The Social Security Administration (SSA) doesn’t care how you got hurt—as long as you were not the one committing the crime. You may not qualify for Social Security disability if you were hurt while committing a crime, but you may be able to qualify if you were hurt while someone else was committing crime.
Some Attack Injuries Create Lifelong Disabilities
In order to qualify for Social Security disability, you are going to have to prove that your disability is permanent and that you can’t work because of it. These kind of injuries may occur in a criminal attack if you are left with a:
- Traumatic brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Amputation injury
- Other serious, disabling injury
If you are unable to work or if your condition is likely to result in death, if you have paid enough into the Social Security system, and if you are not yet of retirement age, the SSA may find you eligible for Social Security disability even if a criminal caused your injury.
Social Security disability benefits may help you make ends meet if you cannot work and may be received even if the state of Texas pursues a criminal case against the person who left you hurt or you pursue a civil case for personal injury damages.
To learn more about Social Security disability benefits and how they may help you after you become disabled in a criminal attack, please read our FREE book, Social Security Disability What You Need to Know, and please start a live chat with us today.
Professional relations officers are part of the Social Security disability program. In Texas, professional relations officers are available through the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services Disability Determination Services (DDS) in Austin.
What Professional Relations Officers Do
It is the job of a Social Security disability professional relations officer to:
- Provide informational presentations to doctors and medical professionals in the community. These presentations include facts about the medical information the Social Security Administration (SSA) needs, when the SSA needs it, and why accurate and complete information is important. The presentations also include information about how reports from doctors and other health professionals are used by the SSA in determining Social Security disability eligibility.
- Recruit and train doctors, psychologists, and other healthcare professionals to become consultative exam providers. They can also answer individual questions about performing consultative exams or conducting disability reviews for DDS.
- Help medical providers use Social Security’s Electronic Records Express for sending records related to disability claims.
Thus, it is the responsibility of the professional relations officers to support the medical community and not necessarily an individual Social Security disability applicant.
How to Contact One in Texas
You can contact the Texas DDS directly at 800-252-9627 if you would like to get in touch with a professional relations officer.
If you think an individual Social Security disability applicant or recipient needs help, however, a professional relations officer may not be the right call for you to make. Instead, that individual may benefit from the assistance of an experienced Texas Social Security disability attorney. Please share our website with that individual or encourage that person to contact us directly at (214) 373-3761 for more information.
Yes, you can apply for social security disability while you’re in a rehab facility. The Social Security Administration (SSA) does not have any restriction on where you are living at the time you file for Social Security disability benefits, and you may file for Social Security disability while you are in a rehabilitation facility.
That said, your concern is likely that you are in a rehabilitation facility in order to make continued medical improvements. It is important that you continue your treatment and improve to the maximum extent possible. If, according to your doctors, you are likely to recover enough that you can go back to work and your daily activities, you may not be eligible for Social Security disability and an application may not be worth your time.
However, Rehab Won’t Always Allow You to Fully Recover
Instead, while you may be making some progress in rehabilitation therapy, if your prognosis remains the same, you may be considered permanently disabled. The following conditions may qualify you for benefits:
- Your condition is expected to last at least 12 months or result in death.
- Your condition prevents you from working or engaging in substantial gainful activity.
- You have paid enough into the Social Security system to qualify for Social Security disability benefits.
If you believe that you will continue to be eligible for Social Security disability after your rehabilitation therapy is completed, you can apply for benefits at any time—even while you are still in rehab.
For more information about the Social Security disability application process and for help getting started with your own application, please start a live chat with us today.
It can be frustrating to hear your doctor tell you that you are not disabled when you are physically unable to go to work. The Social Security Administration (SSA) looks closely at doctors’ determinations when it considers an applicant’s eligibility. Thus, you are right to be concerned about your doctor’s disability determination.
There Are Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Rights
In order to qualify for Social Security disability benefits, you will need to prove that you are permanently disabled. If your doctor tells you that you are not permanently disabled and you disagree with your doctor’s opinion, then it is important to:
- Ask your doctor to provide more specific information. It isn’t just your doctor’s conclusion that matters, but also the specific information documented in your medical record. Accordingly, it is important that all of your symptoms, the impact of those symptoms on your daily life, the treatments you have tried, and your prognosis are included in your medical chart.
- Get a second opinion. You have the right to talk to another doctor about your condition and to ask that doctor to also document your symptoms, the impact of those symptoms on your life and ability to work, and your prognosis. In some cases a second opinion may come from the same kind of doctor you had been seeing and in other cases you may choose to see a specialist.
Additionally, it is important to talk to an experienced Social Security disability lawyer as soon as possible to discuss your potential eligibility and to begin the Social Security disability application process, if appropriate. For more information, please start a live chat with us today.
In order to be considered disabled, a Social Security disability applicant must be unable to engage in any substantial activity because of a physical or mental condition that is expected to last for at least 12 months or result in death. According to this definition of disability, it is not enough that you cannot do your current job. You must be unable to work in any job and meet the other requirements to receive Social Security disability.
The Social Security Administration Will Want to Know About Your Skills
In order to determine if you can do another job, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is going to examine your work skills. The agency may want to know if you have other skills that could transfer to other jobs. When considering the transferability of your skills, the SSA can only:
- Consider your skills from past relevant work that is semi-skilled or skilled.
- Transfer the skills to other semi-skilled or skilled work—not unskilled work.
- Determine the transferability of skills after taking the specific steps described in the agency’s transferability of skills analysis.
A transferability of skills analysis is one of the last steps in a Social Security disability determination, and it need not be completed for every Social Security disability applicant. Instead, the analysis only has to be done if it could make a difference in the outcome for an individual applicant. Transferable skills should be a vocational advantage when looking for a new job.
