If the disability examiner or judge notes in your medical records that you are “depressed” or “anxious,” the Social Security Administration may be obligated to send you for a mental consultative examination even if you don’t claim to be depressed or anxious on your application and have never sought treatment.

The Social Security Administration reviews your medical records to determine if your condition meets what is called a “Listing of Impairments.”

Unfortunately, an extraordinary number of Social Security Disability applicants who are denied benefits will decide to stop pursuing their claim, submit appeals that are too late to be accepted by the Social Security Administration, or try to start all over again by filing a new application.

Improving your chances of winning Social Security Disability benefits at the initial stage is rather simple.

Social Security can recoup overpayments until you die. Alternatively, they can stop your benefits, which means you’ll have to start all over again in the disability evaluation process and prove that you are disabled.

I recently read a blog post on the Epilepsy Foundation forum about Talitha who has applied for Social Security Disability and is frustrated with the Social Security Disability application process.

She asked “How can I speed up the process to obtaining Social Security?”

If you suffer from esophageal cancer you might be eligible for Social Seurity Disability benefits.

Most cancer patients are uninsured and that means delay in or lack of treatment. Delay in getting necessary tests and treatment makes it difficult to establish you will be disabled for 12 months and provide medical evidence of your disability.

Kenneth Nibali, former top Social Security Adminstrator of the Social Security disabilty system, is the plaintiff’s expert in a whistleblower’s suit that has just been filed in Federal Court in Boston.