When you spend your day working hard at your job so you can remain independent and provide for your family’s financial needs, it comes as a shock when an injury or illness renders you unable to work anymore. This is especially true if you then have to rely on others for assistance. In order to lessen the financial blow of losing a job due to a disability, the Social Security Administration administers federal programs that provide financial benefits to qualifying disabled individuals in Texas and nationwide.
In order to receive Social Security disability benefits, the applicant must be disabled in the Social Security Administration’s sense of the word. This means the impairment must be medically determinable, and it must be severe. A severe disabling condition is one that is expected to last at least one year and can even result in death. If the condition is expected to improve in less than one year, then the case worker examining the case may deem the disability as non-severe.
In addition to this, the disabling condition must be such that it prevents the injured from engaging in work activity that earns them a certain minimum income. This is known as substantial and gainful employment, and again is used in a specific sense by the Social Security Administration, to be covered in a future post. Suffice to say, for the purpose of SSD benefits, the applicant must not be able to work due to their disability.
Eligibility is dependent on filling the medical requirements, and this can often be confusing to figure out. It is not easy for a person to determine and accept that their medical condition will prevent them from working for the rest of their life or that their illness may result in their death. However, consulting with an attorney may be one way to move forward and pursue the benefits one needs.