How Do You Get Social Security Disability Insurance?

Brian O Sutter Social Security Disability

People in the Sarasota and Charlotte counties work hard and pay their taxes when the time comes. While no one enjoys paying taxes, everyone understands the necessity of it. Without those taxes, roads wouldn’t get built, schools wouldn’t teach students, and fires wouldn’t be put out.
Taxes fulfill many different needs, and some of them are contingencies. In the same way that people pay for car or life insurance, hoping they never need it, some tax dollars are diverted to similar functions. One of those is a form of financial coverage known as social security disability insurance, but if you’re paying for this through your taxes, when will you ever make use of it?

Safety Nets

As you may have guessed from the name, social security disability insurance, or SSDI, is a form of financial compensation for people no longer able to work. In this case, a worker may no longer be able to return to a former occupation due to an injury that now prevents the work from being done. A construction worker who falls and becomes paralyzed from the waist down, necessitating using a wheelchair, is one such example.

In cases where an injury prevents someone from resuming their career, this is where safety nets can step in to avoid severe financial loss and suffering. SSDI provides additional financial support to help people stay afloat, pay bills and afford food when returning to the old job and salary is no longer feasible. Depending on the type of injury and circumstances, SSDI may provide support for a few months or last for years.

Qualifying For SSDI

As can be gathered from the name, SSDI is a specific form of unemployment support. This isn’t available for people who have resigned from jobs or been laid off due to cutbacks at a company. The intent is to help people with injuries severe enough to impact their ability to work and even create new financial constraints or demands to accommodate a new, lifelong disability.

In other words, the recipient for SSDI must be diagnosed as and legally verified by the government as disabled. This means meeting specific criteria before an application will even be accepted and considered. There are four major factors to qualify for SSDI:

• You can no longer return to the former line of work you once held.
• Switching to another occupation easily isn’t feasible due to the nature of the condition.
• Your disability already has or is expected to last one or more years or result in death.
• You have dutifully paid your taxes and contributed to social security with sufficient work credits.

You must meet these criteria for your submission to be considered. If even one requirement isn’t verifiable, your application will be automatically rejected.

Preparing To Wait

SSDI is a Federal program, meaning that your application, while local, is being processed alongside other applications from all over the country. This means that the administrative process can be prolonged. In the Sarasota and Charlotte areas, things are a little faster than in other parts of the state. The major cities, such as Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, all have wait times of about 21 or more months.

On the other hand, Fort Meyer processes and hands out decisions on applications within about 15 months. This is still over a year, however. So for people considering applying for SSDI, make sure to plan ahead and not rely on a speedy approval to help cover bills in the meantime.

Ensuring Proper Procedures

Another consideration when applying for SSDI is making sure that all the medical requirements have been satisfied. SSDI applications have a high rate of rejection, with about 72% of first-time applications being rejected. The usual reason for the rejection is that the medical information provided doesn’t meet the requirements for expert diagnosis and required verification.

This makes it crucial that not only applicants look up the requirements, but they have a clear, detailed understanding of what they mean. It can often mean the difference between an acceptance and a rejection.

Changing Outcomes

Fortunately, the decision to reject an SSDI application isn’t a final one. An appeal process exists, but applicants must submit their appeals within two months—or 60 days—of receiving the initial rejection. Depending on the circumstances, an appeal could be addressed and resolved within 90 days, or three months at the fastest, or, at the longest, take over two years.

Get Help

The SSDI administrative infrastructure is large, complex, and not easy to understand. If your application has been denied, you don’t have to go it alone. Some legal experts understand how the submission, approval, and even appeal process work. They can help you get the help you need.
If you want to get your SSDI application or appeal approved, we can assist you. Contact our social security disability insurance lawyers to find out how you can get the compensation you deserve.