Disability and Social Security benefits

Individuals who are disabled from injury, illness or other conditions are faced with difficult challenges, including many financial and healthcare decisions.

The benefits of SSDI are many:

• Regular monthly income: SSDI is a regular monthly payment and provides annual cost-of-living increases. A portion of these disability benefits may be tax free.

• Medical benefits: Regardless of your age, 24 months after your date of entitlement to SSDI benefits, you are eligible for Medicare, including Part A (hospital benefits) and Part B (medical benefits). A variety of Medicare Advantage plans also are available to you.

• Prescription drug coverage: Once you are entitled to Medicare, you are also eligible for Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan.

• COBRA extension: If you receive SSDI benefits, the length of your COBRA benefits could be extended an additional 11 months.

• Long-term disability (LTD) benefits: If you have private long-term disability insurance, your provider will often require you to seek SSDI. Complying with this requirement could help protect your ability to receive LTD income.

• Protected retirement benefits: When you reach retirement age, SSDI ends and you transition to Social Security retirement benefits. Social Security disability entitlement “freezes” Social Security earnings records during your period of disability. Because the years in which you collect SSDI benefits are not counted when computing future benefits, your Social Security retirement benefits may be higher than if your earnings were averaged over a greater number of years.

• Dependent benefits: If you receive SSDI benefits and you have a dependent under age 18, he or she also may be eligible for benefits.
   
• Return-to-Work incentives: Social Security will provide you opportunities to return to work while still paying you disability benefits.

While evaluating these various benefits of SSDI, it’s also important to keep in mind the challenges that people across the country face in filing for their disability benefits.

More than 1.4 million people are waiting to learn if they will receive their Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) award, a wait that averages two to four years. Newcomers to the cumbersome SSDI application process may not be fully aware of their options when seeking help.

To help individuals with disabilities apply for and receive the benefits they deserve, Allsup provides its “Top 10 Tips for Breaking through the Backlog.”

1. Determine eligibility. To be eligible for benefits, claimants must have been disabled before reaching full retirement age (65-67) and meet the Social Security Administration’s definition of disabled. This generally means being unable to work due to a medically determinable mental or physical impairment expected to result in death or last for at least 12 months. Individuals must be under age 65 and also have worked and paid into the program for five of the last 10 years. (Obtain a free evaluation to determine eligibility here.)
   
   
2. File immediately. If an initial claim is denied, Allsup notes that the wait for an appeals hearing now takes an average of 512 days. There is no time to lose.
   
   
3. Obtain doctor’s agreement. Claimants need written medical confirmation of their qualifying conditions when they apply. According to Allsup, not having a doctor’s agreement when filing could delay the process a month or more.
   
   
4. Get help. Filing for disability benefits is a complicated process akin to preparing a difficult income tax return. Allsup emphasizes that the earlier applicants seek help, the more support they can get to help put them back on the right track.
   
   
5. Prepare an accurate medical record. A comprehensive factual record is required to convince the government to provide benefits.
   
   
6. Establish your work history. Compile records of dates and tenure of previous employment. As noted above, individuals must have worked for five of the previous 10 years to qualify for benefits.
   
   
7. Meet deadlines. If benefits are denied at any stage of the process, claimants have only 60 days to file an appeal. If the deadline is missed, the process starts over from the beginning.
   
   
8. Reduce spending. The long wait for benefits means that people lose their savings, their cars and sometimes even their homes. Cut out unnecessary spending as quickly as possible and prepare for the long haul. And don’t use credit cards. Allsup reminds applicants that high-interest debt will add to long-term problems. There may be other, more affordable options for handling expenses.
   
   
9. Maintain health insurance. There will be a temptation to cut spending on insurance, but Allsup notes that even after individuals begin receiving disability benefits there is a two-year waiting period for Medicare eligibility.
   
   
10. Don’t give up. The Social Security Administration denies more than 60 percent of all initial applications, but two-thirds of the people who appeal eventually will receive their benefits.
    
    Find more answers to your questions and SSDI help at www.allsup.com.