This feature appears from time to time as a means of illustrating the challenges that many applicants for social security disability benefits experience, in their efforts to be approved. Cases are derived from actual clients but their names, details and key facts are changed to protect privacy.
“I was getting better, until I took a big spill.”
Amy was only thirty-eight years old when she had to stop working as a waitress due to chronic back pain. After surgery, she was improving, and attempted to work at an easier job, as a cashier. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to sustain even this light-duty job due to a nasty spill.
One day, she was hurrying out the door to get to work, and slipped on her patio and landed badly on her back. She re-injured her back and her symptoms worsened. She never returned to her cashiering job. She was incredibly disappointed and began to suffer from intense depression relating to her inability to work.
The Lawyer’s View
Amy’s case posed some difficult challenges.
- Although she was dealing with serious depression, Amy had limited mental health care due to insurance issues.
- Amy’s work attempt as a cashier was after her “Alleged Onset Date” and the judge might consider that if she could do that easy job for almost six months she must have the ability to do some other light-duty job.
- Amy’s primary care provider, Dr. Smith, refused to speak about the possibility that she might be disabled from all work. His refusal to speak about her physical limits made her case difficult because it left only her pain management doctor, Dr. Wayne, to provide a medical source statement.
What happened?
Over two years after applying, Amy finally made it to the hearing. She and her spouse testified about her physical limits and her emotional struggles. The judge asked her about her work attempt as a cashier. He also asked her about what she has tried to do to improve her functioning.
The judge’s decision found that Amy would miss too much work due to pain to sustain full time work. He considered her work effort as a cashier to be an “unsuccessful work attempt” and did not penalize her for that effort. He gave heavy weight to the supportive opinion of Amy’s pain management doctor, Dr. Wayne.
We won the case.