Can Diabetes Qualify for Social Security Disability in Michigan & Ohio?
You can qualify for disability benefits with diabetes, but you need to show that your symptoms are severe enough to stop you from working for 12 months or longer.
According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 40 million Americans live with diabetes. Many of them can work despite their illness—which creates a challenge for your disability claim.
Showing Social Security that you meet its standards for a “disability” is difficult. Get help from a Detroit disability lawyer who understands what the Social Security Administration (SSA) looks for in a diabetes case.
You deserve support in this process because Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits can provide a crucial financial lifeline in a tough time. But so many applicants struggle to get approved.
Levine Benjamin Law Firm has helped more than 100,000 people across Michigan, Ohio and Indiana fight for benefits that restore their peace of mind and stability.
The effects of diabetes, like fatigue and blurry vision, can make it hard to do a job. These symptoms, along with common issues like frequent urination, make it difficult to stay on task.
To get disability for diabetes, you need to make your limitations clear to Social Security. Our Michigan disability lawyers can help—for no attorney fee until you’re approved for monthly income assistance.
From applying to appealing, we help you every step of the way.
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How Does Social Security Evaluate Diabetes Disability Claims?
The SSA doesn’t list diabetes in its “blue book” of impairments that can qualify for disability benefits, but it does acknowledge that complications of diabetes can make it impossible to work and support yourself.
Your claim will be evaluated under an SSA ruling called SSR 14-2p, which gives disability claims examiners this step-by-step process for determining whether you should be awarded benefits:
Step 1: Evaluating work activity
Social Security wants to see if you’re working, what kind of work you’re doing and how much you’re able to work. If you earn more than a monthly amount that Social Security sets every year, that’s considered “substantial gainful activity” (SGA) and you’re unlikely to win benefits.
Step 2: Seeing if you have a medically determinable impairment (MDI) that is severe
Even though diabetes isn’t in Social Security’s official listing of impairments, a claims examiner will look at your diabetes symptoms, any related health problems you have and any other medical conditions to see how your medical issues interact with each other, exacerbate each other and add up to the inability to work.
If your ailments rise to the level of a “medically determinable impairment,” you could win disability benefits.
It’s not just your testimony about your diabetes symptoms and other health struggles that matters here. Social Security will need to see objective evidence, like medical records.
Step 3: Evaluating the effects of diabetes under other body systems
When evaluating your other health conditions, Social Security will look for any that—on their own and aside from diabetes—meet an official impairment listing.
Conditions like amputation, diabetic neuropathy and mental health issues including anxiety and depression could qualify you for disability benefits.
Step 4: Assessing your residual functional capacity
Regardless of your diagnosis, your health problems create limitations in your everyday life. As part of a disability application, Social Security will evaluate your specific limitations.
Claims reviewers use a measure known as residual functional capacity (RFC) to determine what kind of work you could still do. RFC covers how well you can stand, walk, lift, carry items and generally endure a workday.
Your doctor provides information for your RFC evaluation. Your disability lawyer can help guide the process.
RFC is important for a condition like diabetes that isn’t recognized as a disability on its own. That’s because the key to winning benefits is whether you can hold a job, not which illnesses or impairments you have.
Another complication when you’re trying to get disability benefits is if the SSA thinks you could handle a job that’s less physically and mentally taxing than your old job, like a desk job.
Our Michigan and Ohio disability lawyers will help you build a case that your diabetes and related conditions make it impossible to work a substantial amount.
What Evidence Do I Need for a Diabetes Disability Claim?
You may think it’s obvious that your health makes it impossible to work, but convincing Social Security is a different matter.
As a claims examiner goes through the steps outlined above, you want them to see strong evidence to back up your statements about your health and ability to work.
The Levine Benjamin disability attorneys can help you gather what you need, including items like:
- Results from lab tests and blood tests
- Your doctor’s assessment of your everyday functioning
- Information about treatments you’ve used to manage your symptoms
- Records of hospitalizations and emergency room visits
- Evidence of disruptions to your work, like frequent missed days
- Information about any accommodations you needed at work, like extra breaks
- Statements from friends, family and coworkers who have seen you struggle with your health
Examples of other medical issues to document that are commonly seen alongside diabetes include:
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Kidney disease
- Vision issues, including blindness
- Skin infections
- Mental health issues
- Neuropathy
- Strokes
- Heart disease
Offering a complete picture of your health and your limitations makes your diabetes disability claim more convincing.
What Happens If My Diabetes Disability Claim Gets Denied?
Even if it seems like you did everything right and backed up your application with plenty of evidence, you could still be denied disability benefits.
Across Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, only around 35% to 40% of initial applications for Social Security Disability benefits get approved.
It’s tough to meet the SSA’s standards, and it can be especially hard to get approved for SSDI or SSI when you have an ailment like diabetes that people don’t always think of as a disability.
Don’t give up if you get denied. You get multiple chances to appeal, including the chance to tell your story personally at a disability hearing in front of an administrative law judge (ALJ). This is often when your odds of winning are better.
Appealing can take a long time. The process gets more complicated and legalistic as it goes on. Let our Michigan disability attorneys guide you and build a stronger case.
Social Security gives you 60 days to respond and tell them that you want to appeal. Wait too long and you may have to start over with a new application for disability.
How a Michigan & Ohio Disability Attorney Helps
The Michigan and Ohio disability lawyers at Levine Benjamin can help you with every stage of this process.
Some law firms will tell you to apply for benefits on your own and consult them if you get denied. We want to help with your application from the very first steps.
The attorneys at Levine Benjamin Law Firm:
- Assist with application forms so that you don’t make mistakes
- Identify medical evidence that supports your claim
- Go over your daily routine with you and find key tasks that your diabetes makes more difficult
- Help you identify specific work duties your diabetes interferes with
- Support your appeal if your diabetes disability claim gets denied
- Keep you aware of important SSA deadlines
- Prepare you for the kinds of questions a judge at your disability hearing might ask
- Represent you at your disability hearing
- Cross-examine expert witnesses at your hearing
- Identify errors by the judge to raise with the Social Security Appeals Council, if necessary
Don’t get intimidated by this process. Get support from someone who knows Social Security Disability and will make sure you don’t get lost in the system.
Levine Benjamin is the top disability law firm in the state of Michigan measured by how much we win for clients.
If you’re in Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Toledo or anywhere else in Michigan, Ohio or Indiana, we’re ready to help you with your diabetes disability claim.
Because the initial consultation is free, and you don’t pay an attorney fee until you win benefits, there’s little financial risk to working with an experienced disability lawyer—but much to gain when you have the economic support you need to take care of yourself.