More than 961,000 people in Spain receive a contributory permanent disability pension (data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy) and all of them have had to go through the different stages of the application process for this benefit, with particularities regarding retirement and widowhood.
One of the most significant phases known to all candidates is the go through the medical courtthe colloquial way of referring to the Disability Assessment Team (DAT). This visit to the court is in fact the stage most dreaded by all pension applicants, as it is considered to be the moment when they are likely to receive it.
The stories that have emerged around the figure of the medical tribunal describe it as a group of people who supervise pension applicants and try to make it as difficult as possible for them to obtain the benefit. But none of that: its only task is to determine the effect of the disease on the worker’s daily or professional life and to guarantee an efficient allocation of Social Security resources.
In short, it is a visit that you have to prepare for in order to contain your nerves and know the ins and outs of the field. One of the key aspects concerns the questions that the members of the EVI can ask the applicant, among which some stand out that, disguised as trivial, obtain a lot of information from the patients.
They are what we call Medical court trick questionsthose who Under the guise of normality and triviality, their aim is to make the most of obtaining information. of the patient.
The trick questions of the medical tribunal
The specialist portal Fidelitis lists on its site the trick questions asked by the medical tribunal which issues an opinion on the pension application:
- How do you feel? The way the question is asked seems like a greeting, but in reality it is not so innocent, since thanks to it the members of the court have the opportunity to discover the patient’s sincere opinion about his condition because it pushes the patient to a spontaneity that he does not. This could happen in another way.
- Has your illness or injury improved since you were on sick leave? This question aims to investigate the pension applicant’s feelings about their physical and mental state. That the applicant can echo a possibility of improvement is essential because it is one more variable with options to influence access to the pension and the choice of their degree.
- Did you come alone or with someone? Although this may seem like an icebreaker question, the truth is that it refers to a very important aspect in choosing the hypothetical degree of pension: the patient’s autonomy in the most essential acts of life.
- What is your job title? This is another question that appears to be a simple question to get to the patient, but in reality has the task of delimiting the worker’s functions and, through this delimitation, determining whether they are compatible with his illness, injury or disease, which influences the level of the pension.
- What tasks did you perform as part of your job? Although similar, it differs somewhat from the previous question because it is a little more concise. However, its objective is similar: to know what the patient’s work routine is to know if he is able to maintain it despite his illness or injury.
