Social Security laws are written in such a way that it is often confusing for disabled applicants to know whether they will qualify for benefits.
The rules involving Social Security benefits are confusing at best. The Social Security Administration (SSA) denies sixty five percent of claims the first time they are filed. With so many different criteria to meet, regulations to follow and red tape to get tangled up in, it’s no surprise that most applicants resort to hiring an attorney to manage their application for them.
There are two types of benefits which a disabled person may apply for. One is for people who are recently disabled with a solid work history. The other is for people who do not have a recent work history or may not have accumulated enough qualifying “quarters”.
The first type of benefits are called Title II benefits (SSDI). These benefits are for people who have a recent work history and that have worked at least five of the past ten years. Each year is divided into four quarters so this means that in order to qualify for Title II benefits, a person must have worked for twenty of those forty quarters.
Disabled applicants who fall into this category are eligible to receive benefits for five years. During that time, their children are eligible to receive benefits on their behalf as well. The benefits for minor children will be one half of those awarded to the disabled parent. This amount increases to two thirds of the disabled parent’s benefits if the disabled parent dies while receiving benefits. Workers who qualify for benefits under the Title II guidelines will become eligible for Medicare two years from the onset of Social Security benefits.
The other kind of Social Security benefits is called Social Security Supplemental Income (SSI). In order to qualify for benefits under the SSI guidelines, the applicant must have very a limited income and very limited financial resources at their disposal. For a married couple, the value of their assets cannot exceed $3,000 – excluding necessities such as the home itself and vehicle. As of 2010, the maximum benefit amount for a person qualifying for SSI could receive is $674 per month. Under the umbrella of SSI benefits, there are no benefits granted to dependents or minor children.
If your original claim to the SSA for benefits has been denied, you are given sixty days in which to file for what is known as a “reconsideration”. This means you ask the SSA to reconsider your application for benefits, based on current information and any other new and supporting information you can provide. If turned down a second time, the SSA allows another sixty days for the filing of a second appeal.
