• your Social Security number;

• your birth certificate or other evidence of your date of birth;

• your military discharge papers, if you were in the military service;

• your spouse's birth certificate and Social Security number if he or she is applying for benefits;

• your children's birth certificates and Social Security numbers if they are applying for benefits; and

• your checking or savings account information, so your benefits can be directly deposited;

• names, addresses, and phone numbers of doctors, hospitals, clinics, and institutions that treated you and dates of treatment;

• names of all medications you are taking;

• medical records from your doctors, therapists, hospitals, clinics, and caseworkers;

• laboratory and test results;

• a summary of where you worked in the past 15 years and the kind of work you did;

• a copy of your W-2 Form (Wage and Tax Statement), or if you are self-employed, your federal tax return for the past year;

• dates of prior marriages if your spouse is applying

If you are applying for Supplemental Security Income benefits you also need the following:

• information about the home where you live, such as your mortgage or your lease and landlord's name;

• payroll slips, bank books, insurance policies, car registration, burial fund records, and other information about your income and the things you own;

  
  

You should be familiar with the process we use to determine if you are disabled. It's a step-by-step process involving five questions. They are:

1. Are you working? If you are and your earnings average more than $500 a month, you generally cannot be considered disabled.

2. Is your condition severe? Your impairments must interfere with basic work-related activities for your claim to be considered.

3. Is your condition found in the list of disabling impairments? We maintain a list of impairments for each of the major body systems that are so severe they automatically mean you are disabled. If your condition is not on the list, we have to decide if it is of equal severity to an impairment on the list. If it is, your claim is approved.

   If it is not, we go to the next step.

4. Can you do the work you did previously? If your condition is severe, but not at the same or equal severity as an impairment on the list, then we must determine if it interferes with your ability to do the work you did in the last 15 years. If it does not, your claim will be denied. If it does, your claim will be considered further.

5. Can you do any other type of work? If you cannot do the work you did in the last 15 years, we then look to see if you can do any other type of work. We consider your age, education, past work experience, and transferable skills, and we review the job demands of occupations as determined by the Department of Labor. If you cannot do any other kind of work, your claim will be approved. If you can, your claim will be denied.

• Social Security Disability Benefits
• Benefits For Children With Disabilities
• What You Need To Know When You Get Disability Benefits
• Working While Disabled...How We Can Help
• Medicare
• Receiving Your Benefits By Direct Deposit
• Social Security: When You'll Get Your Benefit