SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY UPDATES

The Social Security disability program is really a government-sponsored disability insurance program.  You get covered by working and having Social Security (FICA) taxes deducted from your pay.  However, you are not immediately insured when you begin working and you may stop being insured after you stop working. A "quarter of coverage" is the basic unit used to determine whether a worker is insured under the Social Security disability program, or Title II. Most adults, depending on age, need 20 quarters of coverage to be covered by Social Security. So, what is a "quarter of coverage"?  You will hear these informally called "Social Security credits,"  or "work credits," too.  Until 1978, a "quarter of coverage" was awarded to workers who earned $50 or more in a calendar quarter.  After 1978, the amount of wages required to earn one quarter of coverage changed automatically each year based on the National Average Wage Index. In 2...

The Social Security Act provides benefits for long term disability.  It does not provide benefits for unemployment or the inability to get a job.   Here are some examples of employment problems which have nothing to do with disability or Social Security:  Nobody will hire me. My job skills are ancient. The economy has tanked. The jobs I used to do have now moved to Mexico or overseas. The jobs I could once do are now done by machines. There are no jobs in my field (or in my hometown, etc.) The above statements have nothing to do with Social Security and will never result in a Social Security benefit.  They are not disability issues, they are unemployment issues. We need to focus on why you are disabled, not why you can't get a job. We have to focus on specific limitations in the ability to perform work related activity.  These limitations, for example, could include a restriction in the ability to: sit for prolonged periods stand/w...

It's a well known fact that around 7 0 percent of disability claims are initially denied by Social Security.   So, what do you do?  Do you just keep applying and reapplying again and again? No.  That is not the best way to approach winning disability.   Once you have been denied,  it is probable that you will be denied over and over.  The same decision makers will look at the same evidence and make the same decision.  That type of movement gets you nowhere but eats up a lot of time while the bills keep piling up. Usually, it is much better to appeal the denial and kick the case on up the chain of command to a higher level.  In Alabama, that means asking for a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ).  The ALJ is not bound by any previous decisions and can give you a totally new decision if the evidence justifies it.  Many of the denied cases get paid when an ALJ gets involved. Contact the Forsythe Firm in Huntsv...

Many people are lured into a false sense of security by their experience with Social Security retirement claims.  With a retirement claim, it is very straight forward.  You apply for benefits and if you are old enough a check begins arriving each month. Social Security disability benefits are not nearly as simple.  That is because the eligibility rules are much more complex with the disability program.  Before you can receive a disability benefit you must prove that you are disabled using objective medical evidence provided by acceptable medical sources.  Therein lies the challenge. You must prove that you have a physical and/or mental impairment which produces symptoms so severe that you cannot perform any of your past relevant work or any other work which exists in significant numbers in the national economy.  This is not at all cut and dried but is open to a great deal of interpretation by Social Security decision makers. What typica...