Your regular monthly checks should start in one to two months (or so). However, it may take several additional months for all of your back benefits to be paid. This is because you will be first “overpaid” SSI. The reason for the SSI overpayment is that the Social Security Administration (SSA) usually calculates your SSI… Read More

SSA has a list of assets that don’t count against your asset limit. In other words, you can own these things and still be eligible for SSI. Here are the most significant things on the list: Your home. It can have any value; but if you move out and rent out the house, it becomes… Read More

Yes. Title 19 (Medicaid) eligibility is automatic once you’ve been found eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). You will receive a Title 19 card in the mail. Title 19 eligibility should begin three months before SSI eligibility begins but usually your Title 19 card is just backdated to the date when your SSI began.… Read More

Medicare eligibility begins after you have received 24 months of social security disability benefits. Please note that to receive Part B of Medicare (which pays for doctor visits), you pay a premium that will be deducted from your social security disability monthly check. Disabled people with relatively low income and assets may be eligible for… Read More

Yes, your spouse can collect Social Security Disability benefits based on a disabled claimant’s record if two conditions are met.  First, let me clarify that this only applies to Title 2 Social Security Disability benefits and not Title 16 Supplemental Security Income benefits.  In order to collect, your spouse cannot be employed and must be caring… Read More

Yes, I have represented many claimants in the past and currently who suffer with fibromyalgia.  It can be very debilitating.  Many years ago, doctors used to diagnose their patients with fibromyalgia when they could not figure out any other source of their pain.  In the past several years, the Social Security Administration has become much… Read More

Yes you can work and apply for Social Security Disability Benefits.  However, if you are grossing more than $900 per month, then you will be denied based on the substantial gainful activity rule.  There are certain exceptions.  The Social Security Administration does take into consideration and deduct from your gross wages for health related expenses which are necessary… Read More

You can rest assured that at your disability hearing there will be no other attorneys or others trying to argue against why you should not receive Social Security Disability Benefits.  It is a non-adversarial process.  It is like nothing you might see on a TV court show.  There is not a jury.  Usually the only people… Read More

Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, there will be no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security and SSI beneficiaries in 2011.  Why no COLA in 2011?  The COLA is determined by comparing the change inthe Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2008, that last year that a COLA was determined,… Read More

Yes, a stepchild is considered a “dependent” of a stepparent for Social Security Disability Benefits if the child is receiving at least one-half support from the stepparent.  This law went into effect September 27, 2010.… Read More