This afternoon, I received the following question by email:
I’ve applied for disability. I don’t have a lot of medical ‘backing’ as the majority of my life I haven’t had insurance, nor been able to afford it. I do have past records verifying my mental incapacities as brain damage and ADHD. My issues include arthritis in my knees and hands, back problems that are getting worse that may be contributed to RA (Havent been diagnosed with it, but it is a major hereditary problem), memory issues and concentration issues. What are my chances of winning disability?
Here are my thoughts: I think you will have a real uphill battle winning your Social Security disability case if you do not have medical support for your case. I am definitely noting a trend in the cases I am trying recently – if there is not a strong medical record, judges are not going to award benefits based on your testimony only, or on old or incomplete medical records.
Further I would say that we are getting to the point where we need a completed and supportive functional capacity form filled out by a treating doctor in the record.
If you have followed the news, you may have noted a report that Social Security is projected to run out of money 2 years earlier than expected. The disability program in particular is running short faster than the retirement program. Congress is under a lot of pressure to address this problem.
One fix, of course, is to tighten the standard for approving disability benefits. My sense is that the Commissioner has already sent word to judges that they should only award benefits where there is solid medical support. The days when a judge would award benefits based on his hunch and the claimant’s testimony are over.
Here’s what I am telling my clients: you need to establish a relationship with a physician that you can see on a regular basis. This may be twice a year but it has to be regular. You need to ask your doctor if he will support your application for disability by completing a form. This means that you may have to save up or borrow from friends or family to pay for your appointments and you may have to pay the doctor to complete the functional capacity form. Without this support, however, you are probably not going to win.