Daily Activities and Social Security Disability

0:01 Hey, everybody, how are you doing? This is Attorney Anthony Reed's and this is your legal bat tip of the day. I know you're probably wondering why I am doing this beautiful shot of the outdoors. You got them, bucket man. Check out all this beautifulness. It's nice to sonny outside. Nothing issue going on? Of course, you know, I got my eye a couple of lots that look like they're flying in my direction because I am a scaredy cat. But for those of you who are probably wondering why aren't you doing this thing outside, it is because I want to talk to you a little bit about daily activities and how they can affect your social security case.

0:32 For instance, how many of you found yourself getting all these forms and social security? And they say the same thing over and over again, asking you do you do yard work? Do you cut the grass, do you do you lay plants outside? Do you do house cleaning? Do you cook? You know, do you clean your bathrooms? And you're probably wondering, why are they asking me these questions? Well, daily activities can serve as a pretty good reference point for how those active, but it can possibly transition into work. Give you a good example Let's say, for instance, that you say you're on you You're telling Social Security that, oh, I'm on them my back all day and so forth. But then when they start asking you about things like, well, do you help doe to house cleaning?

1:15 Well, yeah, I do. I clean my house every day. That takes by an hour. Okay, then maybe your condition is not as bad as you're saying it is. Or another thing. This is where I tell people a lot. Your credibility is testing. Let's look at it. For an instance, Let's say that you have asthma or chronic constructive pulmonary disease.

1:34 In other words, you have breathing problems, and you're like, oh, everything aggravates me, dust, fumes, you name it. Third, I get all aggravated. But then they ask you a question, do you clean your bathroom? Well? What do you clean with your bathroom? Ammonia lightsol pine salt, and what did that? Chemicals? Or they might ask you, do you do any ard work? Yeah, I cut my yard.

1:57 Guess what happens when you mow that? Lawns pops up? So of course you're probably sitting here saying it's because you do these things on such a regular basis. That you don't think about how those may affect your case. Now, let me make this thing one hundred percent clear to you, because I don't want anybody sitting here thinking, well, then day, maybe I shouldn't do a thing. Social Security doesn't expect you to live and what we call a vegetative state. Nobody's expecting you to sit on the couch and just wait for disability benefits to kick in. A'm silly. You still got to go on to live your life. But when you're talking about your daily activities, take a moment to think about them in relation to how your condition affects you.

2:37 For instance, if you used to do yardwork, like let's say you had a gardener and then you hurt your back, but you still have the garden, Well, how are you dealing with the garden now that you're backers? Well, maybe you have a niece, or maybe a neighborhood kid comes over and helps you work on the yard, So you tend to get a slightly different effect because they're helping you out as opposed to when you used to get on knees every day and turn up the grass. Or more importantly, let's say you have a garden but as opposed to going out there every day and working on your garden, and I know I'm sitting there a sweating like ooo, and the posts are going out to go on every day. You're not going every other day or maybe just once a week because your back doesn't

3:15 let you do it. When you are describing your daily activities, keep in context how your daily activities and how your medical disability interact with one another. Same thing. If you do house cleaning, if you just say yeah, I clean the house, well, in my mind, that's covering everything. That means you're washing the dishes, you're doing clothes, You're probably also mopping and dusting and sweeping. Clarify that if your interpretation of house cleaning now is you occasionally sweep, meaning once or twice a week, or you might make up your bedroom and that's your idea of house cleaning. Specify that you got to give Social Security enough information about how your condition limits you not only in

4:01 your ability to work, but also in your day to day activities, because that gives Social Security a pretty good indication of how your condition relates to your everyday life. Also, keep in mind this, I'm going to say this over and over again. Your daily activities also is a great tool to assess your level of credibility. Now you say to yourself, what do you mean by my level of credibility? Well, if you're sitting here telling me that you can't be exposed in any dust and any fumes whatsoever, but yet you're still out there cutting your yard, and you're still out there cleaning with cleaning supplies. I'm not gonna give as much weight to what you say when your activity says to the contrary, when you say that I can only I can't

4:43 lift anything over one pound, but you go grocery shopping by yourself. If you're taking your groceries out of the car into the car, out of the car into the house, trust me, your groceries are weighing more than one pound. So you want to keep all those things in mind. People, I'm going to say this again. When Social Security is looking at whether you're disabled, they're not only just looking at whether or not you could do work that you used to do, but they're looking at all other work. And also they're looking at how your condition affects your daily activities, because your daily activities is somewhat of an indicator of whether or not, they're a you're able to transition into other things. Because sometimes people still to realize this. For

5:20 instance, if you spend six hours a day sitting on your computer having fun playing Solitaire and pedenuppl and surfing, well, you can spend six hours a day sitting in front of a surveillance monitor. You can spend six hours a day handing money in tollboo. Makes sense, doesn't It sounds kind of weird.

5:39 That's just the way it operates. Remember this, the moment you have a disability, your life is going to change. Pay closet attention to how it changes. Yes, you did how you did health cleaning before, you're doing house cleaning now, but now you have a disability. Pay clost attention to how your disability affects your ability to do things that you know only do.

6:00 This is Anthony Reeves and as always, if you have any other questions, if you want to check out some more of my topics, by all means, go to www. Excuse me www dot Reevesfirm dot com. Or you can check out my blog at Legalbett Anthony Reeves dot com. That's legalbet dot Anthony Reeves dot com. For more health Now I'm gonna tell you I am sweating, and I'm gonna go back and try to find me something cool to drink. You have a wonderful day, and as always, if you have any questions or if you need more insight, please leave a comment, because I'll be more than happy to come back later and address that comment later at a separate post. All right, have a wonderful day, stay out of trouble, and more importantly, take care