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Tag Archives for depression and social security disability

Mental Health Disability Claims: Do You Have a Winning Case?

mental health disabilityI have written about this issue before but, given the stress of the coronavirus pandemic, I think this question deserves another look because just about every case evaluation I see contains allegations of some mental health concern.

I suspect we will be dealing with the repercussions of Covid-19 for years. In Atlanta, where I live, it seems that every night we see news stories of road rage shootings and other violent crimes.

Entire sectors of the economy have been devastated, causing upheavals in the job markets. How many restaurants have closed over the past year? How many men and women in the hospitality, tourism or travel industries are out of work? And for those who remained employed, many had to adjust to working from home while balancing child care and school-from-home obligations.

It is certainly no wonder that daily stress – whether financial, interpersonal or otherwise – has resulted in more cases of clinical depression and anxiety disorders. Hardworking men and women who might have been struggling with depression or social anxiety but was “getting by” now find the pressure of adapting to a post-pandemic world simply too much.

Here is some of what I see from potential clients in case evaluation requests:

“I cannot physically, mentally and at times emotionally work more than a few hours a week. I have noise intolerance with voices, music, and sounds, especially higher pitches. I have to wear noise cancelling ear phones and they don’t fully help. I cry at times from overstimulation which could be even from thinking, planning or riding in a vehicle. I cannot drive.”

“I have severe depression and anxiety and I can no longer focus on my work. And I had suicidal thoughts I am writing this right now it is 4:35 in the morning. I don’t sleep and I am taking antidepressants like mirtazapine 45 mg and am always sleepy and tired.” Continue reading →

What does it take to win a Social Security disability claim based on a mental health impairment in 2022?

In my Social Security disability law practice I am seeing an increasing number of case inquiries from men and women struggling with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and PTSD. This surge in inquiries is in addition to our case inquiries from potential clients who are dealing with more organic mental illnesses like schizophrenia or the after effects of traumatic brain injury.

Like many others, I suspect that the Covid pandemic is a trigger for increasing numbers of depression and anxiety related claims. Onsite work is stressful both because of concerns about becoming infected and because fewer workers are being asked to do more.

Remote work has changed the social dynamic of employment. More people work alone with only occasional electronic interaction with co-workers or customers. Rambunctious school aged children may or may not be home, depending on whether a school system had to close for a week or month.

Every day I speak to several very stressed out potential clients to tell me that they simply do not have the mental energy or capacity to remain in the workforce. Some have quit while others have been fired for excessive absences or lack of productivity. Continue reading →

How Social Security Disability Attorneys Identify Winning Mental Health Claims

Are you pursuing Social Security disability benefits based on a mental health condition such as:

  • depression
  • anxiety
  • PTSD
  • bi-polar disorder
  • schizophrenia
  • personality disorder

A significant number of disability applicants list mental health problems as either a primary or secondary impairment that prevents that applicant from working. From my perspective as a disability attorney who speaks with hundreds of honest, sincere claimants every year, I think that mental health disorders are both extremely common and widely untreated in the general population.  In short, there are a lot of folks out there who are really suffering and far too few get treatment that could really improve their lives.  Perhaps you fall into this situation.
Continue reading →

Social Security Disability Claims for Applicants Under Age 50: is there Hope for Approval?

 

There is no question that Social Security has made it much more difficult to qualify for disability benefits. In 2025, hearing approval rates nationally stood at 50%.  In 2024, the rate was 51% but in 2023 only 45% of cases heard by judges at hearings were approved.  Keep in mind, however that the judge assigned to your case may have an approval rate much higher or much lower than the average.  For example, there is a judge hearings cases in Las Vegas who has an approval rate of 9%.   By contrast, there is a judge hearing cases in Oak Park, IL with an approval rate of 93%.

Whether your chances for approval should rest on what amounts to a lottery is a subject for a different day, but in my experience, you are likely to get a fair hearing from judges whose approval rates are at least 40%.  SSA should review judges with outlier approval rates – either too high or too low.  Overly high approval rates undermine confidence in the system and empower critics of the disability program who argue (incorrectly) that disability benefits are too easy to win.  But it is clearly unfair if you end up before a judge who approves only 10 or 15% of cases.

Attorneys in this practice area share our experiences with judges and I remember asking about a judge in Charleston, SC with a 15% approval rate and one of my colleagues responded that she had appeared before this judge dozens of times over 10+ years and had never won a case. How anyone can argue that extremes of a approval rates, either unreasonably high or  unreasonably low, makes any sense is beyond me.

Further our elected representatives in Washington, D.C. have been putting pressure on Social Security officials to keep approval rates down. The Social Security Board of Trustees reports that the trust fund that pays disability benefits will run out of money in 2034.  The last time this happened, in 2016, the fund was shored up when Congress transferred funds into the disability funds from other accounts.  In the current political enviroment, there seems to be no consensus on how to address the looming insolvency of the Social Security trust fund.

There is also a widespread perception in Congress that judges have been too lenient in approving claims, and there have been a few high profile cases of outright fraud (although these cases capture a lot of attention they represent only a tiny fraction of awards).

So what does all this mean to you.

In my practice I definitely sense that administrative law judges give much more scrutiny to claims of younger individuals – Social Security defines “younger individual” as anyone under the age of 50. No doubt, SSA administrators regularly remind judges that a 30 year old approved claimant will be drawing on the trust fund for another 30 years, whereas a 55 year old claimant will likely draw on the fund for only 7 or 8 years.

So, if you are under the age of 50, you will have more of an uphill battle. However, disability judges will approve younger claimants if the medical and other evidence directs a finding of disability. Here the most important factors that I consider when evaluating a claim by a younger individual: Continue reading →

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