As you pursue Social Security Disability benefits, it helps to understand the most common mistakes people make — so you can give your claim its best chance of success.
1.Becoming Discouraged
There are three “ladder rungs” to the Social Security Disability determination process: Initial, Reconsideration, and the ALJ Hearing. Many claimants don’t realize that the best chance of winning is at a hearing — which typically occurs one to two years after the application is first filed.
In fact, more than 70% of claimants must appeal each of two early-level “denials” before they can even request a hearing before a U.S. Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). These lower-level denials rarely speak to the true merits of a case — yet after them, many claimants miss the 60-day window to request a hearing, either because they can’t keep up with all the paperwork Social Security mails, or because they simply get discouraged at the most crucial stage.
2.Alleging an Incorrect Disability Onset Date
Because fewer than 30% of applicants are awarded at either of the first two levels, the biggest early mistake is asserting an incorrect alleged onset date (AOD) of disability. In a Social Security case, the AOD is like the sun around which a planet of medical facts revolves. Get it wrong on the initial application and the agency will either miss relevant medical evidence or fail to properly weigh what you submit — badly eroding any chance of an early award.
3.Not Understanding the Role of Continuous Medical Treatment
As hard as it can be financially to keep health coverage while not working, a claimant must make every effort to see doctors regularly throughout the entire life of the claim. On the day of a hearing, the judge expects to see all medical records dating back to the AOD. If the objective medical evidence doesn’t bear out the severity of your impairments, your subjective sworn testimony — however compelling — won’t get you across the finish line.
At a minimum, treat with a primary care physician who listens well and documents your complaints month after month. A doctor who doesn’t listen probably also keeps poor notes — and poorly prepared records can be just as damaging as no records at all. If you can, keep treating with specialists (orthopedists, neurologists); if your case involves both mental and physical impairments, establish care with a psychiatrist and a psychologist too, since specialists’ opinions tend to carry more weight than internists’. And within reason, follow your doctors’ advice — documented “non-compliance” with recommended treatment can be fatally prejudicial.
4.Not Understanding SSA “Function Reports”
Throughout your claim, the agency will request a completed Function Report (Form SSA-3373) as many as three separate times, at seemingly random points. These forms ask disarmingly open-ended questions — “How do your impairments affect your ability to work?” and “What do you do from the time you wake up until you go to bed?” — along with questions about driving, chores, grooming, meal preparation, hobbies, and even “How well do you get along with authority figures?”
Without expert advice, many claimants treat these as a friendly check-in from the SSA, when they’re really a discovery tool used to assess your overall consistency and credibility. Answer every question with the seriousness it deserves: avoid humor, focus on what’s typical or average rather than only your worst days, and make copies of each completed report before returning it — so you can refresh your memory before answering the next one consistently. Ideally, your attorney will guide your understanding of every question and oversee each submission.
5.Not Hiring an Attorney for Your ALJ Hearing
Consider this the mother of all mistakes. Some ALJs will refuse to hold a hearing until you secure proper representation; others will gladly proceed while you try to represent yourself in a complicated federal proceeding. Social Security Disability law is a maze of intersecting regulations — practically its own language — with procedural and substantive pitfalls only a skilled practitioner can be trusted to spot.
A skilled attorney will make sure your exhibit file is 100% complete, and through oral argument will transform thousands of pages of medical evidence into a clear roadmap the ALJ can follow. They’ll take your sworn testimony in a way that illustrates the legal arguments — and when the ALJ schedules a vocational or medical expert (officially neutral, but paid by the SSA), your attorney will make sure those experts are properly cross-examined in your favor.