If you are suffering from an illness, condition, or injury that prevents you from working you could be entitled to Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI. If you are approved for SSDI you (and your dependents in some cases) will receive a monthly monetary benefit. While the SSDI program provides much needed benefits to disabled individuals and their families, getting an application approved can be a complex and lengthy process. Getting Social Security Disability Insurance approved can take anywhere from several months to several years, depending on many factors.
The SSDI program is a federally funded and program that is administered by the Social Security Administration, or SSA. Although the programs are similar, it is important to distinguish SSDI from the Supplemental Security Income program, or SSI. Both the SSI and the SSDI program use the SSA definition of disabled which requires you to be unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a medically-determinable physical or mental impairment(s):
- That is expected to result in death OR
- That has lasted or is expected to last for a continuous period of at least 12 months.
The primary difference between the programs is that eligibility for SSDI is based on your past work history whereas SSI eligibility is determined by your income and assets.
Unfortunately, statistically speaking you only have a one in three chance of getting your application for SSDI approved at the initial application level. Furthermore, it typically takes a minimum of three to four months to receive an initial determination from the SSA. It is far from uncommon for an application to take over six months to be evaluated and a decision made as to eligibility. The good news is that is that of you application if approved you will receive retroactive benefits from the date of your application. You may even qualify for benefits for the time pre-dating your application date. Of course, those benefits don’t do you any good while you are waiting for the application to be processed and have no source of income due to your disability. Worse still, if your initial application is denied it could ultimately take over a year to get your application approved through the appeal process.
If you believe that you qualify for SSDI, consulting with an experienced Michigan SSDI attorney before you begin the application process will ensure that the application is properly filled out, thereby increasing your odds of getting the application approved without the need to appeal a denial.
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