Applying for SSA Disability-Answer to How does AD limit your ability to work.

Rufusx2

My husband was diagnosed at 58 with younger-onset Alzheimers through a PET scan and a neuropsychological evaluation. He also had the recent blood test that came back "more than likely". I'm filling out the SSA 3373, Function Report-Adult question #5, How does your condition limit your ability to work? Is there any resource or website where I can find the best language to answer this question? Should I just say he was an electrical engineer and now he can't read, write, speak in sentences, or drive? I want to include all the key words and specific examples.

TIA

Iris L.

With a diagnosis of YOAD he should be eligible for Compassionate Allowance, which will fast-track his application. I don't know the particulars. You might call the Helpline and ask a Care Consultant about that. Some members have used a SSDI lawyer for assistance.

Iris

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the bff

Hope I can shed some light. I'm a retired attorney who represented SSDI claimants in the past. "Crash course": Disability means inability to do SUSTAINED work - and that includes not only past work (electrical engineer) but other work that exists in the national economy - e.g., sock sorter, counting widgets. (I'm not kidding.) "Sustained work" generally means ability to stay at a work station for 2 hours at a time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, with appropriate breaks (two 10-minute breaks, one 30-minute lunch break). So for the Function report, in addition to those you mentioned, I would add impairments that go to the "sustained" part - e.g., easily distractible, cannot keep on task, will wander, needs constant supervision, cannot keep up with pace, easily confused, must repeat instructions constantly. I can say a lot more about the process, but this post addresses only the issue of function report.

storycrafter

Good question to ask, Rufusx2. Bff's above answer is spot on, and the others have great input too. You'll be okay since he has a specific diagnosis. You don't need to wade through my story below, but I'll tell it in case someone else might learn from our/my naivete and inexperience with the system (we are in the USA).

At 58 y.o. a local SS judge ruled that my husband was unfit to work after we had a hearing about his claim (the doctors weren't certain what kind of dementia he had and didn't want to name it). After the in-person hearing, which included a court work expert who evaluated my dh for the court, the SS judge ruled that dh could not work, and we thought that was that; dh would soon receive his SSD. To our shock several months later, we received a denial of his claim by a federal SS judge, which over-ruled the local SS judge's decision.

We were just "the little guy" and were very naive about how the system works. After many questions, phone calls, hours waiting on the phone line for an agent, repeated questions seeking clarity, being told conflicting information, more hours on the phone, more paperwork, appeals filed for every step as they insisted upon, etc., ....

We were/are intelligent people. Dh's case seemed so simple to us. But the legal language, the verbiage used, was obfuscating, confusing, and convoluted at every inch such that eventually we found a SS lawyer who immediately took on his case.) You know what they say about "hindsight." We wish we'd had a SS lawyer at the very beginning, before we'd filled out a single form, because by the time the mulitple appeals process they required of us was completed, and the enormous bureaucratic miasma was waded through, the statute of limitation on my dh's initial claim had passed the 5-year mark.

The claim/filing for SSD is only good for five years. (We hadn't known that either.) After five years it was as if he'd never filed at all. (Five years we'd tapped and depleted our retirement funds much earlier than planned. Five years at his peak earning career he would never have a chance to do.) He would have to start over again with a new claim. With the help of the SS lawyer the new claim was resolved fairly quickly, in two years, because of the huge backlog in SS (by then the doctor finally made the specific call on his dementia; the judge couldn't deny it again on the grounds of not being specific enough; and my husband was about to reach normal retirement age anyway).

If you've waded through this you deserve a medal. Thanks for listening. (I don't think I've written out the story quite like this before, and it's been therapeutic.) I hope it might help someone avoid the nightmare with the SS system we endured; I was ready to give up several times. I daresay the stress of it has shortened my lifespan. Your case is different than ours. You have a SPECIFIC diagnosis, and that makes all the difference.

Best wishes to you, and everyone here, on this rough journey.

Ed1937

The last two posts were very informational. Thank you!!

Bff, welcome to the forum, but sorry you have a need for it. The good news is that it's a good one where you will get a lot of support and understanding.