I am attorney John A. Kaiser, but my friends and clients call me “Jack.” I was born and raised in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and I have been practicing law in Eau Claire, Wisconsin since 1976. I represent Wisconsin injured workers and disabled individuals in Social Security disability appeals, worker’s compensation claims, and insurance disputes.

While I have been practicing law since 1976, I have practiced disability law exclusively since 1992. In the early years of my legal career, I had a general practice. However, around 1980, the Social Security Administration began frequently denying worthy Social Security claims, and more and more people were coming to me for help. Also, during the 1980s, I saw an increase in cases of injured workers whose worker’s compensation benefits had been terminated. Over time, my practice became more and more focused on representing these injured workers and Social Security disability claimants. By 1992, I limited my practice to only worker’s compensation claims, Social Security appeals, car accident cases, and long-term disability insurance disputes.

I also have my own personal experience with Social Security disability benefits. About the time I graduated from law school in 1976, my father’s doctor told him his heart could not withstand the stresses of his job, and that he would not live much longer if he did not retire. He was only 53 years old, and he still had two kids at home. My father had fought in World War II and had worked hard his entire life. He was granted Social Security disability benefits and a VA disability pension. He later told me that he would have had to keep working without those benefits, and he probably would not have lived much longer. Instead, he lived another 17 years and had a productive and happy retirement.

Most of my clients are just like my father. Hard working people who, through no fault of their own, can no longer work. I know how devastating it is to be unable to work, and how scary it is to be left without a source of income. I have never become accustomed to the frustration, dismay and even anger my clients experience when their Social Security disability claims are rejected or their worker’s compensation payments are cut off.

No lawyer can guarantee the outcome of any case. However, I can guarantee that I respect the importance of my clients’ cases to them and their families, and I will do my very best to obtain a favorable result.

If you have any questions regarding representation in worker’s compensation, Social Security, disability or personal injury claims, please call me at (715) 832-3494. There is no charge for initial consultations.

My attorney fee is 25% of back benefits, up to the maximum set by the Commissioner of Social Security, which is currently $6,000. The Social Security Administration typically holds that 25% out of back benefits and pays the attorney directly.

If I do not win benefits for you, then the attorney fee is $0.

You will be responsible for payment of expenses, which may include medical records and reports, photocopying, travel, transcript preparation and the like.

John A. Kaiser

Address: 406 Gilbert Ave., Eau Claire, WI 54701

Phone Number: (715) 832-3494

Can I qualify for Social Security disability benefits if I am working?

A Social Security applicant who is working can still be found to be disabled under certain circumstances. Whether a working claimant qualifies for benefits depends on several factors, including the type of work, the amount the claimant is earning, and the amounts, if any, of the claimant’s impairment-related work expenses and subsidies.

Type of work

If you are currently working, I will need to determine if that work makes it impossible for you to be found disabled.

If you are working and performing “substantial gainful activity” (SGA), no matter how impaired you are, you cannot be found disabled. Work, however, must be both “substantial” and “gainful.”

Substantial work activity involves doing significant physical or mental activities. Under the Social Security regulations, work may not be substantial if you are unable “to do ordinary or simple tasks satisfactorily without more supervision or assistance than is usually given other people doing similar work” or if you are doing work “that involves minimal duties that make little or no demands” on you and that are of “little or no use” to the employer or to the operation of a self-employed business. Gainful work activity “is the kind of work usually done for pay or profit, whether or not a profit is realized.” Nevertheless, when a claimant is an employee of someone else, whether work is “gainful” is usually determined by looking only at the claimant’s earnings.

Sometimes, even when work is not considered substantial gainful activity, it may still prevent you from receiving Social Security benefits. For example, if you must prove your inability to do a wide range of sedentary work in order to be found disabled, but you are working part-time at a heavy job, that part-time work may be so inconsistent with a claim for disability benefits that you will likely be denied benefits. The issue you face is: How do you have the capacity to do a heavy job part-time but cannot do a sedentary job full-time? In the view of the Social Security Administration, the fact that your earnings were not substantial will not necessarily show that you are not able to do substantial gainful activity.

