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While You Are Still Working, Preparing To File For An Income Due To Your Health

Assess Your Chances For A Successful Claim

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To assess your chances for a successful disability claim, compare the duties of your job to your symptoms. One way to do this is divide a sheet of paper in half with a line going from top to bottom. Label the left side, "Symptoms" and the right side, "Job Duties".

On the "Symptoms" side of the page:

  • List all your symptoms, focusing on both the physical and mental symptoms. Include side effects of treatments and medications as well as symptoms caused by the condition. If you've been keeping your Symptoms Diary to date, this should be easy to do.
  • Ignore lab results for now. It is the functional symptoms that the disability analyst will look for.
  • Don't rush completing this list. Think about filling it out, and then setting it aside for a few days. Don't be surprised if additional symptoms come to mind -- especially if you have been dealing with a deteriorating condition for some time. You may have had some symptoms so long and adjusted to them so well, you've forgotten about them.

On the "Job Duties" side:

  • List all the material duties of your job. Look beyond the name of the duty and look at what it takes to do it. "Answering phones" is the name of a duty. However, if you generally deal with irate customers on the other end of the line, then more is required to perform that duty, such as patience and tact. Unless you describe the duty more fully, no one would understand why it would be difficult to do if you're in pain or fatigued.
  • Focus on the main duties. The definition of disability generally relates to "the material duties" of your job.
  • Again, take your time completing the list.

When the list is complete, relate the two columns to each other .

  • List the symptom and then each duty it impacts. Next to the duty, give the impact a number. For example:
    • Use a numbering system from one to ten. One is no impact and ten is such a strong impact that you can't do the duty at all.
    • If fatigue prevents you from lifting, and part of your job is lifting heavy boxes, list the symptom as fatigue, the duty as lifting heavy boxes (preferably even with the weight of the average box so a dummy can understand the situation), and the impact as 10, since you can't do it at all.
    • Fatigue may even impact your duty to do your paperwork, but the impact may be much less, say a 3.
  • This simple exercise will not only give you an idea of how well your claim will succeed, it can also show you where you need to focus when reporting the symptoms of your condition, and their effects, to your doctor.

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