Common SSA Questions for Back Pain

No matter what your disability is, the SSA will ask you an enormous amount of questions when you apply for disability benefits. The questions will change depending on the disability you’re applying for.

Back pain is common issue that many Americans face, and it can severely impact your ability to maintain steady work. The SSA will be very curious about back pain, because pain can be caused by so many factors and there’s no objective test to accurately determine the severity of back pain.

Here’s a few questions the SSA might ask about back pain.

– Where is your pain?

– How often do you have it?

– How long does it last?

– What kind of pain is it? (Burning, stabbing, dull, etc.)

– Does anything make it better or worse?

– How bad is the pain?

– What causes your back pain?

– Do you seek treatment for your back pain?  (Medicine, injections, surgery.)

– What does it prevent you from doing? (Chores, walking, standing, lifting, hobbies, and so on.)

Over the years the SSA has added several questions to the medical information section of the application. When answering questions on this section, it’s best to be specific and always circle back to how the disability affects your ability to work. The SSA is not simply asking whether or not the pain exists. Their duty is to establish whether or not this pain prevents you from working. For example, instead of saying, “my back hurts really bad,” say, “I cannot sit for more than 10 minutes because of my back pain.”

It is also very important that you have current objective medical testing for your back pain. This may include an MRI or an X-ray. The SSA is unable to establish a disability based upon your word alone. This objective testing will help you prove that you have a severe medical impairment.

The application process is long and confusing. Every year many applicants who deserve benefits will be denied simply because they didn’t fill out the application properly. At Jan Dils Attorneys at Law we can help you navigate the application and answer the questions the right way.