Disability Question

After 18 months and a lawyer that took 6k I got disability benefits. 

Congratulations!  I've heard that the amount your attorney receives is determined by the SSA. Is that correct?

I missed out on 6 months of benefits because I  waited too long to file. The disabled person doesn't receive benrfits the first 6 months after the disability "date", as determined by them. After 6 months we are eligible to collect the benefit. We can receive up to a year's worth of back benefits from the month we file. My application was approved in 3 months and I received 15 months in a lump sum at that time. 

Federal tax tip. The benefits may be taxable.  It is based on how much you received and the income from all sources plus your tax status.  The year you rechive benefits for a past tax year you should fill out a specific form with your return.  Last year's tax return is factored in to how much you need to pay for the prior year's benefits in the current year. Make sure you do this or you might end up paying more tax than you should.

We just applied for permenant disability for Jeff.  The lady at social security was very nice, surprise, surprise!  She to,d me I should have applied when Jeff was six, just for being diagnosed with UC.  And diffinately after he was diagnosed with Aspergers.  I was really afraid to do so being that I live in an affluent community and my husband does have a good job.  We are not rich, but according to the government we are.  They forget it's expensive to live in NJ!  But anyway the lady has us applying for permenant disability as well as SSI.  They may take it all the way back to when he was six years old.  I'm confused because first she said they were not going to count his earnings from working, which all totaled is about 6,000$. Then she said they had to count it, so I'm not really sure what we applied for.  But they are asking for all kinds of medical records.  I don't know if they are treating it as an adult application or a child application.  I find the entire process totally overwhelming to say the least.  But with everything that he has been through this past year and a half, I think we will get it. I hope anyway.  Im going to try and do it without an attorney.  SS says I don't need one so, we'll see.

The "magic" age to qualify is 50 and over.  Then they think you are too old to be rehabilitated to do a more sedentary job.

Thanks to all who replied above.  I have put off trying to get disability as just the thought of going through the process is so awful.  I've had friends who say, "you should apply." I never do it.  I quit my job as a school counselor 7 years ago.  I worked in schools 23 years with my j pouch.  IT got harder every year and then it was just more than I could take.  We live on my husband's salary - he is a school teacher.  It's pretty tight.  I also have RX major depression and PTSD.  I imagine w/ the j pouch and all the surgeries and the depression/ptsd I could qualify eventually.  It's just that the energy to go to doctors and get all these records and then go in front of a judge and say "I poop 10 times a day - it's loud, gassy, and you would consider it diarrhea" - but it's "normal" to me.  When I was young, I just didn't eat except little bits all day at work and then made up for it at night - eating a lot and pooping a lot at night.  That worked for about 20 years...and then the last 3 working years were hellish.  I thought I was going to go insane trying to do a great job counseling the kids when my stomach was roiling and I couldn't find a private bathroom, etc. - looking back, I'm kind of proud that I lasted that long.  I do think I deserve disability - I used to not think so and felt SO guilty - which is why I never tried to get it.  I'm not sure if I would apply for SS or TX teacher disability or both.  In texas, they don't pay into SS.  (so dumb here). But I worked in other states so I have about 800 a month SS benefits and I have zero idea if I could apply for any in Texas Teacher Retirement System. I tell ya, here in this state, it will be a fight - and I don't have much fight in me.  In other states, I think I'd have an easier time.  I know I have to fight to get it....I hope I can get to the point that I have it in me to fight for it. I have contacted a lawyer a couple of times - someone calls back, I start to explain, and it's so humiliating and they don't sound all that interested in doing the case - probably because the amount the lawyer would make is not much on 800 bucks a month.  We are living on 3000 a month - our health insurance is 1200 a month! And we have a 1300 mortgage - I never dreamed this would be like this.  We used to earn a combined income of 150K in Virginia. Then the recession hit and my husband lost his job.  It's been a nightmare.  We had to come back to Texas where he makes way less than in Virginia and the benefits are awful.  All that said, I know people out there are going through so much worse. I know they are.  But there is no way in hell I could do my job - zero.  So, I guess I just have to find doctors who will say so and who will care enough to fill out all the damn paperwork.  I know docs are stressed too - so I hate to even ask them.  That's what I find so difficult - asking all these people to help me. Why should they take the time to do that?  I know when I worked I took time to help because I felt it was my duty - but I don't know - I just sort of feel like no one will help or care - and I know that's a fallacy, but the world seems very cold to me at age 52.  I do like my doctors, but I've never complained to them about this....I say, "I'm doing the best I can."  or , "the depression is better" - it's some kind of dumb false pride.  Thanks for letting me rant!

