You Must Prove Disability Even If You Are Insured for Benefits

If you have health issues that are making it impossible for you to work at a job, you may be insured for disability benefits from the federal government.
Social Security disability insurance is available to workers who have a medical condition that the Social Security Administration (SSA) defines as a disability.
You Need Enough Work Credits How do you know if you are insured? An easy way to find out is to look at your Social Security Earnings Statement.
This is a document that SSA mails out to workers every year.
Your statement is a record of all the earnings you have made starting from the very first job you had that paid into Social Security through payroll taxes.
Based on your earnings and how much you paid into Social Security over the years, SSA calculates how much you can expect to get in retirement benefits.
That amount is on your statement.
The statement also tells you if you have earned enough work credits to be insured for disability benefits and, if you are, what the amount of your monthly benefit would be if you needed it.
You should keep your statements safely filed away.
If you haven't, it is not a problem to get a copy from Social Security.
Just contact SSA and ask them to mail your most recent statement to you.
The basic rule in meeting SSA's work credit requirement for disability benefits if you are 31 years of age or older, is you must have worked a total of five years, or 40 accumulated work credits, within the past ten-year period.
Medical Condition Must Qualify as a Disability However, even if you have earned the work credits, you have to prove that you have a medical condition that qualifies as a disability.
Unless your condition is on SSA's list of qualifying impairments, it can be very hard to get the benefits you feel you are entitled to get.
If you decide to apply for Social Security disability, you will have to explain to SSA how your condition is affecting your physical or mental capabilities in handling daily activities.
SSA makes an evaluation based on all the information you provide on your disability application, which is actually a series of forms and reports about you, your functionality and your medical history, including supportive documentation from your doctors.
SSA thoroughly assesses this information.
They must be satisfied, unquestionably, that you have a medical condition that is making it impossible for you to do your previous work or learn new skills to do something else to earn income.
You may know you can't work, but SSA may disagree with you.
In fact, nearly 65 percent of new disability applications are denied, forcing applicants to enter into an appeal process with SSA that could take months to get resolved.
Insured for Disability, but Hard to Get If you think you qualify for Social Security disability, you can apply online at the SSA Web site.
However, considering SSA's strict evaluation criteria, you may want to get a professional to help you.