How to Apply for Social Security Disability in Arkansas
When you are suffering from an illness or injury, you could be dismayed to find that while you are unable to work, you may have been denied Social Security Disability benefits. Of course, this is an extremely difficult time for you and for your family. Having an experienced Social Security Disability attorney by your side could significantly decrease what may feel like overwhelming obstacles you are facing. To ensure you are not deprived of the benefits you are entitled to, you should understand the process and have a knowledgeable SSD attorney to help guide you through the process.
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What is SSD?
Perhaps you are not familiar with Social Security Disability, however now that you are unable to work, you do not know which way to turn. Social Security Disability is a Social Security program which pays monthly benefits to those who are disabled and unable to work prior to reaching retirement age. To qualify for the SSD program, you must have worked and paid FICA taxes for a specific number of years. If you have not met this requirement when you become disabled, you could potentially be eligible for Supplemental Security Income, assuming your income and assets are low enough. The number of work credits you need to qualify for SSD will depend on your age when your disability first began. As an example, if you were 50 years old when your disability occurred, you will need to have worked for 7 years, accruing 28 work credits (four credits per year of work). At least five of those seven years must have been within the past ten years.
In addition to the necessary work credits, you must also have a medical condition which meets the Social Security Administration’s definition of disability. Only those with a severe, long-term disability are eligible for SSD. You may wonder what qualifies as “severe.” A severe disability will interfere with your basic, work-related activities, making it impossible for you to continue working. Long-term means the condition you have can reasonably be expected to last a minimum of one year. To the Social Security Administration, a total disability means you are unable to perform “substantial, gainful activity for at least one year.”
Even if you are immediately approved for disability benefits (as you might be if you just underwent a heart transplant), you will not receive SSD benefits until you have been disabled for five months—SSD’s five-month “waiting period.” Since it is more likely that your SSD application will not be approved for six months to a year, then if you are eventually approved you will receive back pay beginning with the sixth month after the beginning of your disability.
To recap the requirements for SSD:
- You must have a documented medical or psychological impairment which prevents substantial gainful activity.
- Your impairment must have prevented—or can be expected to prevent—you from participating in substantial, gainful activity for at least twelve months.
- You must not be working and earning over a specific amount, generally $1,170 per month.
- Self-employed people have other tests used by Social Security to determine whether substantial gainful activity is being engaged in.
While applicants working and earning above the Substantial Gainful Activity level will be denied immediately without even having their medical records, injury or illness considered, disabled individuals may work part-time while applying for benefits if they are not earning more than the allowable income. There are many complexities in the Social Security Disability system and our Arkansas SSD attorneys pride themselves on being able to sort out the specific issues for each client, allowing them to receive the benefits they deserve.
