Your Daily Activities
When trying to determine a person’s entitlement to disability benefits, judges will often ask a number of questions regarding the person’s day-to-day activities. For instance, claimants will be asked about what they do during a typical day and the judge will use that response in order to determine whether or not their daily routine is consistent (or inconsistent) with the symptoms and/or functional limitations given during testimony. For instance, if you claim to have a hard time standing and/or walking due to extreme leg pain but then you proceed to inform the judge that you go jogging or running daily, any Indianapolis social security disability attorney will tell you that the judge will certainly question any testimony you give regarding your physical symptoms and functional limits.
Provide Lots of Details
Although the questioning might be stressful at the time, claimants should look at the hearing as their primary chance to help their claim by providing the judge with a lot of details. For instance, if the judge asks you what you do on a daily basis and you simply respond by saying, “I don’t do anything,” that would not be a good answer because everyone is always doing something, even if it’s just sitting and staring into space. Therefore, be clear about what you do and don’t do.
Walk the Judge Through Your Daily Routine
In order to help the judge envision your daily routine, you should provide him or her with an hour-by-hour rundown of the things you do, putting particular emphasis on those things that are done in a different way now due to your health issues. Your Indianapolis disability attorney can tell you that this play-by-play rendition of daily events will be essential to your claim because it will demonstrate how your disability has affected your everyday life.
So remember–when you offer a description about how long you perform an activity, be sure to note how long you rest afterwards and inform the judge of where you rest, regardless of whether it’s on the sofa, a bed or in a recliner. Also, inform the judge about how long it takes you to complete an assignment now in comparison with the amount of time it used to take you. If you need an Indianapolis disability attorney to help you with your claim, please call the law office of Martin Barnes at (317) 804-5058 for a free consultation.