No one is ever “too young” to get Social Security Disability benefits. It is true, however, that your age does matter. For the purposes of this discussion, I will only be talking about adults (people over 18 years old) who are applying for disability. If you are under 50, you must prove that there are no jobs in the national economy that you can perform. It is not enough to just show that you can’t do the type of work you have done in the past. The best, and most effective, way to do this is to have your doctor give his or her opinion stating if he or she believes you can work 40 hours per week on a continual basis without missing too much work because of your illness. Of course, your medical records must support your doctor’s opinion.
A recent case that our firm won dealt with a claimant who was only 36 years old. He had diabetes and had to take insulin. He also had carpal tunnel syndrome in both of his hands. He was able to win his case for several reasons: (1) He had consistently gone to the doctor, who had made notes in his records about his work habits and struggles with maintaining his ideal blood sugar levels, (2) His doctor provided an opinion on how his diabetes affected his ability to work, (3) His work history showed that he had worked consistently for the past 10 years, and (4) He had specific medical testing in his file that confirmed the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome. With all of these combined facts, the Administrative Law Judge was able to get a good picture of how the claimant’s medical condition affected his ability to work and awarded him his disability benefits.
