Central Texas Social Security Disability Lawyer

If a medical condition has kept you out of work for a year or more, a Central Texas Social Security Disability lawyer from Michalk, Beatty & Alcozer, L.P. can help you get the benefits you’ve earned. We’re based in Killeen, and we represent clients filing for or appealing Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) throughout Bell, Coryell, McLennan, Williamson, and Lampasas Counties. Attorney Manuel Alcozer is board-certified in Social Security Disability Advocacy, a credential fewer than 60 attorneys nationwide hold, and that certification shapes how our whole firm builds every disability claim.

The Social Security Administration denies most first-time applications, and Central Texas has its own particular claimant population: construction and trade workers whose bodies wear out from decades of heavy labor, ranch and farm workers, and a large number of veterans and military family members connected to Fort Cavazos. Understanding how the SSA actually evaluates a claim, and building the medical record it demands, is the difference between an approval and a denial letter that takes a year to appeal.

Central Texas Social Security Disability Lawyer: SSDI and SSI Explained

Social Security runs two different disability programs, and which one applies to you depends on your work history and your finances, not how severe your condition is.

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is an earned benefit. You pay into it through payroll taxes, and in 2026 you earn one work credit for every $1,890 in wages, up to four credits a year. Most adults need 40 credits total, with 20 earned in the last 10 years before you became disabled, to qualify. Younger workers can qualify with fewer credits. Your monthly SSDI payment is based on your own earnings record, not a flat government number, so a machinist who worked steady overtime for 20 years draws more than someone who worked part-time.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) doesn’t require a work history at all. It’s a needs-based program for people with limited income and resources, and in 2026 it pays up to $994 a month for an individual and $1,491 a month for a couple. To qualify financially, you can’t have more than $2,000 in countable resources as an individual or $3,000 as a couple. Some Central Texas clients qualify for both SSDI and SSI at the same time, called a concurrent claim, when their SSDI payment is low enough to still meet SSI’s income limits.

Both programs use the same medical standard for disability and the same five-step process to decide your claim. The financial rules are what set them apart.

How the SSA Decides Your Claim: The Five-Step Process

The Social Security Administration doesn’t just look at your diagnosis. It walks every claim through five questions, in order, and stops as soon as it has an answer.

Step one asks whether you’re currently working above the substantial gainful activity (SGA) level. In 2026, that threshold is $1,690 a month for most claimants and $2,830 a month if you’re blind. Earn more than that, and the SSA denies your claim at this step regardless of your medical condition.

Step two asks whether your condition is severe, meaning it significantly limits your ability to do basic work activities like standing, sitting, lifting, or concentrating. A minor or short-term condition gets denied here.

Step three compares your condition to the SSA’s Listing of Impairments, a detailed medical rulebook. If your condition meets or equals a listing, exactly as written, you’re approved without the SSA ever looking at your job history.

Step four asks whether you can still do the work you did in the last several years, based on your residual functional capacity (RFC), the SSA’s assessment of what you can still physically and mentally do. If you can still do your past work, your claim gets denied here, which is why RFC evidence matters so much for Central Texas’s construction, oilfield-adjacent, and agricultural workers who did heavy physical work for years.

Step five asks whether you can do any other work that exists in significant numbers in the national economy, factoring in your age, education, and work experience alongside your RFC. Most contested Central Texas claims turn on steps four and five, because they require real medical and vocational evidence, not just a diagnosis on a chart.

Medical Conditions That Typically Qualify for Disability Benefits

The SSA’s Listing of Impairments covers a wide range of conditions, and Central Texas claimants most often qualify under these categories:

Musculoskeletal disorders, including degenerative disc disease, herniated discs, joint disease, and amputations, common in construction, warehouse, and agricultural work.

Cardiovascular conditions, including heart failure, coronary artery disease, and peripheral vascular disease.

Neurological disorders, including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.

Mental health conditions, including major depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, and bipolar disorder, especially relevant for veterans and service members connected to Fort Cavazos.

Cancer, at various stages depending on type and response to treatment.

Respiratory illness, including COPD and chronic asthma.

