Your Social Security Disability Questions Answered

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You can often purchase disability insurance for either long-term or short-term disabilities. However, even if you don't purchase a policy, the government provides disability insurance for qualifying individuals with a long-term disability. This extra protection is designed to help Americans continue to support themselves while they are unable to work. If you would like to know more, check out these three commonly asked questions.

1. How Do You Qualify for Social Security Disability?

To access Social Security disability benefits, you must meet a few qualifications. First, you must have a long-term disability, which is defined as a disability that will last longer than a year. You don't have to have been disabled for a year to qualify, but your attorney must be able to prove you will be disabled for at least a year.

In addition, you must have worked jobs that required you to pay into Social Security. Similarly, you must have a qualifying disability. Luckily, the list of qualifying disabilities extensive, including conditions like anxiety disorder, liver dysfunction, chronic heart failure, and many more. However, in addition to having a qualifying disability, the disability must prevent you from working (or severely limit your ability to work), and you can't make more than about $1,300 a month.

If you believe you qualify, you'll want a Social Security disability attorney to help you fill out the paperwork and gather all the necessary information. Many first-time applications are denied because of simple mistakes like typos, missing medical information, etc. You can appeal the denial, but during that time, you aren't receiving any money.

2. How Long Can You Receive Benefits?

Typically, you can receive benefits as long as you are disabled. Once you reach retirement age, however, the benefits are converted to retirement benefits, which you get for the rest of your life, regardless of disability. Your benefits will stop if you are no longer disabled or if you manage to find a job that you can do with your disability.

You will need to regularly follow up with the Social Security department, such as sending in more medical charts, updating how much money you spend each month on bills, rent, etc. This is all necessary to help determine how much you receive a month. If you don't have any bills, expect lower payments because you are not supposed to be making substantial financial gains from the Social Security benefits.

How often your case is reviewed largely depends on your disability. If you have a minor long-term disability, the Social Security office might assume it will get better at some point, so you may get more frequent reviews. However, if the Social Security office believes your disability will never improve or has a low chance of improving, the department will wait longer between reviews.  

3. What if You Earn or Receive Money?

Again, you cannot engage in substantial gainful activity while receiving disability benefits. In other words, you can't use Social Security benefits as a way to drastically boost your income. For this reason, working is a hot topic. You can work and earn some money, but your benefits will be reduced based on how much you earned. If you earned too much, your benefits may be cut completely.

There are programs that help people test if they can return to work. You can try working without the risk of losing benefits. If you decide it's too much, you can stop working and continue receiving benefits without any hiccups.

Besides working, you should report any money you receive to the Social Security department. This should be done for each month. So, if you got a big bundle of cash for your birthday in March, you need to report it for March.

Social Security disability is a great option for people with long-term disabilities. As long as you are disabled, you should continue to qualify. If you would like to know more, contact an attorney in your area today.

13 December 2021