W
e often meet with people who are still working but who have come to realize that they simply can’t continue to work due to mental or physical health problems. For people who are still working, there are many things to consider when looking towards putting in an application for benefits. What follows are some of our key areas of inquiry.
1) Are you making more than $1090 gross a month? If so, under Social Security’s rules, it is unlikely that they will even accept an application for disability benefits. Once your earnings drop below this amount due to your impairments you should consider putting in an application. There are some instances of subsidized or sheltered work, where we can put in an application before the wages are below $1090, but this is a complicated process.
2) Are you likely to be approved for Social Security Disability (SSD), Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or both? For folks who may be SSI eligible, sooner is better because the earliest disability payment you can receive is for the effective date of your application.
3) Did you stop working recently? For SSD eligible clients, we look back at the timeline of when our client last worked to determine how to maximize the potential benefit. We consider the five month waiting period for SSD benefits and the rule that the most retroactive SSD that Social Security will pay is 12 months prior to the effective date of the application.