The application process for Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) benefits is long and complicated. If your initial application is denied, the appeals process is even more grueling. You need the assistance of a social security lawyer to make sure that your initial application has the best chance of getting accepted. Here are some of the key areas in the application with which your lawyer will help.

Understanding Income Reporting and Limits

You'll need to report on your application all appropriate sources of income. But if your income is too high, your application will be denied. Your lawyer will help you to understand what should be reported and what shouldn't. For instance, any money you get from doing contract labor is a source of income, but monetary gifts from friends and family do not need to be reported.

Making the Duration of Your Disability Clear

The SSDI benefits are only available to those people who will be out of work for at least one year due to an injury. Your lawyer will make sure that your application and all supporting medical testimony supports this claim. Should a doctor's notes infer that you could be back on the job before a year is up, your claim will be denied. Your lawyer will work with the healthcare providers to make sure that it's clear that your injury will keep you away from work for a year or longer.

Including All Relevant Medical Information

If the social security reviewers discover that you have left out medical information that may be relevant to the application, it will be denied. You may not think that something is important, but your lawyer will help with that decision. For example, you may have received prescription allergy medication for your hay fever from your family doctor, which can make you drowsy. If your injury was due to an automobile accident, the reviewers will want to know about that medication. Leaving that information out of the application will likely cause it to be rejected.

Reporting Compliance or Rejection of Treatment Recommendations

The reviewers want to see that you have followed up with all recommendations of your doctors to treat your injury. Any suggestion that you have not followed can get your application denied. Your lawyer will make sure to explain in the application any instances where you could not follow a particular treatment option. For example, your insurance may not cover a particularly expensive medication or you may not have been able to make the daily trip to a treatment center. These exceptions need to be reported properly so as not to hold up your application. To learn more, speak with someone like Prediletto, Halpin, Scharnikow & Nelson, P.S.