The Importance Of Specialty Questionnaires

Everyone who applies for Social Security disability should be prepared for the paperwork that follows.

Social Security will send claimants copies of applications and appeals as well as notices of either denying a claim or approval on a claim. Then the award letter arrives for people who are approved, but during the process there are some specialty questionnaires that claimants need to be prepared for, which are very important in a successful claim.

The first set of questionnaires that all claimants receive is the Work History Report and the Function Report. The Work History Report will ask questions about what types of jobs the claimant has had over the last 15 years. This is for Social Security to get a better idea of what type of work the claimant was qualified to do based on education and skills and what specific duties they carried out in their work. The Function Report asks about a claimant’s daily activities. This includes anything from cooking, cleaning, and other daily routines and personal care. These are all important questionnaires to complete, but there is also a very important questionnaire some specific claimants receive.

If a claimant reports they suffer from a seizure or chronic migraines, Social Security is likely to send out a questionnaire to these claimants that ask about frequency, how severe and how seizures and migraines impact their ability to work.

One suggestion for people who suffer from seizures and migraines is for claimants to keep a diary and document every time they experience a seizure or migraine. The date and time of the seizure or migraine should be documented, how severe the seizure or migraine was should be documented and what the claimant remembers about suffering the seizure or migraine should be documented. This will provide Social Security a better understanding of how severe these conditions are.