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What you Should Know About Disability Questionnaires

By Christina March 30, 2017

It’s no secret that the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) application process can be lengthy, as there are hundreds of thousands of open claims nationwide. While we take pride in our job as your advocate to take as much of the work off of you as possible, it is important for you to know that your involvement with your SSDI claim does not end after you have completed your initial application with our office.

Once we file your claim and you have returned your signed forms to the Social Security Administration (SSA), your claim will be assigned to a disability examiner. Your disability examiner is the person who will request your medical records and work on your claim at Social Security. To help them obtain additional information that they need in order to make a decision on your claim, your disability examiner may send you questionnaires to complete. This blog post will be the first in a small series we will be publishing to help you learn more about some of these questionnaires, why they are vital to your claim, and how to handle them correctly.

There are two particularly common questionnaires that Social Security will frequently send out to disability applicants:  the Function Report, which asks questions about how your conditions limit your day to day activities, and the Work History Report, which asks questions about the physical and mental demands of the jobs you held over the last fifteen years. Although these forms look similar and can feel repetitive, it is important that you complete all the forms that you receive from Social Security as accurately and with as much detail as possible. Even though these forms can feel overwhelming, we encourage you to remember that you will never meet with your disability examiner face to face, so these questionnaires give you the opportunity to paint a picture for them of the ways in which your conditions impact your daily life. Therefore, a simple “yes” or “no” does not provide enough information—and this is where we come in.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed when you receive mail from Social Security, do not hesitate to give The Advocator Group a call. One of our experienced Client Advocates will be more than happy to answer any questions you have! We are also able to schedule an appointment with any of our clients to help complete questionnaires over the phone. While we aim to shoulder as much of the work as possible, your participation throughout this process is deeply valuable.  With our expert knowledge of the SSDI process and your input and involvement combined, we can increase the odds of receiving a fast and favorable award! Stay tuned for future posts that will dive deeper into these questionnaires.

This post was written by one of our Client Advocates, Kristen.

 

Nothing in this post is intended as advice or a suggestion to elect or not elect to claim benefits of any kind, including Social Security benefits, nor is it intended as financial advice in any way.  The decision to claim benefits is a personal one that is contingent upon each individual’s unique circumstances.

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