Immune system disorders, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

For a small number of the most severe conditions, the SSA uses its Compassionate Allowances program to fast-track approval, sometimes in a matter of weeks instead of months. This program covers conditions like certain aggressive cancers, ALS, and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. A related program, Terminal Illness (TERI) processing, speeds up claims for people with a terminal diagnosis. If you or a family member has one of these conditions, tell your Central Texas Social Security Disability lawyer right away so your claim gets flagged correctly from the start.

Applying for Social Security Disability in Central Texas

You can apply for SSDI or SSI online at ssa.gov, by phone, or in person at your local Social Security office. Whichever way you apply, the SSA asks for the same core information: your work history for the last 15 years, a function report describing how your condition limits your daily activities, and contact information for every doctor, clinic, and hospital that has treated you.

Medical evidence wins or loses these claims. The SSA wants treatment notes, test results, imaging, and a doctor’s opinion on your specific limitations, not just a list of diagnoses. Gaps in treatment, whether from cost or lack of transportation, get read by the SSA as evidence your condition isn’t as limiting as you say, even when the real reason is that you couldn’t afford another copay.

Initial decisions typically take three to five months in Texas. Most first-time applications get denied, often for reasons that have nothing to do with whether you’re actually disabled.

Common Reasons Social Security Disability Claims Get Denied

Understanding why claims fail helps you build a stronger one from the start. The most common reasons the SSA denies Central Texas claims include:

Not enough objective medical evidence to support the limitations you’re claiming.

Earning above the substantial gainful activity limit while your claim is pending.

Failing to follow prescribed treatment without a good medical reason.

A condition expected to improve or resolve within 12 months.

Missing a consultative examination scheduled by the SSA.

Gaps in medical treatment that make your condition look less severe on paper than it is in real life.

Incomplete or inconsistent paperwork, including a function report that doesn’t match your medical records.

Most of these problems are fixable before you ever file, which is why a full case review before submission matters as much as the appeal itself.

The Social Security Disability Appeals Process in Texas

If the SSA denies your initial application, you have 60 days from the date on your denial letter to appeal. Miss that deadline, and you typically have to start over from scratch.

The Texas appeals process has three stages. Reconsideration comes first: a different SSA examiner reviews your full file, including any new medical evidence you submit. Most reconsiderations get denied too, but this step is still required before you can request a hearing.

If reconsideration fails, you have 60 days to request a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). This is where most successful Central Texas appeals turn the case around, because it’s the first time a judge, rather than a case examiner working from a file, actually hears your testimony and reviews your evidence directly.

If the ALJ denies your claim, you can appeal to the Appeals Council, and from there, to federal district court. Each stage carries its own 60-day deadline, and each stage takes longer than the last, so the earlier you get the right medical evidence in front of the SSA, the faster your claim moves toward an approval instead of another denial letter.

What Happens at Your Disability Hearing

An ALJ hearing is far less formal than a courtroom trial, but it’s the most important day in most disability cases. You’ll testify about your condition, your daily limitations, and your work history, and the judge will ask follow-up questions directly.

Most hearings also include testimony from a vocational expert (VE). The judge asks the VE a series of hypothetical questions describing someone with your age, education, work history, and residual functional capacity, then asks whether jobs exist in the national economy that a person with those limitations could still perform. This is where step five of the SSA’s evaluation gets tested in real time, and it’s exactly why RFC evidence, not just your diagnosis, decides so many Central Texas cases.

A medical expert may also testify, particularly in cases involving complex or multiple conditions. Preparing you for your own testimony, and preparing the right cross-examination questions for the vocational expert, is core to how we handle every hearing.

How Much Can You Receive in Disability Benefits

Your SSDI payment is calculated from your own lifetime earnings record, using the same formula Social Security uses for retirement benefits, so there’s no single number that applies to everyone. A worker with a long, steady earnings history draws more than someone with a shorter or lower-paid work record.

SSI pays a flat federal rate, up to $994 a month for an individual and $1,491 a month for a couple in 2026, though some states add a small supplement. If you qualify for both programs at once, your combined SSDI and SSI payments generally can’t exceed the SSI federal rate.

Either way, getting the right monthly amount starts with getting approved in the first place, and that’s where a Central Texas Social Security Disability lawyer earns their fee: making sure your application and your appeal, if you need one, reflect the true severity of your condition instead of getting flattened into a generic denial.

