Social Security Disability Benefits for Diabetes in Chicago, IL
Diabetes means constantly watching your health. You’re careful about what you eat, constantly check your blood sugar, and try hard to exercise enough.
Even with the best plans, diabetes can be unpredictable, and its symptoms can get worse. When that happens, your condition may become so severe that you can no longer work.
Social Security Disability benefits are designed to help people find financial stability to better manage their lives when they can’t work because of illnesses including chronic, debilitating conditions like diabetes.
But does diabetes qualify for Social Security Disability?
It can, but it’s not a direct case. Getting benefits is difficult under any circumstances. Social Security routinely denies more than two out of three disability claims it receives.
Diabetes comes with an extra challenge: Social Security no longer recognizes it as a defined impairment for disability benefits. That sets the bar higher for you to prove that your diabetes meets the standard for Social Security Disability—which is that working for a living has become impossible.
Don’t give up hope. There is plenty of evidence that severe diabetes is disabling, and you can successfully convince Social Security that you qualify for benefits. You may just need help to do so.
At Nash Disability Law, we’ve been helping people across Chicagoland for more than 40 years win disability benefits.
Our disability lawyers are quite familiar with diabetes claims, and we can guide you through Social Security’s process from applying to appealing, so that you can get your life back on track.
To us, you’re not just a number. You’re a neighbor.
You never pay a disability attorney fee until you win benefits.
WE’VE HELPED MORE PEOPLE IN THE CHICAGO AREA WIN BENEFITS THAN ANY OTHER LAW FIRM.
Symptoms of Diabetes and Qualifying for Social Security Disability Benefits
Diabetes comes in two forms. Type II diabetes is the most common. While your genetics may predispose you to it, it has been linked to obesity, nutrition, and a lack of exercise. These factors can disrupt your insulin production, causing the disease.
Type I, sometimes called childhood diabetes, is a rare autoimmune condition that prevents your pancreas from producing enough insulin to regulate glucose, commonly known as your blood sugar. People with Type I typically have it their entire lives.
Type II is usually a slow-moving disorder and is even correctable, but that is why it can be a challenge to prove a disability claim for diabetes.
Many people can manage it and continue working, making them ineligible for benefits. Diabetes is one of the most common medical conditions out there. Over 40 million Americans have it, said the American Diabetes Association.
Severe complications from diabetes, however, can give you a clearer claim for Social Security Disability.
These include:
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Kidney disease
- Eye and vision problems
- Nerve damage (especially in the hands and feet)
- Skin infections
- Depression
- Amputations
Combinations of these conditions can leave you unable to hold a job. And some of these diabetes-related health problems are among the most common reasons people get approved for disability benefits.
If you can prove your diabetes is the reason you can’t work because of its symptoms and related conditions, it doesn’t matter that Social Security doesn’t include it in its official listing of eligible impairments for benefits.
You can still get much-needed monthly income support by showing the negative impact of your combined symptoms on your life.
Telling your story in the most compelling way is where a skilled disability lawyer gives you an advantage.
If you live in the greater Chicago area, Nash Disability Law is here for you. We are one of the top regional disability law firms in terms of the volume of benefits we have won for our clients.
Contact us for a FREE disability case evaluation.
How to Win Social Security Disability for Diabetes
Since Social Security stopped including diabetes in its listing of impairments for benefits in 2011, you must rely on the combined impact of your symptoms on your ability to work to prove you qualify for financial relief.
In 2014, Social Security published guidelines on how to show your diabetes complications warrant benefits.
In some cases, the conditions associated with diabetes are by themselves included in Social Security’s “blue book” of eligible impairments. These include cardiovascular disease and neuropathy, or nerve damage.
Other conditions such as hypoglycemia or retinopathy also may qualify as special disabilities, although they don’t have their own listings.
The crux of a strong Social Security Disability case is connecting your health problems to your inability to do a job—in some cases any job—for at least 12 consecutive months.
This requires collecting your medical records, consulting with your doctors, and tracing your work history and demands of past jobs.
Social Security will evaluate your “residual functional capacity,” or RFC, which is a measure of the basic physical and mental activities you can still do despite your health problems.
Applying for Social Security Disability, or appealing a denied claim, feels overwhelming, especially when you’re dealing with poor health.
An experienced disability attorney can take away a lot of the guess work, giving you confidence that you have built the strongest case possible and stand the best chance of avoiding roadblocks that Social Security may bring up along the way.
A local attorney who is familiar with Chicago’s health systems and local Social Security offices and gets to know you personally gives you an added advantage.
At Nash Disability Law, we can help you present your case to Social Security in a way that sets you on a path to a better life after the disruption of diabetes.
