eMastered_1022011

0:21 Day, Good day, good day, and welcome to another edition of Q and A Social Security Disability Today. I am your host, attorney Anthony Reeves. So let's go ahead and get cracking and get right to your question. All right, the first question is I have a lawyer and I call with updates. However, I keep talking to the receptionist.

0:47 I've only talked to my lawyer twice in the past two years. Does this sound normal? Okay? I've had to deal with this in terms of talking to people about how much communication should they have with their law office or their law firm if they're having a turn. And here's what I tell people. Ninety nine percent of the information that you need regarding your Social Security case you're going to get from the staff. The reason why I stress that is because your staff is the one that's going to be getting the medical records. Your staff is the one that's going to be getting in contact with Social Security and the medical providers, and your staff is going to be the one that's going to keep you up to date on the information. If you need to

1:22 speak to your an attorney, whether it be about something particular about your case, most of your attorneys are going to be available to you, meaning if you need them for something specific because you want to go back to work, or if you're wondering what type of impact smoking or drinking or doing will have on your case, by all means, speak to them at that time. A lot of times when people are asking me how many times should they speak with their attorney, I tell them this. It really just depends on you. If you want to have more and more in contact with your attorney, you need to establish that early because every law firms protocol is just a little different. Don't measure sure by the number of

2:01 times you speak to your attorney. You need to consider are you getting the information you need to know about your case? And also keep one very straight point in mind. If you're getting the same information from the staff that you the attorney's going to tell you the same thing, don't stress. If the attorney hasn't told you you want the information, that's much more important. All right, here's our second question, which is an outstanding question. My question is if I'm approved, must I stay in the United States or am I able to live abroad while I collect Social Security benefits? Awesome point? If you are, let me back the second first and foremost, let me make one point very clear. There are some countries that if you

2:47 go there, social Security will not release funds to your account so that they can go to you while you're in those countries. Make that point very clear. So if you know you're about to leave the country, contact yourself security office and ask them if the country that you're going to is one that permits you the ability to receive money via direct deposit into your bank account while you're at that location. I can't stress this any harder.

3:13 There are certain countries. There are certain countries that social Security will not release your money to if you're there, So you want to make sure you let social Security know if you are relocating. Not a whole lot of countries, but there are enough where you need to let them know. And people don't move to the country and then call social Security back and say, hey, I'm over in this country. Now.

3:33 Is that a problem? Because you may get your feelings hurt. Let them know that you're moving. Remember, your case follows you, and the last thing you want is a situation that messes up your money. All right, everyone love this question. Our third question of the day. What if you have a chronic illness? And you try to do a little around your home, but you're not able to do the same job you were or any other work. Here's where it gets a tricky, and this is actually a two part question. First talked about your past work and any other work. Then it also talks about daily activity. Let's talk about pass work another word. When Social Security is going through the five step process, they go through five step.

4:18 First one, it's are you working? Second one, if you're not, is it because of a health condition or conditions that's kept you out of work for twelve months or more? Third step is do you meet the listed of impairments the Social Security have. If they find that you don't, you go to the fourth step, which is can you do any of your past work? And if you can do any of your passwork, they then determine can you do anything else? Now, if you're in a hearing, here's one of the things they do. They ask all those questions about what you did in the past and so forth.

4:45 When they get down to the meat and potatoes of what's causing you the problem, they're going to spend a lot of time focusing on daily activities. Why because here's the kicker, Because the next question. This gentleman asked me, well, you can do a little roule of the home, but you can't do any other work. Those two things actually pay lay in play with each other. Let me give you a good example. Let's say, for instance, you say you've got a devastating situation. You can't do any work you used to do, and you're telling Social Security because of your condition. You can barely sit for a long period of time. You have a hard time concentrating, you can't stand for a long period of time. But you go to school online classes, you sit through two or

5:24 three hours a day on online classes, and three or four hours of night studying in a seat of position. Now wrap your brain around that you can't concentrate and you can't sit for prolong periods of time, But yet you're going to school and you're spending six seven hours a day thicking going through materials. Now that's a very clean message, meaning that it doesn't take consideration that you can kind of stop and take a break at your leisure.

5:46 You actually do this over the course of seven days, not just five. But what I'm trying to stress to you is that it's important to keep in mind that when social Security is making a determination of whether they think you can't do any other work. They're going to look at your life and see what you're doing and to determine whether or not any of those daily activities is an indication of how limited you really are. Keep in mind, social Security does not expect you to sit off to the side like a pack of vegetables around the thing. You're not supposed You don't have to sit there in a little cupcake waiting for disability benefits. They expect you to still live your life. But I always tell people be mindful of the responses that you give

6:25 when you sit here and say I can't sit but only an hour at a time, but I can sit and watch a whole football game. Guess what, that's a three hour football game. Be mindful of your answers, and more importantly, be mindful of your limitations, because sometimes it's easy to make ourselves sound worse than what we really are.

6:42 But then when you really stop and look at what you do on a daily basis, you're not quite as bad as the way you make it seen. All right, everyone, Last question? Fourth question? What if medical testing clearly shows you're a stick and have been sick for a long time, as in years when that's qualified for a person for benefits.

7:05 And I stressed the live video I did last week that I said, the focus is not on how long you've had it, even though that's a component of the social scurity regulations. The focus is does it severely limit your ability to work? That's the kicker. Let me give you a good example. I have high blood pressure. I've had it almost all my life. That for some people you can get disability based on high blood pressure. Mine is not at the level where it is disabling, but in my opinion, it is severe. I take medication for it gives me problems every blue moon. Why do I stress that point because it's sometimes it's so easy to focus on the fact that you've had a condition for so long, but you don't focus on the fact, well,

7:46 has it severely limited you for so long? That's the focus that you need to have because guess what, I have high blood pressure. I believe that it's significant. However, it doesn't keep me from working, so it's not that significant. So the reason why I stress this is for those of you who want to sit there and focus on the laundry list of all the medical conditions that you have.

8:06 Oh I got COPD, Oh I got high blood pressure, Oh I got diabetes. Yeah, you got all those problems. But do they severely limited you? Guess what if you take an inhalo for your COPD, you take a diuretic for high blood pressure, and you're on glucafogs or diabetic pills and you can still go to work. That's what you have impairment. But they're not that severe where they significantly limit you. I stress again, don't focus all of your attention on the laundry list of your conditions. The importance is how does it significantly or how does it impact your ability to do the work that you used to do or any other work in the national economy.

8:42 Hope that helped. All right, everyone again, I want to thank you for joining me for another edition of Q and A Social Security Disability Today, brought to you by the Red Law Firm dedicated to representing the disabled that discriminated. Keep those questions coming and I'll do the best I can keep the answers coming right back. Batch ostessing and fixtect, boussing and fixing, etect, bocus, just pussing and fix the fact bouss