August, 2005

SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY – PART I

What would you do if you suddenly became disabled?  Do you have disability insurance?  Could you survive the financial devastation of losing your job? Having to survive on Social Security Disability is a tough way to live.  A thousand bucks +/- a month doesn’t go far.  But for many, that’s all there is.

TYPES OF BENEFITS - There are 2 types of benefits that are generally awarded:

1.Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) When you were working, you were paying into this insurance fund.  The more you earned, the more your insurance benefits will be. 

2.Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Regardless of whether you ever worked, if you are both disabled and destitute, (meaning you have less than $2,000 in assets) then you will be entitled to receive this financial aid.

So you qualify for both types if you worked all your life and have nothing to show for it.

APPLICATION AND APPEAL PROCESS

The first step in obtaining disability benefits is to apply in person at your local SSA office.  They will walk you through the process and give you an answer in a couple of months.  If their answer is “no,” don’t despair; there is an appeal process.  First, you file a Request for Reconsideration.  This is when you ask them to hand your file to someone in the next cubicle and see what that person thinks.  After he rubber-stamps his co-worker’s denial, you can then file a Request for Hearing by Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).  After a year’s wait, you get to pitch your case to the judge.  The nice thing is the ALJs don’t just rubberstamp the lower bureaucracy.  They actually look at the evidence and render (what I consider) a very fair decision.

So why the year wait to get before the judge?  Their official position is that they have a heavy caseload. But I think it’s because they are trying to weed out the fakers.  It makes sense.  If you are truly disabled, you aren’t going to work during that period no matter how hungry you are.  But if you are dogging it, you will probably break down and go get a job.  Pretty clever, eh?

Next month I’ll talk about what the judge looks at to decide if you are or are not “disabled.”  If you’re healthy and working and not thinking about applying for disability benefits?  Yeah, this stuff is pretty dry.  I’ll try to slip in a couple of lawyer jokes or something.