Friday, February 8, 2013

Breast Cancer

Normally, obtaining Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits can be a long, drawn out process. However, if you have a critical medical condition, you may be able to request a Compassionate Allowance. If your illness establishes that you meet one of the conditions on the Compassionate Allowance list it allows Social Security to make a quicker decision. 

I represent a 54 year old Customer Service Representative with Stage IV breast cancer, which is one of the conditions on the Compassionate Allowance list. She received a fully favorable decision today, just a few months after I submitted her SSD application. It was only necessary that I submit the medical records that confirmed how the diagnosis qualified as a Compassionate Allowance; the more typical usual functionality restrictions and limitations were not needed. 

A Compassionate Allowance claim can still be denied, just like any other SSD claim, as it is still open to the same pitfalls of any most other SSD claims. While an attorney may not be required to obtain SSD benefits in the long run for a condition on the Compassionate Allowance list, if time is a concern, then an attorney can help ensure that the SSD application, along with any Child’s Benefits application, will be expeditiously and properly processed as a Compassionate Allowance.

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