A symptom record kept over months
Dates, duration and what you could not do. Kept contemporaneously, it is the single most useful thing an MS claimant can produce, and almost nobody arrives with one. We will tell you how to keep it.
Social Security Disability
Disability Benefits for Multiple Sclerosis
The problem with an MS claim is that it is decided on one day, and MS is not the same on any two days.
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A condition that comes and goes, assessed by a system that looks once.
Most disability claims describe a level of impairment that stays roughly where it is. An MS claim does not, and almost everything that goes wrong with these claims follows from that.
Somebody with relapsing forms of MS can have weeks where they manage well and weeks where they cannot get out of bed. A consultative examination is a single appointment. If it falls in a good week, the report describes a person with normal strength, normal gait and no obvious deficit, and that report goes into the file as though it described the illness.
The claim is not about your best day. It is about whether you can do a job five days a week, every week, which is what employment actually requires. Nobody keeps a job by working well in March and disappearing in April.
What this page covers
Relapsing remitting MS, secondary progressive and primary progressive forms, and claims where fatigue or cognitive change rather than mobility is the reason work stopped.
- Good weeks and bad weeks Employment needs the average, not the peak.
- Fatigue The symptom people rank worst and files record least.
- Cognitive change Processing speed and memory, in a condition nobody expects it from.
- Heat and exertion Symptoms that appear during effort and not before it.
Why a good day and a working week are different questions
Examiners ask the first one. Employers require the second. This is the gap an MS claim has to close.
| What is being compared | What an examination sees One appointment, usually in the morning, lasting well under an hour | What a job requires Forty hours, every week, at somebody else's times |
|---|---|---|
| Walking | What an examination sees Crossed the room without a stick | What a job requires On your feet repeatedly through a shift, including at four in the afternoon |
| Stamina | What an examination sees Sat through a short appointment | What a job requires Sustained effort for a full day and again the next morning |
| Concentration | What an examination sees Answered questions coherently | What a job requires Held attention on detailed work for hours at a stretch |
| Reliability | What an examination sees Attended on the day | What a job requires Attends nearly every day. A relapse lasting weeks ends most jobs |
| Heat | What an examination sees A cool consulting room | What a job requires A warehouse in July, or any job with physical effort in it |
What actually builds an MS claim
Evidence gathered over time, because a snapshot cannot describe this illness.
The relapse history
When relapses happened, how long each one lasted, what treatment was given and how much function came back afterwards. Incomplete recovery between relapses is the pattern that matters most.
Formal cognitive testing
Cognitive involvement in MS is common and is routinely missing from files, because neurology appointments concentrate on mobility. Testing turns a complaint into a finding.
The neurologist on sustainability
Not on diagnosis, which is rarely in dispute, but on whether you could maintain a schedule and how many days a month you would be unable to work. That opinion is rarely in the notes unless somebody asks for it.
Fatigue, and why files understate it
Ask people with MS which symptom affects them most and fatigue comes near the top. Read their medical records and it is often a single word in a list.
There are reasons for that. It cannot be measured on a scan. It sounds like ordinary tiredness to anyone who has not had it, and describing it accurately makes people feel they are complaining. Neurologists have limited appointment time and spend it on relapses and treatment. So the thing that stopped somebody working is the thing least present in the evidence.
What changes that
Being specific instead of general. Not that you are tired, but that you can work for roughly two hours before you have to lie down, that this happens every day, and that it is worse after any physical effort. Not that the heat is difficult, but that your legs stop working reliably in a warm room and that recovery takes hours.
Statements from people who see it help here, for the same reason they help in a head injury claim: the observation of somebody with nothing to gain carries weight that a claimant’s own account cannot.
Questions
Multiple sclerosis disability questions
General information, not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts. The only way to know where yours stands is to have someone look at it.
I was fine at the examination they sent me to.
That happens constantly and it is not fatal to a claim. The examination is one piece of evidence and it can be answered with others: your treating neurologist, a symptom record covering the same period, and testimony about what the weeks either side of that appointment were like. It is much easier to answer if you tell us it happened.
My MS is relapsing remitting, so I do recover.
Partial recovery between relapses is the usual pattern, and the question is what is left afterwards. Two things matter: how much function does not come back, and how often relapses interrupt a working life. An employer does not keep a job open through repeated absences of several weeks.
Does a new treatment count against me?
Being on treatment is expected and helps a claim rather than harming it, because it shows the condition is taken seriously. What matters is the effect. If treatment reduces relapses but leaves fatigue and cognitive symptoms in place, the record needs to say so rather than stopping at the fact of treatment.
I am still working part time.
