A Social Security disability lawyer such as myself, we handle claims filed before the Social Security Administration for disability primarily under one of two programs.  One is called Disability Insurance Benefits, we call it DIB, and the other is Supplemental Security Income, we call that SSI.

Some applicants file a concurrent claim alleging disability under both programs.  Medically the two programs have the same requirements.  Non-medically they differ substantially.  I won’t go into too much detail about the differences non-medically, but DIB or Disability Insurance Benefits requires some work history.  You have to have worked mostly five out of the last ten years before you’re eligible non- medically to have earned status under that program.

SSI doesn’t require any work history, but it has a very strict means test to it.  You’re limited into the asset and income categories as to how much you can have in terms of resources before you’re eligible non-medically for that program.

Essentially, medically if you’re unable to work by virtue of medically determinable physical or mental impairment that’s deemed to last or expected to last for twelve continuous months or that is terminal, you should be able to qualify under that standard of disability.

There’s some other requirements to disability as well, such as do you have a severity that meets a listing, which is a listing of medical impairments broken down by body system, cardiovascular, neurological, et cetera.  And if you have that level of severity, you can be approved without any further analysis.  Most of our claimants who don’t that level of severity have to go through a five-step analysis process which I can explain in more detail later.

But that’s essentially what we do.  We try to help people who’ve been denied go through that process which is fairly regulatory, intensive, and time-consuming, and a long process as well, because they’re overburdened in the bureaucratic process, understaffed in many cases, and it’s just a long process, and we help people get through it by taking over much of the administrative work, and of course, trying to prove the theory of disability for each particular client.