Disability Benefits based on back problems - degenerative disc disease

I just read a story about a police officer whose degenerative disc disease was bad enough that he was forced to leave his job in law enforcement. Was he approved for social security disability benefits? No, unfortunately and not surprisingly, he was denied.

It's really amazing how the disability system treats claims in which back problems are prominent, including spinal stenosis, ankylosing spondylitis, and, of course, degenerative disc disease. When I was a disability examiner, we would sometimes joke that more social security disability cases involving back problems would get approved for disability...if more disability examiners and more state-agency medical consultants (the doctors who provide consultation to disability examiners) had ever suffered back problems themselves.

Trying to win disability benefits is usually a difficult process for most claimants, but it can be even more difficult when the claimant's impairment involves debilitating pain. In the past, the social security administration has done such a poor job of considering pain as a disabling factor that they've been sued as a result.


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