Angie, I know how you feel. That is why I put it off. My therapist told me that I would qualify due to my mental health problems. I have PTSD, major depressive disorder and anxiety. I use to be a well respected business woman.  This has been devastating. As Jeff's momu said above the people at the SSA are helpful. All you need to do is tell the truth. There is a long form to fill out and they sent one for my husband to fill out as well. The questions were pretty simple.  Things like how many meals do I cook a week and if I  could bend down to pick things up off the floor. I could pick things up off the floor and I was approved. It took me around a week to,fill them out. This was because I have problems with concentration and so on. We filled out our forms without consulting with each other. It was interesting as my husband used percentages and I  didn't.  I said how many times a week I did what ever they were asking about.  

There might be a problem about your eligibility.  I finally applied when someone in a facebook disability support group told me there were time limits. If you are interested in joining that support group PM me. Plus you might qualify for some sort of Texas disability benefits. I don't know anything about this. 

It makes no difference what your family's income or assets are. After you collect 24 months of benefits you qualify for Medicare.

They sent forms to all of my doctors. I had no problems with any of them. They all filled them out, even my chiropractor!  My GI at the Mayo Clinic filled it out.

My BBF is an attorney.  When she filled for SSD benefits her LTD insurance company was helping her to do it. They were invested in having her approved as it reduced the benefits they had to pay her. She said their help was a joke as she still had to fill out the questionnaire. 

I had to see an MD and Psychologist hired by social security and she had to see 3 people hired by them. My appoints were dumb. The MD tested my reflexes and had me bend down to pick something up off of the floor, etc.  Remember I had already told them I  could do that!  The psychologist's visit was weird too. He had me tell him every job I had ever had, starting at 15. He took notes of them all. There was a little memory verbal question. He shed light into what his role was. He had no say in if I should be approved. They sent him the questions to ask me and then he sends back the answers. He didn't diagnosis mental states. My friends appointments were very similar except her psych questions were different ones.

SSD payments are benefits we have paid into with every paycheck. Starting with my job at 15, I paid for the disability insurance with every paycheck.  When I owned my own businesses I also paid the employer's equal side of them as well. It is not a hand out it is an insurance benefit. I would rather be working and attending Rotary Club meetings instead of seeing my therapist!

Thank you so much.  Truly, it helps me to understand.  I look at all your listed issues and have been thru so many of them. What happens is it happens over time...so I just was not thinking clearly that this was all adding up.  I should have applied sooner after I quit - hope that does not disqualify me.  But, if so, what can ya do?  I feel as you do - I paid all that money in all those years - never dreaming I'd ask for disability - not in a million years.  Then, when I started to think of asking for it, I thought - "no way" - I'm not a taker...etc.  But, obviously - that's faulty thinking - why the heck pay into this all these years and then not get it when you are truly not able to work.  I know it will be a grueling process to try to get it.  So, I'll just take it one step at a time. Thanks for the support!! I really helps.

I did write a book about it. You have so many of the same thoughts that I had or have. I hate it when politicians refer to social security and social security disability as "entitlements". We paid for them!

