Social Security Disability Law: News and Facts

Living in Michigan I represent a lot of clients from Middle Eastern Countries. Some are refugees; some have asylum; and some have become citizens.  Immigrants who are permanent residents or lawfully present foreign workers and have paid taxes into the Social Security system are often eligible for disability benefits. There are a few countries where residents cannot receive benefits even if they otherwise qualify. These include Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. SSI benefits are available to all qualifying United States (U.S.) citizens; additionally, residents who are not citizens are sometimes eligible for benefits, including U.S. nationals, aliens, and other non-citizens. As a general rule, an otherwise qualified immigrant who is facing deportation or removal is not eligible for disability. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines a "qualified alien" as the following: -a person lawfully admitted for permanent residence (LAPR) (this includes "Amerasian immigrants...

You should let your physician know if you believe that you need a cane, walker, or wheelchair.  You should try your best to obtain a prescription for the assistive device from your health care provider.  Even a simple notation from a qualified medical professional that states your assistive device is medically necessary can suffice.  In my experience at hearings before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), the ALJ may not be convinced that you need an assistive device if you obtain it on your own from a pharmacy or relative.  The use of a cane can prevent a worker from performing heavy, medium, light, and even sedentary work as it is normally performed in the general economy. Even in sedentary desk jobs such as those common in the administrative, secretarial, assembly, and customer service fields require workers to be able to stand and/or walk two hours out of an eight hour day in addition to sitting for six hours out of an eight hour day. This is because even jobs that...

SGA is an acronym for the Social Security term substantial gainful activity. According to the Social Security Administration's definition of disability, in order to be considered disabled and eligible to receive disability benefits, a person must have functional limitations (mental, physical, or both) that are severe enough to restrict their ability to engage in work activity. SGA, or substantial gainful activity, is tied to a specific monetary amount; in other words, a monthly earnings limit. To put it briefly, if a person who is filing for disability is earning more than the SGA amount, their claim will be given what is referred to as a technical denial. When a case is given a technical denial, the denial occurs at the social security office almost immediately, meaning that the case is never sent to disability determination services and assigned to a disability examiner for processing. Translation: there is no point to filing a claim if you are currently working and earning at le...

Chronic liver disease is an umbrella term that encompasses multiple conditions that affect the liver. The most common causes of liver disease include viruses, genetics, excessive alcohol use, poor diet, and reactions to medications or toxic chemicals. Most liver diseases damage the liver in similar ways, so that the progression of the illness looks similar regardless of the underlying condition causing the disease. Given the importance of the liver’s functions in the body, early detection is key for successful treatment and preventing the development of additional comorbidities that can result from extensive liver damage. Many people do not look or feel sick when they have liver disease until the disease has advanced significantly, which can complicate efforts for early detection. At a certain point in the progression of liver disease, the damage can become irreversible and lead to liver failure, at which point many people join a waitlist for a liver transplant. In the United States, t...

The liver is a large organ located in your upper abdominal region, just below your diaphragm. It is designed to carry out a number of functions, including purifying the blood, detoxifying the body, and secreting bile for the digestion of fats. Often when the liver is diseased it can regenerate itself, but that can cause scar tissue, nodules, and fibrous tissue, which is called cirrhosis. There are different kinds of cirrhosis. One kind is alcoholic liver disease, and there is a non-alcoholic form of cirrhosis. The common causes of cirrhosis are alcoholism, fatty liver disease, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. There are a variety of other causes as well. A chronic disorder that is progressive, cirrhosis causes healthy liver tissue to be replaced by fibrous scar tissue. The scar tissue results in a progressive loss of liver function, which can eventually lead you to need you to require a liver transplant. Once liver damage has occurred, it is irreversible to an extent. The severity of the c...

SKILLED, SEMISKILLED WORK AND TRANSFERABLE SKILLS Often times in a case you will hear the terms unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled work.  Explaining what skilled and semiskilled work is, and whether or not these skills are transferable is difficult to understand and explain, and is one of the rea sons why Vocational Expert testimony is required at the hearing. If a claimant had past relevant work that was skilled or semiskilled then there is an issue as to whether or not these skills are transferable to other types of work within their physical and mental limitations. If a claimant’s past work was unskilled, there is no issue of transferability because by definition unskilled work does not incorporate learned or acquired skills. With job data obtained through the Department of Labor, the SSA categorizes jobs into broad classifications. The skill set required for successfully performing the work is what determines which job class a position falls under.  In reviewing your appl...

Social Security takes into consideration your past work for 15 years prior to you filing for disability.  The Social Security Administration (SSA) takes a number of factors under consideration when reviewing an application for Social Security Disability (SSD), including: your medical condition, the limitations it places on you, your work history, age, education, experience, and job skills, among others. Socials Security will classify your work by the amount of weight you lifted frequently and occasionally. They will look at how much you stood and sat. They will also classify your work in terms of your work being skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled.  The evaluation of your skills is completed so the SSA can determine if you’re completely disabled by your medical condition, or if you may still be able to find and maintain employment in another field in which your skills will allow you to perform the essential job duties despite the limitations of your medical or psychological con...

Dysautonomia is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system – the part of the nervous system that is responsible for control of the bodily functions not consciously directed, such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure control. It results in an imbalance of the sympathetic nervous system (our “fight or flight” responses) and the parasympathetic nervous system (our “rest and digest” responses). Dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system causes many different symptoms in people and may be called different names depending on those symptoms: orthostatic intolerance, POTS, neuro-cardiogenic syncope or dysautonomia.  Dysautonomia, also called autonomic dysfunction, is a general term used to describe various diseases or failures of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is in charge of many involuntary functions such as perspiration, digestion, heart rate, sexual arousal, blood pressure, body temperature, salivation, and more. Dysautonomia is a full-body disease t...

Crohn’s is one of a group of disorders known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Crohn’s disease can be extremely debilitating and painful. It is generally a lifelong problem for which there is no definitive cure. With Crohn’s, the intestines are irritated and inflamed, often with complications of sores and bowel obstructions. Symptoms include severe diarrhea, as well as abdominal pain and cramping. Flare-ups may come on suddenly and last weeks or months, turning your world into chaos and suffering.  If one of the reasons why you cannot work has to do with your need to take excessive bathroom breaks, it will be important to document this by your doctors medical records and a daily diary.  Crohn’s Disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation of the lining of your digestive system. The symptoms related to this inflammation are: -Persistent Diarrhea -Rectal bleeding -Urgent need to move bowels -Abdominal cramps and pain -Sensation of incomplete evacuation -C...

Many people who are suffering from long haulers syndrome after their Covid-19 infection are being diagnosed with POTS.  Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a blood circulation disorder characterized by two factors: 1. A specific group of symptoms that frequently occur when standing upright 2. A heart rate increase from horizontal to standing (or as tested on a tilt table) of at least 30 beats per minute in adults, or at least 40 beats per minute in adolescents, measured during the first 10 minutes of standing POTS is diagnosed only when orthostatic hypotension is ruled out and when there is no acute dehydration or blood loss. Orthostatic hypotension is a form of low blood pressure: 20mm Hg drop in systolic or a 10mm Hg drop in diastolic blood pressure in the first three minutes of standing upright. POTS is a common condition affecting an estimated one to three million Americans. The symptoms of POTS include but are not limited to lightheadedness (occasionally with f...