Under the Social Security Disability Insurance program, a person who is unable to work for a year or more because of a disability may receive disability benefits.

Qualifications: Your disability must last or be expected to last for at least one year or to result in death. If you are disabled, you may receive benefits until you reach age 65, at which time your benefits convert to retirement benefits. In order to qualify for disability benefits, you must have worked long enough and recently enough to have earned sufficient "credits." The number of credits and the amount of credits which are necessary to qualify depends upon your age and your earnings. In addition, you must be "disabled" as defined by the Social Security Administration.

Disability: To be considered "disabled" under the Act, Social Security must determine that you are unable to perform the work you have done in the past, and that you cannot adjust to other work because of your medical condition(s). Social Security uses a "sequential" evaluation process that asks the following questions:

•  Are you working?
•  Is your condition "severe"?
•  Is your condition a "listed" impairment?
    •  If your condition is a "listed" impairment, or of equal severity to a listed
       impairment, you will qualify for benefits. If your condition is not on the
       list or equal to a listed impairment, the following questions must be
       answered:
•  Can you do the work you have done in the past?
•  Can you do any other type of work?

Amount of Benefits: The amount of your monthly disability benefits is determined by your lifetime earnings covered by Social Security. You should obtain your Social Security Statement in order to determine an estimate of your disability benefits. To obtain your statement, you must request it from Social Security. Generally, you need to have worked fairly regularly and recently during the time period before you became disabled. As a practical matter, if you have worked five of the past ten years, you will usually qualify.

Obtaining Benefits: You may apply for disability benefits at any Social Security office. In addition, you may apply on the Internet at www.ssa.gov , or apply by phone. Most of the time, the application for benefits is denied. Thereafter, strict deadlines will apply for appealing an adverse decision. Even though you are denied, you may still obtain a favorable result by appealing the decision. At that point you will probably need legal assistance and the Hamilton Firm may be able to help you obtain benefits.

Free Consultation: If you believe you are entitled to Social Security Disability Benefits, contact The Hamilton Firm for a free consultation. We will give you the personalized attention your case deserves.