Amending the “Onset Date” for Social Security Disability
Just as in dating, sometimes the date you start with is not the one you end up with !
Herndon Social Security lawyer Doug Landau (shown in front of the Washington DC hearing Office) & his clients will "amend the onset date" of their disability in order to secure a favorable decision from an ALJ (Administrative Law Judge)
Unrepresented Social Security Disability claimants often pick a “date of onset” for their disability on their original applications that lead to denial after denial by the Federal Government. While a disabled workers may have stopped working on a particular day due to an on the job injury or occupational disease, that date may not be supported by the objective medical evidence. Just because a wage earner stops working on “date X,” does not mean that the Social Security Administration will find that they should receive Disability Income benefits from that date. The rules for getting Federal Disability benefits are quite strict.
At the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU, we see Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William families who have been denied Social Security despite what appear to be debilitating injuries. Sometimes the medical conditions that disable our clients from working become totaling disabling months and even years after they stop working. In these cases, when we get the case before an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”), our investigation of the evidence reveals that the case can be won if we “amend the onset date.” This means if we move the date the disability began to some time AFTER the claimed onset, when the objective medical evidence supports total disability from all types of jobs in the national economy, then the likelihood of a “Fully Favorable” decision from the Federal judge is increased substantially. The claimant may not get some months or years of benefits, but in return, they get a winning decision, the certainty of benefits, and no lengthy of expensive appeals.
So, when you get an “Unfavorable” Social Security decision, it is smart to contact an experienced Social Security Disability lawyer to help you and your family sort out the evidence necessary to prove that you cannot perform work found in the local and national economies. Read tomorrow’s post to see how we helped a substitute school teacher from Georgia finally win her Social Security case after denial after denial.
And remember, there are times when a claimant will leave the Disability Hearing with a different date than the one they came with !