Adoption 101: The Legal Fundamentals

How To Get Started On A Disability Claim

7 January 2016

Brayden Miles

If you are interested in filing for a social security disability claim, then you have some work ahead of you. You will need to gather some documentation and meet certain criteria in order to ensure that your claim is successful. To help you get a better idea of what you will need to do, here is an introduction to the subject:

What information do you need to have?

You will essentially need to provide documentation on two separate things: your identity and your disability.

For your identity, you will need your social security number and likely some identification. You will also need to indicate where you have worked and provide copies of your tax information, regardless of whether you were self-employed or worked under an employer.

For your disability, you are going to need quite a bit more. You will need to provide contact information for health care providers that dealt with your disability, a list of medications that you have taken, any pertinent test results that support your argument, and medical records.

If you are applying for benefits that will affect family members, you will need proof of marriage if you are married and social security numbers and identification for any children who will benefit.

What qualifies you for disability?

First of all, you need to have worked for a certain period of time. Disability is an element of social security, which essentially means that a portion of your taxes go towards the pool that is used for disability. You need to have a certain amount of paid and taxed work in order to benefit from that pool.

The numbers involved are somewhat complicated but you basically need to have worked for 10 years in order to qualify. If you worked very little in a given year, then you might need more than 10 years. There can be special considerations if you are young, since it would be pretty difficult for someone in their twenties to have 10 full years of work completed.

As far as the actual disability is concerned, there are several criteria that you need to meet:

1. Your disability prevents you from working in your previous capacity.
2. Your disability prevents you from adjusting to another line of work.
3. Your disability will last longer than a year or until the time of your death.

As you might guess, the second rule is a bit subjective. It is up to the government to determine whether or not you meet that criteria and your claim might be granted or denied based on that. If you are denied, you can still appeal the decision by following the instructions that are given with the denial.

For more information, talk to a disability attorney like Bruce K Billman.

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