SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY
If you have a disease, condition or disability that limits or prevents you from working, you may be eligible to receive Social Security Disability benefits (SSD/SSI). A denial at any level, or a previous denial, may not disqualify you from receiving benefits.
- Social Security Disability Insurance pays benefits to you and certain members of your family if you worked long enough and paid Social Security taxes.
- Social Security Disability payments are available to persons who stop working due to a physical or mental impairment that prevents them from performing "gainful" work. The disability must last at least 12 months or be expected to result in death.
- To be eligible, an employee must have worked at least 5 years (depending on your age) within the last forty calendar quarters (10 years) before the disability began.
- Disability checks are based on the average earnings for all the years an employee worked before becoming disabled. Benefits last as long as the injured is unable to work. A disabled person can get benefits until age 65 when payments are converted into retirement benefits. The amount will stay the same. Children under 18 and some disabled adults may also collect benefits if their parent receives disability.
If you are due Social Security Disability benefits, an attorney can help you file your claim and receive maximum payments. But don't delay, because time may run out for you to receive certain benefits.
Next: The Social Security Disability Claims Process
Are you eligible for Social Security Disability? (3 MB)
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Medical Expert Opinion supporting disability – Nothing helps your claim as much, as having clear medical records and a good medical opinion in writing from your treating doctor that you cannot work.
Testimony from family, friends or relatives that have to assist you with activities, chores, etc., can be very powerful.
On-going medical records showing continuing disability. Even if you have a chronic condition, which you know the doctor cannot cure/improve. It is still beneficial to keep seeing the doctor and continue to relay your pain, symptoms, and ongoing or new problems. This is because it documents your ongoing condition. The Judge that oversees your case will want to know that these are ongoing problems and that you take them seriously. So continue to see a physician.
Person as a whole. Social Security looks at you as a whole, so you don’t have to be considered disabled as a result of one specific injury or illness. Instead you can be considered disabled if your “combination of impairments” make it so that you cannot work. Therefore, if you are depressed because of your condition, for example, you should seek mental health treatment to document that condition.
