What Does an Onset Date Mean – Springfield MO Disability Attorney

What Does an Onset Date Mean in a Missouri Social Security Disability claim?

Hello, this is Springfield Missouri Disability Lawyer Jason Krebs and in today’s video I wanted to address something that is very important to your case, and it’s kind of one of the great mysteries of social security disability law and that is what is an onset date and why does it matter.

Now, your onset date for a disability attorney in Springfield MO is the date that you became disabled under the social security definition of disabled. It’s, now it can be, this is where it gets very confusing because sometimes it’s the date of an accident, maybe if you never went back to work after that date. Or, you know, maybe we’ve had situations or seen situations where an individual had a leg or arm amputated on that date and that’s the day. It’s a very, you know, simple process so to speak for social security, it’s an easy calculation for them because, I know, this person was fine before then, and then afterwards they never went back and they had this terrible accident or injury on this particular date.

Where it gets confusing and more difficult is for slowly progressing illnesses or problems that are, that are degenerative in nature and just getting worse, and worse, and worse, over time. And that’s where the documentation side of things is so important, because sometimes Social Security administration or a judge will pick a date of a medical test or, or you know, an MRI or an x-ray or blood test or something. So the sooner you have that documentation, that, maybe the further back you push the onset date. Now, pushing onset dates is one of the main problems that we see people do, is they think, “Well I got diagnosed with lupus 20 years ago, and when I say 20 years ago, was my onset date even though I’ve been working for the past 19 years.” Well you made it easy for social security because they’re, they’re going to deny you automatically based upon that.

So, you have to be able to show why now? What is it about my condition now, that is going to affect my ability to show up to work every day, eight hours a day, five days a week. So, you know, one of the main mistakes we see people making in their onset date, is they want to get some huge back award so they try to go back five or 10 years, or even three or four years. Where there is just no documentation, or, certainly if they were working and making money, it doesn’t matter what’s wrong with you under the social security rights.

So it’s real important that, to think and have an understanding of what your onset date means, what it means to social security and if anything, err on the side of caution, you know. Don’t try to go way back when the, you might have had the problem but if it wasn’t well documented, or if you were still working, it’s not the date of the onset.

Under the law, you do have advantages starting on your 50th, and then even more so on your 55th birthday, but you could lose those if you make mistakes in the application process. We do offer a free book you can get from our website, Krebslawoffice.com or give us a call, 1-800-345-0535 or 417-883-5886 and we’ll get that out to you.