If You Have a Disability, Social Security Can Help
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: October 8, 2015
October is Disability Awareness Month. For Social Security, disability is always at the forefront of our conversations. We hear stories daily about Americans living with disabling conditions who need help from the system they contributed to during their working life. Their stories make us proud of the work we do.
Through our Faces and Facts of Disability website, we share the stories about what it means to receive disability benefits from Social Security. The site highlights some of the people who benefit from our programs. We believe that learning the facts and hearing peoples’ stories about disability allows for a better understanding of what’s perhaps the most misunderstood Social Security program.
The Social Security Act sets a very strict definition of disability. Social Security pays benefits to insured people who can’t work because they have a medical condition that is expected to last at least one year or result in death. The impairment must be so severe that it renders the person unable to perform not only his or her previous work, but also any other substantial work.
Social Security doesn’t provide temporary or partial disability benefits. Because the eligibility requirements are so strict, our disability beneficiaries are among the most severely impaired people in the country. Our new online resources, the state disability fact sheets and our national disability issue paper, provide specific information about our recipients’ demographics by state and congressional district. These resources are proof of Social Security’s economic impact and benefit to our most vulnerable citizens.
Disability is something we don’t like to think about, or we may think it can’t happen to us. But the odds of becoming disabled are greater than we realize. The Social Security disability program excels in providing services to people when they need it the most.
For us, disability has faces and names — among them Larry, Kiera, Ebbie, Charlotte, Jamie, and Christine. We want to invite you to come see their faces, and learn the facts. They are truly at the heart of what we do.
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Tags: Disability, SSA
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Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Communications
Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Communications
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gladys n.
i am 85 years old.i have a disability about walking.l can only walk with a walker.i have alot of bills.i draw $1053 per month from social security but i dont have much money after i pay my bills.my bills run a little over $700 a month.that is not counting groceries.there is two emergencies pending on my mobile home.the commode has a cract in it in the water side so i was told not to us it.i have another bathroom but its not working properly.waterruns in it all the time,the people at lowes told me i would probably have to have a new commode because nothing i have done to it works.also water is going into my furnace because of condensation. i have a life time right to the mobile home but its my responsiblility to keep it up.it belongs to my grandson and he doesnt charge me anything to live in it .he has no means to help me.
Deborah
I learned while working i was getting sick. My Dr could not put a name to the more difficult parts but did continually record disabling migraines, acute anxiety disorder which i had to take Valium for at work. GERD that required surgery that I took time off from work to have and a severe case of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Not having answers for everything else that was amiss I felt it wrong to start a claim for disability when I didn’t have answers.
After a trip to Mayo we finally got the answers and decided to file only to discover I was out of quarters!
I was informed if I would go back to work and earn some more quarters I could get it. Do you know how perposperous that sounded to me when one of your agents told me that? Then to turn around and say I really should have started my claim while I was working!!
That would have been a false claim. We didn’t know if it was something that could be fixed or not.
This last week my attorney discovered the same thing. After talking to my Drs, and discovering SSA has not, my Drs have assured him that going back to work would shorten my life.
So NO, SS doesn’t help everyone. You look through a very narrow set of spectacles without even looking at health and if we don’t those requirements, we’re left to sink or swim.
mario v.
how do i know if iam on ssi or ssdi
Tomas G.
I am under social security disability. However what I collect is not enough for decent living. If I start collecting a small pension that I have would that make me loose my benefits or is there a maximum that I can collect from pension without loosing my social security disability? Thanks
R.F.
Hello Tomas. Generally, we pay Social Security Disability Benefits (SSDI) to eligible workers and their families, based on the worker’s earnings, prior to becoming disabled. Disability payments from private sources, such as private pensions or insurance benefits, don’t affect your Social Security disability benefits.
We hope this information helps!
brenda d.
