If you cannot work and Social Security has denied you, or you have not applied yet and do not know where to start, we can take it from here. Call the Rock Hill office at 803-620-9690. There is no fee unless you win.
Most people who call us use disability and Social Security as if there is one program. There are two, and which one you qualify for changes what you get paid.
SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance, is based on your work record and the payroll taxes you paid. The main rule for most adults is 20 quarters of coverage in the 40 quarters ending when you became disabled, roughly five years of work in the last ten. Different rules apply if you became disabled before age 31.
SSI, Supplemental Security Income, is not based on work. It is needs-based, for people who are disabled, blind, or 65 or older with very little income and very few resources. The resource limit is 2,000 dollars for an individual and 3,000 dollars for a couple. Your home and usually one car do not count.
The medical standard is the same for both. Only the financial side differs. Some people file for both at once, a concurrent claim. Filing for the wrong program wastes months, so that is the first thing we check.
Federal law defines disability narrowly. You are disabled if you cannot do any substantial gainful activity because of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment expected to result in death, or that has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 straight months. That duration requirement catches people off guard. An injury that keeps you out for six months does not qualify, no matter how painful.
Social Security then runs your claim through five steps, in order. Are you working at a substantial level now. Is your impairment severe. Does it meet or equal one of Social Security's medical listings. If not, Social Security decides what you can still do, called your residual functional capacity, and asks whether you can return to past work. If you cannot, the last question is whether any other work in the national economy fits you, given your age, education, and work history.
Most cases are won or lost at those last two steps, and they turn on evidence. The question is not whether you are in pain. It is whether the file proves you cannot sustain full time work.
Social Security publishes a Listing of Impairments organized by body system. It covers more than most people expect.
Mental health conditions are not a weaker kind of claim. The listings include depressive and bipolar disorders, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders, and trauma and stressor-related disorders such as PTSD. These claims are won on function: concentration and pace, being around supervisors and coworkers, adapting to change, and staying on task day after day. Missing too many days a month, or being off task too much of the workday, is work-preventing to a vocational expert. That is the proof we build.
If you have been told depression or anxiety is not a real disability, that is wrong. These claims do need consistent treatment records and specific statements from the people treating you.
nerve root compression, herniated discs, degenerative disc disease, failed back surgery
neuropathy, vision loss, wounds that will not heal
Your application is not decided by a judge, and not in an office near you. It goes to South Carolina Disability Determination Services, a state unit inside the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department with offices in West Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville. DDS reviews your records on paper, sometimes sends you to a consultative exam with a doctor you have never met, then issues a decision.
Many people are denied at this first level. A denial is not a finding that you are lying. Often it means the file was thin, records did not arrive in time, or nobody translated your symptoms into the functional language Social Security uses. Four more levels follow.
Reconsideration is a second DDS review by a different reviewer. If nothing new goes into the file, not much changes, which is why this step is never a formality.
The hearing is where cases are won. An administrative law judge hears your claim, you testify, and a vocational expert and sometimes a medical expert testify too. It is the first time a person asks you questions, and the first time your lawyer can cross-examine the expert whose testimony can sink or save the claim.
If the judge denies you, the Appeals Council reviews for legal error and can send the case back for a new hearing. After that you can file a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.
Initial application, decided by South Carolina DDS
Reconsideration, a second DDS review
Hearing before an administrative law judge
Appeals Council review
Federal court, the District of South Carolina
Tell us what happened. The review is free and there is no obligation.
At every level, the deadline to appeal is 60 days after you receive the notice, and Social Security presumes you received it 5 days after the date printed on it. The same 60 day window applies to reconsideration, a hearing request, Appeals Council review, and a civil action in federal court.
Social Security can extend a missed deadline if you show good cause in writing, but never plan on that. Missing it usually means starting over, which can cost months of back pay and, in some cases, your insured status for SSDI.
The date on your denial letter is the most important date in your case. Photograph it and call us.
60 days from receipt, at every level
Receipt is presumed 5 days after the date on the notice
Late appeals need written good cause and are not guaranteed
Refiling instead of appealing can cost you back pay
Do not start over with a new application unless a lawyer tells you to. Appeal the decision you already have. Your filing date is tied to money, and abandoning it to refile is the most expensive mistake people make alone.
Then get organized. We ask new clients for the denial letter, every doctor, clinic, hospital, and counselor seen in the last two years, current medications, and a description of a typical bad day. That last one tells us which limits we have to prove.
Gaps in treatment sink good claims.
Filling out forms is the smallest part. The work that changes outcomes is evidentiary.
We get the complete medical file, not a summary, find the gaps, and get you back in front of the right provider. We ask your treating doctors for opinions on specific functional limits in the terms the regulations recognize, because a letter saying the patient is disabled carries no weight while a form saying she cannot sit or stand more than two hours in an eight hour day carries a great deal. We prepare you for testimony, and we cross-examine the vocational expert on whether the jobs named exist in the numbers claimed and whether someone with your limits could hold them.
Tell us what happened. The review is free and there is no obligation.
You do not pay out of pocket and you do not pay if you lose. Fees in these cases are set by federal law and must be approved by Social Security. Under the standard fee agreement, the fee is the lesser of 25 percent of your past-due benefits or a dollar cap Social Security sets, currently 9,200 dollars. Social Security can raise that cap by publishing a notice, so we confirm the figure in writing when you sign.
The fee comes out of back pay, not your ongoing monthly check. No award, no back pay, no fee. Case costs such as provider charges for copies of records are separate, and we explain them before anything is spent.
Your application and reconsideration are decided in state by South Carolina DDS, in West Columbia, Charleston, or Greenville. You will not meet the person deciding your claim. If DDS schedules a consultative examination, go. Missing it is one of the fastest ways to be denied.
Hearings are handled by Social Security's Office of Hearings Operations. Social Security sets how you appear: in person, by agency video at one of their offices, by online video from a private location on your own device, or by telephone. For clients in the Upstate, the Midlands, the Pee Dee, or the Lowcountry that often means no long drive, but it also means the judge may see you on a screen. We prepare every client for that.
We handle disability claims statewide from Rock Hill, with offices in Charleston, Beaufort, and Lancaster. If leaving the house is hard right now, we can run your case by phone, video, and mail.
If you have a denial letter, the clock is already running. Call Schiller & Hamilton Law Firm at 803-620-9690 or come see us at 300 Chatham Ave, Suite 200, Rock Hill, SC 29730. We serve clients across South Carolina and also have offices in Charleston, Beaufort, and Lancaster. The consultation costs nothing and there is no fee unless you win.
