Evansville, Indiana
Evansville Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI
Downard & Associates represents adults in Dothan, Alabama, with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) applications, reconsideration appeals, and administrative hearings. We work with clients by phone and video. If your health is limiting your ability to work, start with a list of your treatment providers and recent jobs. If the Social Security Administration (SSA) has denied your claim, note when the decision arrived so the appeal deadline can be reviewed.
How we help
Working With Downard on an Evansville Disability Claim
For SSI, we also help complete the required financial disclosures.
We help put the information Social Security needs into the application or appeal. Our work depends on the stage of your case.
Application: We help prepare the filing, gather medical evidence, and document work history. For SSI, we also help complete the required financial disclosures.
Reconsideration: We review the denial reasons, request reconsideration, and address missing evidence or relevant SSI financial issues.
Administrative hearing: We develop the medical record, prepare you for testimony, and present your case to the administrative law judge.
Our service limits also address matters involving Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits.
We handle SSDI cases for people who currently receive VA benefits, but we do not handle VA claims or appeals. We do not take disability cessation or continuing disability review cases, or new cases involving back-pay issues alone. We refer federal court appeals to a trusted affiliate rather than handling them in-house.
Benefit eligibility
SSDI and SSI Requirements for Evansville Adults
Duration rule
12months
SSDI generally requires enough recent work covered by Social Security. The work credits you need depend on your age when the disability began. SSI has separate income and resource limits and does not require SSDI insured status. Adult SSI eligibility can be based on age 65 or older, statutory blindness, or a qualifying disability, with residency, citizenship or eligible immigration status, and other requirements.
For SSDI and adult SSI claims based on disability, the Social Security Administration (SSA) generally evaluates whether a medically determinable condition prevents substantial gainful activity, meaning significant physical or mental work that is done or ordinarily done for pay or profit. Its evaluation may also consider past work and adjustment to other work. A decision can be made at an earlier step. Not every claim reaches the final work assessment.
For disability-based claims, both the condition and the resulting inability to perform substantial gainful activity generally must have lasted or be expected to last at least 12 consecutive months, unless the condition is expected to result in death within that period. You do not have to wait a year before applying. SSI statutory blindness is different: SSA does not use substantial gainful activity to determine initial eligibility, and there is no duration requirement for statutory blindness under SSI.
Read SSA's disability eligibility explanation and its special rules for blindness. Our Indiana disability page provides the statewide overview.
Treatment records
Organizing Deaconess and Ascension Records in Evansville
The page gives one set of instructions for Indiana and Kentucky records and separate directions for its listed Illinois facilities.
If your care has involved a hospital, a treating doctor, and a separate testing or therapy facility, list each source. Record the facility name and treatment dates rather than relying on one hospital name to describe the whole history.
For Deaconess care, its medical-records instructions call for a completed, signed written request that identifies service dates and record types. The page gives one set of instructions for Indiana and Kentucky records and separate directions for its listed Illinois facilities. Use the instructions for the facility that provided your care.
Ascension St. Vincent Evansville is another local hospital. Ascension's Indiana patient-portal guidance distinguishes doctor's office information from hospital information and provides a direct records-request option. If you had both hospital and doctor's office visits, check the information available through each.
Explain what the condition changes in your working day, too. Difficulty standing, concentrating, lifting, or keeping a regular schedule needs more detail than a diagnosis alone. SSA evaluates medical and other evidence about your ability to function in a work setting. These providers are examples of record sources, not a requirement to receive care at a particular hospital.
Get organized
A Treatment and Work Checklist for Your Evansville Claim
Make a working list you can update as treatment continues. Use it to keep track of information you have and information still missing.
Treatment sources: List each doctor, hospital, clinic, testing facility, and therapist involved in your care. Include contact information, approximate treatment dates, and patient numbers if available.
Tests and medications: Note test dates, the provider who ordered each test, current medications, and prescribers where applicable. Mark records already in your possession.
Work history: List jobs from the five years before you became unable to work, dates worked, and tasks your condition makes difficult. Describe the lifting, standing, sitting, concentration, or other demands involved.
Records to follow up on: Identify the facility, the dates requested, and what you still need. Update the list when a new appointment or test adds information.
SSA's application information checklist explains what to gather and says not to delay applying because documents are missing. A complete personal file is not a prerequisite to starting an application.
After a denial
Checking the Next Step in an Evansville Disability Appeal
Deadline
60days
After an initial SSDI or SSI denial, the next step is generally reconsideration. After an unfavorable reconsideration decision, you can request an administrative law judge hearing. At either stage, the written request is generally due within 60 days after you receive the decision notice.
SSA ordinarily assumes you received the notice five days after its date unless you show you did not receive it within that period. If your request is late, ask for an extension in writing and explain the delay. SSA must find good cause to extend the deadline. Read its reconsideration instructions and hearing-request instructions.
SSA's hearing-office directory lists the Evansville field office among the field offices served by its Evansville hearing office. That entry does not establish your individual assignment or scheduled hearing location. An in-person hearing may use a hearing office or a permanent remote site; your hearing notice provides the instructions for your case. Our hearing-office guide keeps the detailed office information in one place.
Common questions
Questions About Evansville Disability Applications and Appeals
Can I apply before I have every medical record?
Yes. SSA says not to delay applying because documents are missing. Provide the treatment-source information and records you have, and identify what is still missing. SSA can help obtain medical evidence with your permission. You still need to meet the applicable program requirements.
Does my doctor's diagnosis establish that I qualify?
A diagnosis alone does not establish eligibility. For claims evaluated under SSA's adult disability rules, SSA needs evidence of the impairment, its severity, and its effect on work-related functioning. SSI based on statutory blindness uses different medical rules and does not use substantial gainful activity to determine initial eligibility. SSDI insured status or SSI financial and categorical eligibility requirements also matter.
Will I need to travel for an Evansville disability hearing?
That depends on your scheduled appearance. SSA has four methods: in person, telephone audio, agency video using SSA equipment at an SSA office, and online video using your own device in a private location. Online video requires agreement. Audio and agency-video objections are subject to SSA rules and exceptions. Follow the forms and response deadlines in your notices; the hearing notice identifies the scheduled method and any location. SSA's hearing options explain the process. A phone or video meeting with Downard is separate from the hearing.
Can Downard help me while I am still preparing an application?
We represent adults with SSDI and SSI applications as well as reconsideration requests and administrative hearings. At the application stage, we help with the filing and supporting information. You can contact us before applying; you do not need to wait for a denial to discuss representation.
Discuss your claim
Talk With Downard About Your Evansville SSDI or SSI Claim
Contact Downard & Associates to discuss an application, a denial, or an upcoming administrative hearing. We work with Evansville clients by phone and video. Tell us where your claim stands and what your condition prevents you from doing.