Non-Medical Reasons For Being Denied Disability

Aside from the more noticeable medical reasons for being denied SSI or SSDI benefits, there are a lot of reasons a person's disability claim may be denied that do not involve their supposed disabling condition or conditions.

For instance, disability cases may be rejected since they don't satisfy the non-disability criteria, or eligibility requirements, of Social Security Disability and/or SSI (Supplemental Security Income disability) program. If someone has not worked, or hasn't worked for some time, they might not be insured for Social Security disability.

Insured status is acquired only with work activity and lasts a limited amount of time once an individual stops working. If somebody files a disability claim based on need, their disability claim can be denied because A) the worth of their assets is too high (at this time, the income resource limit for someone is $2,000 and the couple’s resource limit is three thousand dollars) or B) they have income that's over the income limit. Like all need-based social welfare programs, people who file for SSI need to meet particular income and resource limits to be eligible for disability benefits.

Disability claims might end up being refused for some other reasons as well. If someone files a disability benefits claim and they're working, their disability claim may be declined for the performance of substantial gainful activity (SGA) before their case being taken to a disability examiner (at disability determination services, the agency which makes case decisions for SSI and SSDI benefits) for a medical decision.

SGA is a regular monthly earnings quantity that the Social Security Administration has determined as being self-supporting. If somebody is earning over the SGA amount, if is irrelevant what their disabling condition is or how extreme it is; their claim is going to be denied.

Social Security disability claims may also be denied either in the Social Security office, or at the state agency responsible for making disability determinations, for failure to cooperate. Failure to cooperate denials include a failure by the disability candidate to supply forms or information necessary to process their social security disability claim.

Often, too, the state disability processing department denies disability cases simply because they're unable to make contact with the disability applicant. That's why it's so important for all disability claimants to provide Social Security with updated addresses and phone numbers if there are any developments throughout the processing of their disability cases.

The Missouri or Illinois state disability agency (DDS) may also deny a disability case if a disability claimant doesn't attend a scheduled consultative examination. If a disability applicant cannot attend their consultative examination for any reason, they need to contact their attorney or the disability examiner responsible for their disability case a reschedule examination rather than miss it.

Hiring a good attorney can go a long way in avoiding these and many other pitfalls of the social security and disability application process. If you live in Franklin, Warren, Lincoln, Washington, or St. Louis County in Missouri or Calhoun, Jersey, Macoupin, or Monroe County in Illinois, contact the offices of Kassin and Carrow today!

Medical Reasons That One Can Be Denied SSI and SSDI Benefits

Social Security Disability and SSI cases are mainly refused for one particular reason: a claimant's medical records fail to authenticate that the person has enough physical or mental constraints that will stop them from having the ability to return to work--either performing one of their previous jobs (past pertinent work potentially includes any job that was done within the last fifteen years) or performing some other type of work (that Social Security might declare that you're able to do based on your age, education, medical limitations, and skills and training).

Whenever Social Security finds that a person in St. Louis, Chesterfield, St. Peters, Warrensville, or St. Charles filing for disability benefits is disabled, this simply means they have determined that they've either A) fulfilled the requirements of a listing in the Social Security List of Impairments, or B) that they've successfully passed through the five-step evaluation process referred to as sequential evaluation.

Now, most individuals won't be accepted based on the acceptance criteria for a listing. The reason is many medical conditions aren't within the listing book. And when they are the criteria for approval can be quite high. The simple fact is that quite often a claimant's medical records won't contain the information necessary to prove that they qualify under a listing.

When a person is approved it is because they have gone through all five steps of the sequential evaluation process, which means that:
1) They are not presently working and earning a substantial and gainful income,
2) They have a severe handicap,
3), They don't fulfill a listing in the listing book,
4) Their condition or conditions prevent them from being able to do their previous work, and finally
5) Their condition or conditions are extreme enough that they can't do any other kind of work, work that, if they were not disabled, they may easily be able to change to.

We can distill the way the entire disability system functions by making this single statement:
Most claims are rejected because an SSA adjudicator--a disability social security adjudicator or a judge--will decide that the person may still do some sort of other work, even if they can no longer do their past work.

The trick to winning a disability claim, of course, is demonstrating that your condition is so severe that you can't do other work, as well as being unable to do your past work. This is where a social security or disability attorney can really come in handy. Kassin and Carrow are here for you if you have any further questions about filing for disability in the St. Louis and Metro St. Louis areas.