Long Term Disability Claimant Tip: Avoid the "Typical Day" Trap

Disability insurance companies will often ask you to describe a "typical" day. This is a trap for claimants who suffer from a condition with variable symptoms. If you have such a condition, you generally have "bad" days and "better" days. You may have days when you are feeling so bad that you must stay in bed all day, but you may also have days in which you could perform limited activities. You should tell the insurance company both what you can do on your worst days and what you could do on your better or best days. Be careful about the terminology that you use. Do not substitute "good" day for "better" or "best" day. When you describe a day as a "good" day it implies that on those days you are symptom free, which may not be the case.

If you fall into the trap of describing a "typical" day, the insurance company will often assume that that is what you could do on all of your days. Making matters worse, it has been our experience that most claimants who describe their "typical" day unwittingly describe what they could do on one of their "better" days. The insurance company is therefore not provided with any information on your symptoms on your "bad" days. This understates your claim, making it less likely that you will obtain disability benefits.