How to Qualify for
SSD for Sickle Cell Disease
in Wisconsin
A Disability Lawyer Can Help You Claim a More Secure Future
When the exhaustion, pain, infections and other fallout of sickle cell disease become severe enough to keep you from working, you have the option of seeking Social Security Disability benefits for economic relief.
With benefits, you get monthly checks to help with your daily expenses, access to Medicare for your medical treatment, and a restored sense of control in your life.
But benefits aren’t automatic with a diagnosis of sickle cell anemia or sickle cell disease. Benefits are approved based on your inability to work.
About 100,000 Americans, most of them African-Americans, have the disease, said the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. A survey of people with sickle cell found 28 percent of them were working and 47 percent used to work, said the National Institutes of Health.
But many are not working, or never could. And they are dealing with financial stress.
People in Wisconsin can get help proving to Social Security that your particular case of sickle disease forces you from working, so you should get support.
The disability lawyers at the Becker Law Office and Hawks Quindel have helped thousands of people get disability benefits.
Whether you need to file for benefits in the first place, or you already tried and got denied, contact us in Madison, Wausau and across Wisconsin.
Information on Your Sickle Cell Disease to Send Social Security
The Social Security Administration recognizes sickle cell disease as a condition that can qualify you for disability benefits under its list of impairments for blood disorders.
With this inherited, lifelong condition that changes the shape of your red blood cells from round to crescents—making it harder for your blood and oxygen to flow—Social Security will be looking for information like this:
- Documentation of pain episodes—six times in a year with 30 days between attacks
- Three hospitalizations in 12 months, each lasting at least 48 hours
You can also send them this:
- Hemoglobin measurements of seven grams per deciliter or less, three times in a year with 30 days in between
- Lifelong need for red blood cell transfusions every six weeks
- Laboratory results confirming your disorder
- A report from your doctor confirming your disorder
For sickle cell and all blood disorders, Social Security also will be looking for:
It doesn’t seem fair that your life is altered by this disease, and then it’s on you to prove it so you can get financial help.
Let our Wisconsin Social Security Disability lawyers take on this load for you. We help you gather all the medical evidence and fill out all the forms you need for your disability claim with sickle cell disease.
At Becker Law and Hawks Quindel, we don’t charge for your initial conversation and case review.
What Else Can You Include in Your Social Security Disability Claim for Sickle Cell Disease?
Your Social Security Disability application for sickle cell disease also can, and should, include the bigger picture about your health and inability to work.
You’ll describe your training, work history and demands of your past jobs.
You can submit medical records on any other physical or mental health condition that you have, and explain how your other health problems combine with sickle cell to rule out working.
Regardless of your official diagnosis, you can get a measure of your day-to-day functioning—how you are at standing, lifting, walking, sitting, crouching, concentrating and more—to prove you can’t hold a job.
Social Security calls that your “residual functional capacity.”
The bottom line is that you must be unable to work, in your past jobs or any other job, for at least a year, because of your health.
This process can be much friendlier when you have by your side an experienced disability lawyer from Becker and Hawks Quindel.
When you’re living with sickle cell disease, let us help you build a better foundation for your future with disability benefits.