Disability claims based on psychological/emotional disorders succeed or fail based on whether the claimant’s mental impairment either meets or equals Social Security’s listing criteria for psychological/emotional disorders. The listings, which are a set of requirements for particular impairments which Social Security recognizes as automatically qualifying a claimant if met or equaled, are different for different mental disorders, e.g. depression, bi-polar disorder, etc. Generally, however, they use the following criteria:
Most people who have to go to an Administrative Law Judge hearing are nervous and uncertain of what will happen. The hearing is actually pretty informal. The participants include the judge, a reporter who types up what is said, often a vocational expert (someone versed in what kinds of jobs exist in the national and regional economy, how many there are of each kind of job, and what each job involves physically and mentally), the claimant and his/her representative.
The star of the show of course is the claimant. Many times a judge needs to see and hear from the claimant to make his/her mind up.
While Social Security retirement has been a target of the Congress for quite some time, more recently a legislature bent on cutting so called Federal entitlement programs is now looking at the Social Security Disability program (SSDI). Some legislators view SSDI as a form of “unemployment” benefit, failing to realize that the Title II\SSDI disability program is funded by the same Social Security taxes that a worker has deducted from his pay checks while working. In effect, SSDI is a form of early disability retirement which allows a person who can no longer work to draw his retirement early. They further fail to recognize that just because a person can no longer do his\her past work doesn’t mean that they get SSDI disability benefits.
Perhaps the most important medical ingredient for a successful Social Security Disability claim is the support of a treating doctor(s). Why? Because SSA, by its own rules, recognizes that treating doctors are in the best position to give a professional opinion regarding a claimant’s impairments and their effect on his\her ability to work.
A properly drafted report by a treating doctor with a substantial history with the claimant, which clearly sets out the objective medical evidence proving a claimant’s impairment and also explains how the symptoms and limitations complained of by that claimant are consistent with the medical evidence, is going to be given special and sometimes controlling weight in Social Security’s disability determination.