Is Epilepsy a Disability that Qualifies for Benefits in Michigan?
Epilepsy puts your life on edge.
Some days are fine. Then a seizure throws you for a loop, physically and mentally. These sudden disruptions and the anxiety they cause can derail your ability to hold a steady job.
Thankfully, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits are there to provide some financial relief when you have to stop working because of mental or physical health problems.
Epilepsy is a recognized disability for the purpose of getting benefits from Social Security. You can receive both monthly checks and access to Medicare that help stabilize your life.
But you have to prove your epilepsy keeps you from working, and Social Security doesn’t make that easy. Take some weight off yourself with the help of an experienced disability lawyer .
The Levine Benjamin Law Firm disability lawyers have helped more than 80,000 people just like you in Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Grand Rapids, across Michigan, and in Toledo and around Ohio.
From applying to appealing, we help you every step of the way.
What would you like to do?
Do I Qualify for Social Security Disability with My Epilepsy?
Epilepsy can feel isolating, but you’re not alone. More than 3 million Americans grapple with the disorder every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
To receive SSDI benefits, however, your case of epilepsy must make it impossible for you to work. You have to prove this using medical evidence about your condition.
For an epilepsy diagnosis, you must document two unprovoked seizures within a 24-hour period.
Next your epilepsy must exhibit the following symptoms for Social Security to consider it a disability:
1. Tonic-clonic seizures once a month for three months in a row, even though you’re following a treatment plan
2. Dyscognitive seizures once a week for three months while following a treatment plan
3. Tonic-clonic seizures once every two months for four months in a row, or dyscognitive seizures once every two weeks for three months, plus one of the following:
- Limited physical functioning
- Limited ability to remember, understand or apply information
- Inability to interact with others, concentrate, or manage your daily life
Talk to the Detroit disability attorneys at Levine Benjamin Law Firm to see whether the severity of your epilepsy could qualify you for Social Security Disability.
How a Trusted Disability Attorney Helps You Win Benefits for Epilepsy
Some people with epilepsy can work and manage the condition. Disability benefits are an avenue for you if your epilepsy completely interrupts your ability to stay on a job.
But how do you prove that? Most people who try to get Social Security Disability, with all kinds of health impairments, are denied.
Your impairment is taxing enough without grappling with all the rules, steps, forms, documents to submit, deadlines to meet and more.
This is where an dedicated disability lawyer can step in and relieve you of the legwork.
The Levine Benjamin Social Security Disability lawyers can do all of this and more for your claim:
- Talking to your doctors to get their reports on your condition
- Getting descriptions of your seizures from people who’ve observed them, especially doctors
- Detailing for Social Security your treatment plan and medications
- Describing how your condition responds to treatment
- Collecting medical imaging, like EEG tests, MRIs or others
- Gathering statements from friends and family about what it’s like when you have seizures
- Telling the story of how your daily activities get derailed by epilepsy
And if you get denied the first time you try to apply for benefits, Levine Benjamin disability attorneys can help you file an appeal.
Appealing may be your best chance of winning benefits, but it also becomes more legalistic. You need to submit more evidence, build legal arguments and possibly even testify in front of a Social Security administrative law judge.
Levine Benjamin Law Firm has been helping hard-working people for 60 years. We understand Social Security Disability backward and forward. We’ve grown to be the largest Social Security Disability law firm in Michigan.
This is about more than money in your pocket. This is about your independence. This is about living your life.
When epilepsy has taken away your livelihood, let us help you move forward.