When living on Social Security Disability, making ends meet can be a challenge, to say the least. Covering your living expenses with your disability payments can sometimes be challenging. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to alleviate some of the financial burden and make your Social Security Disability benefits stretch further.
Hiring a Social Security disability attorney is the most important step when preparing to apply for disability benefits. With their skills and qualification, they can help you through the whole process, from:
It has never been easy to be approved for Social Security disability benefits. The disability application process is complicated and cumbersome, and the lag time between filing a claim and being granted or denied disability benefits is notoriously long. In the current economy, where more and more people are losing their jobs and their health benefits, the process can be even more difficult.
In a political atmosphere in which the elderly and disabled may be asked to accept cuts in their benefits, there seems to be little patience for the assertion that the benefits being paid are too small. However, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has recently done just that, pointing out that SSI income to the mentally ill (and, by extension, other severely disabled people looking to that program for assistance) barely covers housing expenses.
Many people currently receiving SSI or SSDI disability benefits from the Social Security Administration would go back to work if they could find a job that could accommodate their disability. In 1999, Congress passed legislation designed to aid these job seekers in returning to work by establishing the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999.
If you are disabled and unable to work, you may have heard both good and bad things about Social Security’s disability benefits. The first thing you should know is that if you are an American citizen who has worked and paid taxes in this country, you have been making Social Security insurance payments with every paycheck. Assuming you have worked long enough to qualify for disability benefits and if you are disabled to the point that you can no longer work, you are entitled to Social Security disability benefits.
Families with children who become disabled prior to age 18 with severe mental and physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, autism, or mental retardation, may be eligible to receive Social Security disability benefits (SSDI) and/or Social Security Income Benefits (SSI) on behalf of that child. To qualify for disability benefits, your child’s disability must be so severe that he or she suffers “marked and severe” functional limitations.
The process you encounter when you decide to apply for Social Security disability benefits may seem confusing at first. When should you apply for disability benefits? Who do you see first? What do you do first? Do you need a Social Security disability lawyer to help you get disability benefits or can you make an appointment on your own? Can you work while you are waiting for your appointment?
When considering whether or not to hire a professional to assist you when you file for Social Security disability benefits, you may wonder what sort of person has the necessary experience, what they can do for you, what they will charge to assist you, and whether or not their help is worth what they charge.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has been the focus of quite a hue and cry from Congress, policymakers, and newsmakers from across the country over the past year. Those looking for reasons to cut funding to this bastion of the country’s national social services programs call Social Security (including OASDI, SSI, and SSDI) everything from an outdated notion of an entitlement state to a Ponzi scheme. Those looking for ways to preserve America’s 75-year old social services safety net call it the "bedrock of American retirement security".
