How we analyze your North Carolina Social Security disability case

Each of our North Carolina Social Security disability cases presents a puzzle for us to put together.

The pieces of the puzzle include your age, education, work experience, and current capacity for work. These puzzle pieces need to be put together with the regulations and rulings to make a complete picture showing that you are entitled to Social Security disability benefits.

Although not all of the pieces of this puzzle may be available at the initial interview, most are. A thorough interview can usually give us a good idea whether your case can be won.  However, sometimes it will necessary for us to review your Social Security file before we can determine your chances of success.

The interview

We will begin our interview by hearing from you why you think the Social Security Administration (SSA) should find you disabled.  Frequently the reasons that claimants provide are irrelevant for SSA evaluation purposes.

For example, for literate, English-speaking claimants under age 50, a common issue is the capacity for a wide range of sedentary work.   Claimants in that category manytimes give unusable answers like these to the question why they cannot perform sedentary work:

• I’m not qualified for sedentary jobs.
• I can’t get such a job.
• Employers wouldn’t hire me for such a job because of my age, race, sex, etc.
• Even though I could do the job, I would never pass the physical because of all my medical problems.
• There is no sedentary work around Charlotte.
• There aren’t any job openings in North Carolina.
• I wouldn’t like a job like that.
• The pay is too little.

Unfortunately, these reasons are irrelevant to SSA.  But there are lots of valid ways to prove that a claimant cannot do a full range of sedentary work.   If this were your situation, we would direct your attention to those aspects that are relevant to disability determination.

We would listen carefully to your reasons why you cannot work and to your circumstances, and look for a solution to the Social Security disability puzzle.  In many cases we can put together a persuasive argument even for those difficult cases involving claimants under age 50.