Social Security Disability Benefits
for Back Pain in
Metairie & New Orleans, Louisiana

Back Pain Takes Many Forms. What Back Conditions Qualify for Disability Benefits?

Of course, just about everyone experiences some back pain from time to time.

The difference between “routine” back pain and back pain that qualifies for Social Security Disability benefits is in severity and permanence. To get benefits, your pain must stop you from working almost completely for the long term.

Social Security has a list of impairments that can qualify for benefits that includes many back disorders, or disorders affecting the back:

• Spinal nerve problems, such as spinal stenosis
• Effects from reconstructive surgery
• Spinal curvature problems
• Disc disorders
• Vertebrae and joint disorders
• Fractures
• Forms of arthritis
• Disorders causing paraplegia
• Disorders causing quadriplegia

But your back condition doesn’t have to be on the list for you to get benefits.

Social Security will evaluate how your condition, whatever it is, impacts your ability to function, such as your ability to sit, stand, walk, lift and more.

As you file for benefits, you need to submit detailed, technical documents describing your back impairment, how it affects your daily activities, and how it hinders your ability to perform a job.

This is one load that the disability attorneys at Empower Disability can help carry for you.

Most people get denied for disability benefits. With a person has a bad back, one reason for denial may be that Social Security decides they could manage their condition and keep working.

Our Metairie disability lawyers have more than 40 years of combined experience in disability law. We can help you make the case for life-changing benefits.

Key Ingredients in You Social Security Disability Claim for Back Pain

How do you get Social Security to see that you have the kind of back pain that rules out working and gives you the right to disability benefits? (Which, by the way, you could be entitled to receive because you paid into the system when you worked.)

Winning approval can start with matching your back problems with Social Security’s listing of impairments. But it goes deeper than that. It’s about the medical evidence you submit, such as:

• Medical imaging of your back (x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, etc.)
• Muscle weakness measurements
• Documentation of your need to use assistive devices (canes, walkers, wheelchairs, etc.)
• Records of surgeries
• Reports from doctors after physical exams
• Results from lab tests
• A list of all the medications you take to manage your condition
• Any side effects from medications that impact your ability to work

You can also gather—or your Social Security Disability lawyer can help you gather—statements from people who know you and can attest to how your back pain limits your activities.

It’s easy to make mistakes in a disability benefits application. An experienced disability lawyer knows what information you need, and don’t need, to send in. Part of the job of a lawyer is to make a difficult process easier for you.

When your back is failing, you can’t work, and your money has stopped, you’re under more than one kind of stress. You need the freedom to focus on your physical well-being.

Social Security Disability benefits can provide that independence. Let Empower Disability help you get there.