Fort Cavazos, Veterans, and the Difference Between SSDI/SSI and VA Disability

Central Texas has one of the largest concentrations of active-duty service members, veterans, and military families in the country because of Fort Cavazos, and we regularly help clients who are confused about how disability benefits work when more than one system is involved.

Social Security Disability, both SSDI and SSI, is a federal program run by the Social Security Administration. SSDI is based on your work history and payroll tax contributions, and SSI is based on financial need. Both use the same medical standard: your condition has to keep you from doing substantial work for at least 12 months.

VA disability compensation is a completely separate system, run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, based on injuries or conditions connected to your military service, regardless of whether they affect your ability to work. Our firm does not handle VA disability claims directly. If you need help filing a VA claim, an accredited Veterans Service Officer or VA-accredited attorney is the right resource for that specific process.

The two systems don’t cancel each other out. A veteran can receive VA disability compensation and also qualify for SSDI or SSI, since they’re evaluated under entirely different rules. What we handle is the Social Security side: helping veterans, active-duty spouses, and military family members throughout the Fort Cavazos community get approved for SSDI or SSI when a medical condition, service-connected or not, keeps them from working.

Manual Labor, Construction, and Agricultural Work: Why RFC Evidence Matters Here

Central Texas has a workforce built on physical labor: construction crews building out Georgetown’s rapid growth, agricultural and ranch work across Coryell and Lampasas Counties, oilfield-adjacent trade work, and the trades that support Fort Cavazos itself. For these workers, winning a disability claim often comes down to one specific question: can you still do the kind of work you’ve always done, or any other work like it?

The SSA sorts jobs into exertional levels, from sedentary to light, medium, heavy, and very heavy, based on how much lifting, standing, and carrying the job demands. A construction worker with a back injury who can no longer lift 50 pounds repeatedly hasn’t just lost one job. He’s lost an entire category of work he’s qualified for, and proving that takes more than a doctor’s note saying he “can’t lift heavy objects.”

This is exactly the kind of case Attorney Manuel Alcozer’s board certification in Social Security Disability Advocacy was built for. That certification requires deep knowledge of how the SSA weighs residual functional capacity against real job demands, not just diagnoses on a page. For a Central Texas workforce built on physical labor, the difference between “can’t do your old job” and “can’t do any job” is often the entire case.

Central Texas Social Security Disability Lawyer: Serving Communities Across the Region

Michalk, Beatty & Alcozer, L.P. is based in Killeen, and this page covers our full Central Texas Social Security Disability practice. Belton and Temple fall under Bell County, Gatesville falls under Coryell County, Waco falls under McLennan County, Georgetown and Round Rock fall under Williamson County, and Lampasas falls under Lampasas County.

We also represent clients in Harker Heights, Nolanville, Copperas Cove, Salado, Troy, Bellmead, Hewitt, Robinson, Woodway, McGregor, and Morgan’s Point Resort. If you’re located in Georgetown, Temple, Waco, Belton, Gatesville, or Round Rock, visit that city’s dedicated Social Security Disability page for detail specific to your community. This regional page is also part of our broader statewide Texas Social Security Disability practice, which represents clients throughout the rest of the state. For an overview of every practice area we offer across the region, visit our Central Texas Attorneys page.

Meet Your Central Texas Social Security Disability Legal Team

Glenn W. Michalk brings more than three decades of experience representing Central Texas clients through complex federal claims processes, including Social Security Disability appeals that require sustained, detailed casework.

Jay R. Beatty works alongside the firm’s disability team on the Central Texas cases that involve overlapping legal issues, from workplace injuries to estate and benefits planning for a family managing a loved one’s disability.

Manuel Alcozer is board-certified in Social Security Disability Advocacy, a credential fewer than 60 attorneys nationwide hold. He leads the firm’s Social Security Disability practice, with particular depth in cases involving manual labor and physically demanding work, common throughout Central Texas’s construction, trade, and agricultural workforce.

Robert “Alex” Bass brings a hands-on understanding of physically demanding trade work to disability cases involving construction and industrial injuries, helping the firm document exactly how a job’s physical demands exceed a client’s post-injury capabilities.