Ways to Increase the Chances of an SSD Claim Approval

You’ve decided to apply for SSDI benefits. After working hard to establish yourself in your career and provide for your family, a disability has stolen your ability to work—and with it, your chance to take care of your loved ones. With the SSDI program, you may be able to receive monthly benefits that allow you to keep meeting your financial obligations.

However, you may have heard that getting denied is more common than getting approved. This is true. Find out what you can do to improve your odds of approval, and for more personalized assistance with your application, call The Dansby Law Firm at 334-326-6449.

Research the SSDI Program First

Before you even begin your application, spend some time looking into what the SSA has to say about the SSDI program. If you know what they expect of applicants, what benchmark standards you have to meet, and what the process is like, you can make sure that you are adequately prepared.

Double- and Triple-Check Your Application

Once you have completed your application, go back through it multiple times for accuracy and thoroughness. Try to look at your application through the eyes of someone who has never met you and has never seen how your disability affects your life.

Does your application paint an accurate picture of what your disability has done to you? If someone read through it, would they get the impression that your disability has truly taken your ability to work? If your application is vague or has areas that aren’t particularly convincing, it’s worth going back through and strengthening those sections.

Keep Thorough Medical Records

Comprehensive medical documentation is an essential component of an SSDI application. In general, the more documentation you have, the better your application is. Include information from all of your treating physicians, including diagnostic tests, treatment plans, documentation regarding the progress of your disability, and their notes about your physical limitations.

This is where many people fall short of the SSA’s expectations. They worry about overdoing it on their application and providing too much information. In the process, they provide far too little evidence of their condition and its impact on their life.

Prove Your Inability to Work

Remember, you don’t just need to prove that you are disabled. Yes, a diagnosis is an important part of your application, but it isn’t everything. You also need to prove how your disability has impacted your ability to work.

You may want to include proof of time you took off of work before you had to stop completely—for example, days you left early due to pain, days you had to do light duty because of your disability, and stretches of time you had to take off to recover from treatments. Again, documentation from your doctor regarding your limitations can be very useful, especially when cross-checked against a list of your job duties.

Follow Your Doctors’ Medical Recommendations

Throughout this entire process, make sure you are following your doctor’s treatment recommendations. This can be challenging, especially since working with multiple doctors may mean multiple treatment plans and significant time investment. However, the SSA wants to see that your disability is genuinely as severe as you claim. If you are half-committing to treatment regimens or skipping treatment recommendations entirely, the SSA may wonder if your condition is really impacting your life as much as you say.

Work With the Team at The Dansby Law Firm

One of the best things you can do for your SSDI application is work with a disability benefits attorney. At The Dansby Law Firm, we know how stressful and overwhelming this entire process can be. We focus exclusively on disability benefits cases, which gives us plenty of meaningful insight into how the SSA works and what they look for in disability applications.

We’ve worked with applicants at every step in this process, from their initial application to every step of the appeals process. By working with us from the very beginning, you can avoid the pitfalls that trip up applicants and submit your strongest application right away. Let’s set up a time to talk about your application and what you need before you submit it. Call us at 1-877-834-7001 or fill out our online contact form to get started.