood of succeeding with an appeal.

If you are not already represented by an attorney and want my evaluation, give me a brief description of your claim using the form to the right. Or you may e-mail or call my office at 864-242-3271.