It usually takes about 22 months from the time you apply for benefits until you get a hearing. Search Close Menu. Sign In About Mental Illness. About Mental Illness Treatments. About Mental Illness Research. Your Journey Individuals with Mental Illness. Your Journey Family Members and Caregivers. Your Journey Identity and Cultural Dimensions. Your Journey Frontline Professionals.
Get Involved Become a Fundraiser. Get Involved Awareness Events. Get Involved Share Your Story. Some states, however, use more restrictive eligibility criteria for Medicaid coverage than those used by Supplemental Security. Disability Insurance is funded by payroll tax contributions from workers and their employers. Workers currently pay a tax of 0. These tax contributions go into the Disability Insurance trust fund. Funding for Supplemental Security comes from the federal income tax and other federal revenues.
The Social Security Administration administers both of these programs. State agencies, usually called disability determination services, make the initial determination of whether applicants meet the disability standard. These state agencies are federally funded and follow federal guidelines. Medical evidence is the cornerstone for the determination of disability in both programs. To qualify, there must be medical evidence from a doctor, specialist, or certain other licensed or certified medical sources that documents a severe impairment.
Evidence from other health care providers—such as nurse practitioners or clinical social workers—is not sufficient to document a severe medical impairment. And statements from the applicants themselves, their families, co-workers, friends, or neighbors are not treated as medical evidence.
Most applications for Disability Insurance are denied under this strict standard, and many workers with significant disabilities do not qualify. Between and only about 40 percent of applications were ultimately approved. The level of severity required by the disability standard is apparent when one considers how poorly workers who have been denied Disability Insurance subsequently fare in the labor market.
A recent study found that among people whose Disability Insurance applications were denied by the Social Security Administration, the vast majority—70 percent to 80 percent—did not go on to work in jobs with annual earnings above the substantial gainful activity level.
Further underscoring the strictness of the disability standard are the considerably elevated mortality rates for disabled workers found eligible for benefits. One in five men and nearly one in six women die within five years of being approved for benefits.
Disability Insurance beneficiaries have death rates at least three times higher than other people their age. In order to receive Disability Insurance, a worker must have worked during at least one-fourth of his or her adult lifetime and during at least 5 of the 10 years before disability onset.
There is also a five-month waiting period before a worker can qualify for benefits. Supplemental Security provides assistance to people with severe disabilities who have very low incomes and assets and who either lack sufficient work history to be covered for Disability Insurance or receive only a very small Disability Insurance benefit.
It is important to note that many Supplemental Security beneficiaries, although lacking the sustained work history necessary to be insured under Disability Insurance, have worked and paid into the Disability Insurance system. And others, particularly women, are not eligible for Disability Insurance because they took time out of the paid labor force to care for children or other family members. Workers must apply for and exhaust all other available benefits before qualifying for Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security.
Both Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security provide incentives for beneficiaries to work. Disability Insurance beneficiaries are encouraged to work up to their full capacity and can earn an unlimited amount for up to 12 months without losing any benefits.
Beneficiaries who work for more than 12 months and have earnings above the substantial gainful activity level cease to receive a monthly benefit. This means they do not need to repeat the entire, and typically lengthy, disability-determination process that they initially went through to qualify for benefits.
Supplemental Security beneficiaries who are able to work are encouraged to do so as well. Beneficiaries who are able to do some work will therefore always be better off with both earnings and a reduced benefit than just the benefit alone. These incentives are helpful for beneficiaries who are able to do some work or whose conditions improve.
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I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Part Of. Getting Started. How Social Security Is Organized. Getting Benefits. Benefits and Your Income. Benefits for Spouses. Benefits for Dependents, Survivors, After Divoce. But the results also pointed to other, less-obvious factors that make a difference. If you don't, you'll receive a nonmedical, or "technical," denial. If you advance to the next stage, a disability examiner will then put your application through a five-step medical evaluation.
Few applicants make it through both of these stages successfully. It's worth pointing out that these results included technical denials as well as denials based on medical eligibility for disability benefits.
This means that applicants who meet the nonmedical requirements of SSDI or the financial requirements of SSI have a better chance of winning benefits. When the initial denial is for a medical reason, applicants can appeal the decision by requesting a hearing.
Our survey showed that approval rates at the hearing level were nearly twice as high as at the initial application stage. For more details, see our statistics on how requesting a hearing affects your chances of getting Social Security benefits. The strength of your medical evidence is critical for proving your claim. Clearly, you should see a doctor or other medical professional in order to create that evidence.
One-third of our readers said they had not seen a doctor or other medical professional in the year before they applied for disability.
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