I’ve went to social services denied food Stan my 551amouth on bills little food I’ve not press back pay for when I’ve first started appreciation with y’all or nothing I ask for some help for food I all ready signing for help and someone there said I would get a cheack in mail for help food went up to like houseing
Ross
I spent 6 years in the disability pipeline finally being denied and having to resort to a lawsuit which seems is also going to be like running face first into a brick wall. Even after having every specialist confirm fibromyalgia, and a residual functioning capacity exam support the diagnosis.. I was denied with a simple cock of an eyebrow and swish of a pen with the statement “I give no weight to the RFCE because I “feel” it is exaggerated”.. what I do know is that a judges “opinions” do not change the truth, but they sure can destroy a life. Original eval done by SSDI team did absolutely ZERO assessment addressing the reasons I applied..yet that one 15 minute meeting 6 years ago has apparently decided the rest of my life. I know you probably only wanted positive stories about how great SS has been to them and how it has helped.. but there is another side that is probably not addressed at all when it is so easy to sweep it under the rug. In an attempt to weed out fraudulent claims it seems EVERYONE is assumed to be lying then depending on how you feel THAT last day after multiple appeals, your decision is final..regardless of the truth. I was told “you can go back to work to regain eligibility and apply again……..” If I could “go back to work” I would not have applied in the first place… so now through no fault of my own, SSDI has relegated me to be a burden on family for the rest of my life, however long that may be, because “they felt my documentation was exaggerated” .. I paid into a system never thinking about why, never complaining about it, and surely never expecting to need it…. Now in my time of need.. I am being told yes we took your money all your life but no you do not get the benefits legally owed to you for those dues paid…..
Sherry l.
Ppl shouldn’t be allowed to do in disability for social anxiety disorder and panic attacks like my father did in 1972. He held out for three years until they felt sorry for my mother and us three young children.. there should have been interventionally measures and psychriatuc counseling fhat he should have been forced to go thru to get him back in the work force.. we kids were always afraid we would never have enuf food go eat and had to wear the same pair of shoes all year …we were embarrassed for our fellow classmates fo know about his mental condition because it was not physical .. when my class mates asked why my father was not working I would have to tell them it was bad nerves …when I’m fact is was weak nerves … he has never spoken of what happened to h when he came home from work at age 38 that caused b to go into panic attacks and be using valium for over 50 years … he is in denial about his social anxiety disorder , agoraphobia and depression because he has gone hnmedicated for this for over 50 years .. now my mother has been suffering due to this.. he believes no one knows about his mental status still to this day …
John
What is considered due process at SSDI? I’ve been fighting for my benifits for 8 years now. It started with inoperable disc degeneration in 2010. Then there is internal lupus that’s going after my joints. I breakout in leasions at all joints (spine as well). Won appeal 3 plus years ago. I have liquidated all retirement, savings. Sold cars and belongings. Family has done what they can. ( my 72 year old Mother is helping using her social security. She now has cancer and I feel like the SSDI system is waiting for me to die to not pay. My doctors were not allowed to be called as a whitness. Only my lawyer and I were aloud in any hearing?
TERRY W.
DOES SOCIAL SECURITY PAY FOR EATING UTENSILS FOR PATIENTS WITH TREMORS?
R.F.
To learn more about what medical equipment and supplies are covered by Medicare, you will need to call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or visit http://www.medicare.gov. Thanks!
Rebecca W.
I am concerned with the government’s increasing control of pain medications. I want to work as long as I can( I am 60 now), however if it gets to the point where I can no longer get the pain medications I need to be able to function at work without having the pain keep me from even being able to think I don’t know what I will do. I am single so no help with my household and I have spinal arthritis, fibromyalgia, RLS and several other things going on some of which I have been fighting for 30 years. As it is I have no life because even with the pain meds I am so exhausted after working I do nothing but rest to get ready for work again. II really worry because if things keep being more and more controlled I will be unable to work and lose everything I own. It is a scary thought at my age. Just one person’s situation.