Earning less than the “substantial gainful activity” level

If you are working for someone else, meaning you are not self-employed, proof that the work is at less than SGA level is usually a mathematical process. In most cases, the Social Security Administration simply compares your earnings from work (after applying appropriate deductions and averaging income) with the SGA earnings guidelines stated in the Social Security regulations.

Information and materials a disability lawyer will review

In evaluating your claim for Social Security disability benefits, I will need to establish exactly how much you are earning. To do this, I will ask you for copies of your check stubs. If check stubs are not available, I can ask your employer for a month-by-month breakdown of your earnings.

During our initial interview with you, we will inquire about your hourly wage and the number of hours you have worked per week. Then we will do an initial calculation of your earnings. (If you would like to calculate your earnings yourself, avoid the mistake that claimants sometimes make when they simply multiply weekly earnings by four to determine monthly earnings. There are 4.3 weeks in a month.)

If an occasional month exceeds the SGA level, don’t worry. Earnings are generally averaged over the time worked. The Social Security rulings and regulations include detailed guidelines for averaging earnings to determine if work is substantial gainful activity.

Subtract any “Impairment-Related Work Expenses” (IRWE)

If your earnings still appear to be above the SGA level, I will ask you about out-of-pocket payments for medical expenses to treat your disabling impairment. Items and services that an impaired person needs in order to work (such as certain attendant care services or transportation costs or work-related equipment) are called impairment-related work expenses (IRWE). When determining if your work constitutes substantial gainful activity, the cost of certain IRWE may be deducted from your monthly earnings even though such items and services are also necessary for normal daily activities. Routine drugs, however, are not deductible unless they are necessary to control the disabling condition so as to enable the individual to work. Deduction may be made only if the cost is actually paid by the individual. Thus, if the cost is paid by insurance, it is not deductible; and neither is the cost of the medical insurance. Insurance co-pays, however, are deductible.

Subtract any subsidy

Sometimes, even after deducting sick pay, vacation pay and IRWEs and averaging earnings, you may still be earning more than the SGA level. But your work situation may be unusual, so we will consider whether there is a “marked discrepancy between the amount of pay and the value of the services.” If there is, your work may include what the social security rules call a “subsidy.”

There are several circumstances indicating a subsidy. For example, consider the situation where a claimant is working for a relative. The claimant may be doing very little work but the claimant is being paid more than the claimant’s work is actually worth. This is not substantial work. This work involves a subsidy. One way we might prove a subsidy in such a case is to obtain from the claimant’s employer an estimate of the true value of the claimant’s work. If the true value of the claimant’s work is less than the SGA level, the claimant will be found not to be performing gainful activity.

Other situations in which work may not be “substantial” include work done under special conditions, such as:

-In a sheltered workshop where a claimant might receive special assistance from others;

-Where the claimant is allowed to work irregular hours or take frequent rest breaks;

-Where the claimant is provided special equipment or was assigned work especially suited to the claimant’s impairment;

-Where the claimant was able to work because someone helped the claimant prepare for or get to and from work;

-Where the claimant is allowed to work at a lower standard of productivity; or

-Where the claimant was given the opportunity to work because of a family relationship, past association with the employer or the employer’s concern with the claimant’s welfare.

Usually such insubstantial work done under special conditions is not an impediment to the claimant being found disabled. When we represent a client working under such special conditions, we will typically ask the employer to compare the client’s work with similar work in the regular work force and to establish the “reasonable worth of the work.” When your earnings exceed the reasonable value of the work you perform, the Social Security Administration considers only that part of your pay which you actually earn.

Advice for prospective claimants who are working

If you are working despite a disability, and you wonder whether you might still qualify for Social Security benefits, consider obtaining a professional evaluation. Provide a brief description of your claim using the form to the right, and I will respond promptly.