Since I have been so ill things like filing for disability are difficult to do. Everything is difficult or I can't do anymore.   I  use to prepare hundreds of income tax returns annually for my clients.  Now my return takes me forever.  I have been in mourning for my career and former life for 15 years. I sold my business 15 years ago when fibromyalgia on top of my UC hit me so hard that I could no longer work full-time.  I worked part-time until I couldn't work anymore 5.5 years ago then oversold myself on the colonectomy and j-pouch surgeries.  It has been devastating. I recently had surgery to divert from my j-pouch to a permanent ileostomy.  I can't suck it up and power through things anymore. I've been working on acceptance of my disabled self for too long. When SSD approved my application for benefits they classified me as "unlikely to improve". When I was 58 my long-term disability insurance company approved my my benefits to the end of my eligibility at age 65. I am disabled  

Dear Te Marie,

Good for you to have written a book about all this.  I understand  so much of your pain.  It does feel like this continuous grieving process - the loss of productivity and ability to be "on" socially, etc. etc. - to me, the best way to explain it is I feel like I'm 25 years older on the inside than I am in age.  Because I happen to be naturally thin (this was before pouch - just how I'm built) and also one to pep up and smile when I am interacting with people, doctors, whatever - I hear "you look great" or "you obviously exercise and take great care of yourself." Nope. I don't. I don't exercise 1/5 of the amount I used to.  Nope - I don't feel great.  Etc.  But, how do you not be Debbie Downer if you tell people all the time you are so sick and tired of the pain and suffering?  They'd run for the hills.  So, with the exception of a couple of good friends (and even then, I keep my mouth shut a lot), and my poor husband (and I try not to bug him much about it either) - it's just very lonely.  I do get out and do some volunteer work, etc. - but nothing like I used to do. 

My theory is that it's like being really old - when you are not really old.  And old people deal with all this loss - loss of career, loss of loved ones, loss of ability to do things they used to do, etc. etc. - and so I sort of feel like I'm old.  Does not mean I am miserable every second - not true.  But, I just can't do a whole lot, have had to find ways to entertain myself at home, etc. - I've lost friends because they don't understand when I cancel at last minute - and why should they?  It looks like I'm either a snob or just plain rude. So, I don't worry about that cause I cannot control it.  My husband has been great at going on with his life, socializing without me, and not judging me.  But, I feel like I'm letting him down, no matter how often he tells me I'm not.  Who wants a wife who acts so old when she is 52?  He is only 50. 

OK - thanks for letting me rant.  You have really helped me feel less alone and for that I thank you so much.  I know eventually I will try to get disability - gotta get the fight into me to do it.  I know I deserve it.  And, my gosh, do I hate that term entitlements too - as you said, I paid for it!  First job at 16, worked through college, worked as a teacher while getting my masters degree, worked in schools 23 years, then worked at Michaels teaching knitting when I could work in schools anymore.  It's not like I was a deadbeat who wants a handout. THAT is what makes my blood boil - I feel like this whole process of begging them to give me what is not much money is just so ridiculous.  I understand they must be rigorous and that there is a lot of fraud out there. It's not really the people, it's just the system itself that is so screwed up.  Well, we live in an imperfect world and it is what it is. No one promised us a rose garden.  That said, it does feel like "wish I could have opted out of paying all that money to govt. and just saved and invested it" - because govt. is gonna make me go through hell to get that money.  And it is MY money.  I have to beg for money I earned.  Now I know why people get old and say they hate the government.  I get it.  You pay in and pay in - and then - God knows what we'll get with social security and God knows if I'll ever get the disability.  This has been a major rant.  Thank you, dear person, for reading it.  I feel less alone and you have helped me - just by reaching out and typing and letting me know I'm not crazy (well, any crazier than anyone is after going through all of this!)  I'm just tired and angry and would like to catch a break.  I don't like being in a victim type mode.  Not my style - but I'm going to have to admit I am disabled and am a victim of these illnesses.  I've been so ashamed of that for way too long. Thanks

To all of you that shared your thoughts, please know "we are not crazy and we should not feel ashamed for 'needing' to utilize Disability...we are disabled and we earned it...period".  God Bless you all...

Animal Lover

Right on animal lover!

Angie, I  feel older too. In more ways than my health. I'm turning 60 this month and most my age are still in good health. I found out who my real friends were after my disability kept me from doing things like lunch or golf. I don't miss the others any more.  Plus I 've gotten to know good caring people here and in other support groups.  Nice thing the internet does for us. It and people like Bill and Jan Dollar for this site!