Disability Benefits for Autism Can Provide Stability & Peace
If the effects of autism rule out working for you or a loved one, Social Security Disability benefits can provide a more stable economic foundation.
Social Security runs two disability benefits programs. Your situation determines which one you seek:
- Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is for adults who have worked and paid taxes into Social Security long enough to be covered. For a person with autism, this could be the right program for you if you previously worked but had to stop for health reasons.
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is for people with little work history and limited financial resources. If your autism has always prevented you from working, SSI benefits are the kind you should claim. SSI is also available for children with autism and their families under a special set of rules for children.
For adults, the main requirement to get Social Security Disability benefits is that you must be unable to work.
Because autism runs on a spectrum from people who can work at high levels to those who can’t work at all, a disability claim with autism comes with distinct challenges.
Your case must be one that makes working impossible, and you have to prove it with hard evidence. It’s not easy. You may have been denied and need to file an appeal.
Talk to an experienced Indiana disability lawyer from the Morgan Law Firm. We help people across Northwest Indiana and Southwest Michigan.
We’ve helped thousands of people overcome denials to win disability benefits, including people with autism. We know the strategies you need to appeal this type of case.
Social Security Disability Is All We Do.
Effects of Autism that Social Security Disability Recognizes
The Social Security Administration (SSA) lays out the characteristics of autism you must demonstrate to be awarded Social Security Disability benefits.
First you must be experiencing both these effects of autism:
- Communication deficits, including difficulty with verbal communication, non-verbal communication and social interaction
- Highly restricted or repetitive behaviors, interests and activities
Then you need to document how you have distinct limitations in two of these areas of life, and an extreme limitation in one of them:
- Processing information, including understanding facts, remembering things and using information
- Relating to and dealing with other people
- Concentrating on tasks, sticking with tasks and keeping up a reasonable pace
- Regulating your own emotions and behavior, including taking care of yourself, handling daily demands, dealing with change, setting goals and making plans
To find out how to fit your autism case into Social Security Disability rules, talk to someone experienced at disability benefits appeals—a Morgan Law Firm disability attorney.
People often misunderstand autism, but we listen to you. We’re your guide through a difficult process, making sure you’re treated with dignity and respect.
It doesn’t cost anything to talk to us and see how we can help you.
Evidence that Can Support Your Social Security Disability Claim for Autism
If you were denied disability benefits for autism, it could be due to Social Security’s rigorous demands for evidence that confirms your condition is severe enough to prohibit working.
The core of your disability benefits claim is what they call “objective medical evidence”—meaning not just what you say but what doctors, other health care providers and people who know you say about your everyday life and functioning.
When you appeal your denial, you can make your case stronger by adding evidence to your file.
These are types of evidence that could apply to getting disability benefits for autism:
- Documentation of your diagnosis
- Physical exam reports
- Mental exam reports
- Your medical history
- Your psychological history
- Psychological testing results
- Laboratory results
- Your medications and their effects
- Therapies you receive and how they help
- Statements from people who know you personally
- Statements from people who know you through work or education
- Records showing the nature of your autism over time
Your Indiana disability lawyer from the Morgan Law Firm has helped other people like you, knows what kinds of evidence from your health care history may be available to improve your disability claim, and how to get those records.
You can turn this job over to us, take the pressure off yourself, and know that someone skilled is supporting your case. You don’t pay a lawyer fee until you win benefits.
Let us help you get the kind of support you need to live with autism with more peace, safety and independence.