Most of the forms the Social Security Administration mails you and asks you to fill out and return, are not critical in the way you execute them as long as you are accurate with factual information.
However, there are a few exceptions!! The most dangerous forms that can be misconstrued and used to later deny your claim are the: Adult Function Report & the Third Party Function Report.
Usually, you fill out the first report, and a friend or family member fills out the later. Your friend or family member will have been sent their form directly, so you need to let them know it might be coming and that it is an important form. Why?
The specific danger for both forms is doing them too quickly without giving context to your answers. For example, the form may ask if you can do laundry. It likely asks for a yes or no answer. Perhaps you have no trouble doing laundry, or perhaps you cannot do laundry at all – then easily check the correct box. BUT if you fall somewhere in the middle like lots of claimants, you try to do some laundry, on good days, only after you take your medication. You also require frequent breaks in the process and rely on others to finish the job because you usually physically or mentally cannot. If this sounds like you, PLEASE make this higher truth clear somewhere on the form. There is usually a blank sheet on the last page of the form to provide context to your answers – USE IT!!!
Don’t let Social Security put words in your mouth when they deny your claim saying “the claimant (or the claimant’s father) even admitted by their own report they can do laundry, yard work, cook, clean, drive, wash dishes, get along well with others, need no reminders, have no problems with authority, and can handle routine stress.” Like Paul Harvey used to say, make sure they have “the rest of the story”!!