It is important that you understand transferability of skills and other factors related to your Social Security disability application before you apply for benefits. To learn more, please start a live chat with us today.
Generally, the same rules apply to nonprofit or charitable organizations that apply to other employers. If you were employed by a nonprofit organization, you and your employer were both required to pay Social Security tax on your earnings. Your part of the Social Security tax should have been withheld from your paycheck and submitted to the government by your employer.
However, some religious groups oppose paying into the Social Security system, and the law allows them not to participate. If you worked for such an organization and earned more than $100 a year, you were required to pay into the Social Security system as if you were self-employed.
The Same Rules of Eligibility Apply
If you work for a nonprofit or a for-profit employer, then you may be eligible for Social Security disability as long as:
- You paid into the Social Security system for the required amount of time. You need to earn a certain number of work credits based on your age in order to collect benefits.
- You have a medical condition that is likely to last for 12 months or more or that is likely to be fatal. Some, but not all of these medical conditions are included in the Listing of Impairments. Your doctors’ evaluations and prognoses will be important in determining how long your condition is expected to last.
- Your medical condition makes you unable to work. Your doctors’ evaluations will also be important in determining whether or not you can work. Additionally, your work history, education and other factors will be relevant.
If you have any questions about your eligibility, please start a live chat with us today and schedule an initial consultation with one of our experienced Social Security disability lawyers.
Yes, you may be eligible for Social Security disability if your work history and medical condition meet the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) requirements for eligibility.
Usually, you must be unable to work for 12 months or have a condition that is likely to result in your death in order to be eligible for Social Security disability. Thus, if you have already been out of work for a year and you are expected to be out of work for at least one more year, then you may meet this element of eligibility.
However, You Still Need to Meet the Work History Requirements
The work history requirements can be confusing because they depend on your age and because the number of work credits that you need to qualify for Social Security disability can change from year to year. However, there are some general rules that you should know.
In order to qualify for Social Security disability you typically must…
- Have earned 40 work credits. You can usually earn up to four credits a year. Credits do not expire and some of your credits may have been earned many years ago.
- Have earned 20 work credits within the last ten years before you became disabled.
Of course, some exceptions to these general rules do apply. However, you should not let a year out of work due to a medical condition prevent you from applying for Social Security disability. Instead, you should find out the truth about your potential eligibility by reading our free Social Security Disability Fact Sheet.
For purposes of Social Security disability, the sequential evaluation process means that the Social Security Administration (SSA) must answer a specific set of questions in a specific order to determine eligibility.
The set of questions consists of five inquiries. The adjudicator, or person deciding whether or not to approve the Social Security disability application, must answer the following questions in the order that they are provided below.
The Five Questions
In order to determine eligibility, the adjudicator must decide:
- First, is the applicant currently engaged in substantial gainful activity?
- Second, is the disability severe?
- Third, does the disability meet the requirements of a condition included in the Listing of Impairments? If not, is it substantially equal to such a listing?
- Fourth, can the applicant do any of his past relevant work?
- Fifth, can the applicant do any other kind of work?
While the questions must be answered in the order provided above, they may not all need to be answered. After each question the adjudicator has two options. He may decide that the applicant is disabled or that the applicant is not disabled. If the adjudicator finds that the applicant is disabled, the inquiry ends and the application should be approved. No additional questions have to be answered. However, if he does not find the applicant to be disabled then he must go on to the next question on the list in the order provided above.
If you have any questions about this process or how it might apply to you, please fill out our online contact form and we will contact you directly to answer your questions.
Generally, members of the public or the press may request information from a government agency, such as the SSA, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). However, there are exceptions to the FOIA rule and the SSA is not supposed to release personal information about living people to the public.
You Can Feel Confident Submitting Personal Information to the SSA
In order for the SSA to make a fair and accurate Social Security disability determination for you, the agency is going to need personal and sensitive information including, but not necessarily limited to:
- Your medical records, which may include your mental health records.
- Statements from your treating physicians, which may include your prognosis.
- Your work history, which may include your previous job responsibilities and the locations where you worked.
There are many reasons why you would not want this information released to the public or to an individual without your consent, and it is the SSA’s responsibility to safeguard your privacy.
Unless You Give Consent
If there is someone with whom you want to share your Social Security disability applicationor file, you have the right to provide your consent to have the information shared. This may include, for example, a doctor, social worker, or someone else. It is best to provide your limited consent in writing to the SSA. Additionally, if you have an authorized representative, such as an attorney, you may allow that person to access your records by filling out the correct SSA form, such as Form SSA-1696-U4.
If you know anyone else who is concerned about privacy during the Social Security disability application process, please share this FAQ with her so that she can better understand her rights.
When a doctor, nurse, or hospital makes a mistake the effect can be tragic—as you know all too well if you have been the victim of medical malpractice. You went to the doctor or hospital to improve your health or to help manage your pain and instead a mistake was made that left you with a permanent disability. You are unable to work and your condition is expected to last for at least a year or result in death.
What Now?
If your condition qualifies you for Social Security disability, you may apply for benefits—and collect benefits—even if your condition was caused by the negligence of a doctor or hospital. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is less concerned with what caused your injury or illness than with what your actual injury or illness is and your expected prognosis. Accordingly, if you satisfy the requirements of one of the conditions in the Listing of Impairments or otherwise prove that you are unable to work and you qualify for benefits, you should be able to receive Social Security disability.
At the same time, you may be able to pursue a medical malpractice claim. If you are successful in your medical malpractice claim and reach a settlement, or a court rules you in your favor, it will have no impact on your Social Security disability benefits. Your benefits will not be reduced, eliminated, or otherwise impacted by your medical malpractice recovery.
To learn more about protecting your Social Security disability rights, please watch our free videos today.
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