How to Get Social Security Benefits for Multiple Sclerosis

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Transcription:

“Hi, I'm attorney Michael Riley. I'm a hearing attorney at the law offices of Robert Hoglund. Today I'd like to discuss with you Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and the questions I get from clients regarding this. I have written a blog about this at www.Hoglundlaw.com, so if you want you can take a look at it there.

Generally, there are six questions that my clients have when it comes to MS. First, what are the requirements. If I have MS, how do I qualify for social security disability benefits? Well, social security reviews MS under the listing 11.09. For social security disability, you either prove that someone is unable to work or you prove that they meet the requirements of the listing.

There are three requirements for the listing of MS. The first is disorder of motor function. The second is a visual or mental impairment. The third is reproducible fatigue. To meet the first requirement, disorder of motor function, you are going to want to talk to your doctor and explain to your doctor exactly what you are going through. Disorder of motor function has to do with your inability to get around, inability to use your feet, or inability to use your arms. But you are going to want to discuss this with your doctor. The most important thing is that you explain and that you not be a complainer . The second requirement is a visual or mental impairment. You are going to want to see a specialist for this, an ophthalmologist obviously for the vision and a psychiatrist or psychologist for a mental impairment and discuss this with them. The third is reproducible fatigue. You are going to want to discuss and treat this with a neurologist. You are going to want to talk to them about the problems you are having and they will be able to conduct tests such as a stress test to show that you are having difficulty with fatigue. A neurologist will be able to help you with that.

If you don't directly meet the requirements of the listing, it is possible to equal the listing, which means that you may be close enough. Social Security Administration might be able to gather more information such as activities of your daily life to determine if you are close enough to the requirements but you don't exactly meet the requirements.

Next, what if you are working part time? A lot of our clients have MS and they are unable to put in the extra hours, this is possible too. Again you will want to discuss with your doctor about this, but the fatigue and the problems with this may prohibit you from working on a full time basis. Under social security rules we are trying to prove that you are only able to work on a part time basis, but this is something to talk to your doctor about.

If you have any additional questions about this you can review more information at Hoglundlaw.com. You can further review the blog that I wrote on the website. Just keep in mind that at Hoglund Law we want to make the social security process as easy and as less frustrating as we possibly can for you. Thank you."