Social Security Is Not “In the Business of Impeaching” Applicants’ Character

 Posted on August 09, 2016 in Social Security Disability

Social Security officials recently issued revised guidelines for assessing disability benefits claims. Previously, Social Security instructed its administrative law judges to weigh the “credibility” of a disability applicant’s statements regarding their symptoms. Far too often, this led ALJs to summarily reject disability claims because they did not want to believe—or in many cases, they did not like—the applicant.

Under the new guidelines, which took effect at the end of March, ALJs are no longer allowed to consider “credibility,” but rather must limit their inquiry to examining the “intensity and persistence” of the symptoms presented by the applicant. As a federal appeals judge recently explained, “The change in wording is meant to clarify that administrative law judges aren’t in the business of impeaching claimants’ character.” Instead, the ALJ is restricted to assessing credibility in the context of medical statements, such as an applicant’s complaints about pain.

The New Guidelines in Action

The judge’s statement above came in a decision issued on July 26 by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over all disability cases from Illinois. The applicant, in this case, was a welder who “broke his left arm and wrist, requiring insertion of a metal plate and screws in his arm.” This treatment continues to produce chronic pain even more than 15 years later. This chronic pain was further exacerbated following a second accident where the applicant fell off a ladder.

After the applicant exhausted his workers’ compensation benefits, he applied for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. At a 2012 hearing before an ALJ, the applicant testified that his chronic pain left him unable to sleep most nights, prevented him from engaging in any productive activity with his hands, and left him unable to sit for “prolonged periods.” The applicant’s claims were supported by expert medical opinions: An internist who examined the applicant at the ALJ’s direction said he was limited to “sitting, standing, or walking for only one hour a day.” A second doctor said the applicant’s history of physical traumas left him “disabled and currently unable to maintain meaningful employment.”

Despite all this, the ALJ denied the applicant’s claim for disability benefits. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit reversed and ordered Social Security to reconsider the applicant’s case. The appeals court said the ALJ improperly assessed the applicant’s credibility. The ALJ “appears to have thought [the applicant] a malingerer, who could have gone back to factory work or obtained some other type of strenuous manual labor but preferred to sit on his fanny living off governmental largesse.” But, in fact, the applicant worked another eight years after his first accident in spite of his progressively worsening pain.

Do You Need an Illinois Disability Benefits Lawyer?

Hopefully, the revised guidelines will reduce instances of Social Security officials using “credibility” as a pretext for rejecting medical evidence of an applicant’s medical disability. That does not mean that applying for benefits will become any easier. If you are considering applying for benefits, it is important you work with an experienced Chicago Social Security disability attorney who understands the system. Contact Pearson Disability Law, LLC, if you need to speak with an attorney about your case right away.

Source:

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2016/D07-26/C:15-3883:J:Posner:aut:T:fnOp:N:1799261:S:0