Tell us the hours and the earnings before you assume anything. Earnings above a monthly level are treated as substantial gainful activity and will generally defeat a claim, but reduced hours and an employer covering for you can sometimes support one instead.
Nobody can see anything wrong with me.
That is true of a great many MS claimants and it is the reason these claims need building rather than filing. The evidence has to make visible something that is invisible to an observer, which is done with testing, treatment records and a documented account of function over time.
What we charge
Our fees are set by federal statute, are contingency only, and are the lesser of 25% not to exceed the statutory maximum of $9,200.
There is nothing to pay up front and nothing to pay if the claim does not succeed. The fee comes out of past-due benefits when they are awarded, and it has to be approved.
If your condition is not one of these
The conditions we have written about are the ones we are asked about most often. They are not the only ones that qualify, and the list is not a test you have to appear on.
A disability claim is decided on what your conditions do to your ability to work, not on the name of the diagnosis. Several problems that are each manageable on their own can add up to something that is not, and that combination is frequently the strongest part of a claim.
If what you have is not on this site, that tells you nothing about your claim. Tell us what you have been diagnosed with and what it stops you doing, and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth pursuing.
Other Social Security Disability pages
The rest of this practice area, in case your situation fits one of them better.
All Social Security Disability
SSDI denials, appeals and hearings.
Initial Applications
We prepare and file the whole claim. Most clients start here.
SSDI vs SSI
Two different programs, two different sets of rules.
Disability Appeals
What to do when the claim comes back denied.
Disability Hearings
The hearing in front of the judge, and how we prepare you for it.
SSI Children's Cases
Benefits for a child whose disability affects how they function.
SSD Widow's Benefits
Drawing on a late spouse's record, from 60, or from 50 if disabled.
Back Injuries & Spine Conditions
Qualifying with a spine condition, where function decides it.
Neck Injuries & Conditions
Cervical claims turn on the hands and arms, not the back.
Cancer
Some diagnoses qualify outright. Others turn on what treatment left behind.
COPD & Respiratory Conditions
Breathing test values, and the day the test was taken.
Depression & Anxiety Disorders
Assessed on functioning across a working week, not on a diagnosis.
PTSD
Reactivity and avoidance, and why the workplace itself is the barrier.
Heart Disease
Measured exertion, and the difference between stable and employable.
Stroke
What is left when recovery stops, and when to make the claim.
Bipolar Disorder
The cycle decides it. Well periods are read as capacity.
Arthritis
Which joints. Ones you stand on and ones you work with.
Amputations
The prosthesis, not the amputation, is what gets argued about.
The three areas we handle
One incident can open more than one claim, and they are handled together here.
Client Reviews
What our clients say
I really cannot say enough about my attorney Steven Casper and his work ethic and professionalism. Also his legal assistant Ben, these two did a lot of prep work and fielding my many emails and answering my questions. Steven Casper prepped me personally for my appeal and court with an administrative law judge. This process is very slow dealing with Social Security but he kept me informed every step of the way with great detail and it played out exactly as he had described.
Michael Seagraves
Google Review
I can't thank Casper, Casper and Casper enough for what they did for me. From start to finish it took less than a year for them to help me get disability benefits. They did almost all of the groundwork and made it as painless for me as possible. I would highly recommend them to anyone.
Chester Thomas
Google Review
If I could give a MILLION PLUS stars I DEFINITELY would!! I contacted Mr. Steve Casper to handle my SSI case. I filed at first on my own and I was denied. He was VERY professional, honest and upfront about the clients he takes. He reassured me that I DID have a strong case. I got the news today that HE won my case for me!!!!
Kelly Bilbrey
Google Review
We cannot thank Casper and Casper enough for sticking with us through 4 years of back and forth to help our son (who has autism) receive his SSI benefits. From beginning to end we were treated with kindness. They were very thorough and made sure we understood the process and what we would face along the way. The relief we have received is immense.
joanna powers
Google Review
Casper x3 were a lifesaver. I chose them because they practice in our region and understand what exactly I needed. I did not want someone from out of town. Their team from top to bottom helped me in my SSDI case. I tried it first on my own and was denied. Having decades of SSDI and court experience, Robin Partin helped me from step to step to go thru the process and had my back 100% in the hearing.
Daniel Ethridge
Google Review
Steve Casper was VERY professional. Very compassionate. He explained things in an easy to understand way. He took my case after a previous firm dropped me in a very hurtful unprofessional way. He got my disabilty case approved from the very beginning. Steve is worth EVERY penny. I now will have my monthly payments to survive with my conditions and back pay to boot.
Jen Jen
Google Review
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