A cancer diagnosis derails all your other plans in life. You have to stop everything and focus on your health.
Your symptoms, and the side effects of treatment, can force you to step away from work. In the fog of a time like this, you may not realize: Financial assistance could be available to you.
Social Security Disability benefits are designed to provide a measure of peace and stability for people who can’t work because of health problems—so you can put more energy into your own well-being.
Social Security Disability comes with monthly checks and access to Medicare health coverage before the usual retirement age. To qualify for disability benefits, you must prove you can’t work much at all, for at least a year, because of your illness.
The hard part is that the disability benefits process is slow, and cancer is a health crisis you face right now. But if your case is severe, you may be able to speed up your access to benefits.
A Social Security Disability lawyer can be your champion in the system, letting you take care of yourself while your attorney works to secure financial relief.
For people in Elmira, Binghamton, Rochester, and all over Upstate New York, the disability attorneys at Lachman & Gorton Law Office are here to support you through a difficult time.
Most of the time, Social Security makes it difficult to win disability benefits. You generally have to apply for benefits, receive a denial of your disability claim and then appeal.
The process can take months, sometimes a year or more. They have thousands of rules meant to stop undeserving people from getting benefits, but it makes the process complicated for deserving people.
Because there are so many different kinds of cancer, with so many different levels of severity, your disability claim for cancer can go in different directions.
But most people would agree: Severe, life-threatening forms of cancer should qualify for benefits.
Social Security has a program for this called “Compassionate Allowances.” This is a system for identifying impairments severe enough that they obviously qualify for disability benefits.
Getting a Compassionate Allowance cuts your wait time for benefits approval.
Many forms of cancer are clear cases for a Compassionate Allowance.
For cancer in general, Social Security lists several types that can qualify for disability benefits, including:
Really any cancer that is debilitating enough that you can’t work could make you eligible for benefits. Highly aggressive forms of cancer can get you a Compassionate Allowance.
To see what options are available to you, it’s free to talk to the disability lawyers at Lachman & Gorton about your path to getting disability benefits for cancer.
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Your medical records form the core of your Social Security Disability claim for cancer.
You need to show Social Security confirmation from doctors and other health care providers that you have symptoms that rule out working. Information on your work history also will help Social Security see how your symptoms prevent you from doing the kinds of jobs you’ve held before.
These are some of the forms of medical evidence you can send in:
You can get help assembling all of this information from your disability attorney.
An experienced disability lawyer can help you avoid mistakes in your disability benefits application for cancer, and possibly improve your chances of winning benefits.
And in Upstate New York, Lachman & Gorton is one of the most experienced disability law firms around, having helped thousands of people get benefits.
When you’re dealing with cancer, you deserve support. Let our Social Security Disability lawyers guide you to a more secure life.