This is not for everyone only for certain people who may qualify. My brother had trouble leaving the house and couldn't hold a job so i suggested to him maybe he should apply for disability. I was with him through the whole experience.
If you are wanting to apply for disability you'll have to go to the social security office. Now with that in mind I suggest to get there an hour before they open due to the fact that there will be a lot of people up there wanting to apply for something.
When they open you'll be assigned a number and asked to be seated until your number is called.
Once your number is called you will be assigned a social worker and they will ask you what you are wanting to do today. You will say you want to apply for SSI which is disability.
After saying that the process begins. Now I'm not going to lie this will be a long process and is not very easy.
The worker will ask you a lot of questions about your mental illness such as how many times you have been to a psychiatric hospital and the psychiatrist you have seen.. You will have to include numbers with these hospitals so they can confirm everything.
You will have to go back to the social security office a couple of times to complete the rest of the questions like how much your entire household makes and all of your assets. This will depict how much a month you will receive.
Once all the questions are asked it becomes a waiting game. The wait can be anywhere from 3-6 months.
At first he didn't receive it so he decided to hire a lawyer to help him with his case. He did not disclose to me if you lawyer was free or not though.
In the end the lawyer was able to fight and get him disability.
Now you don't start off with the entire disability at first they still have to finalize everything. But you will still get paid some though. What they will have you do if you are working is call in every 2 weeks and tell them how much you've made on that paycheck before taxes. I'm not sure what they do if you don't have a job at the time but that is something you can ask when you find out if you have the disability.
When you are on disability you can only make as much as they tell you that you can make. With him he could only make a $1,000 per month before taxes. Now if you do make more than that it is ok cause they will just adjust what you get for that month if you make more than the required amount.
After being on disability for 2 years you have the option to get medicare. They pay for that out of the money each month you make for disability. For example if you normally get $1,029 a month for disability if you sign up for medicare you may only get $921 a month for it. Which isn't bad at all for insurance.
The next step would be to get a secondary medicare plan to cover what the regular medicare may not cover. Last year he was able to find a secondary medicare plan for free but this year it's $15 a month which they will take out of your monthly disability check.
If you don't have a job at this point and are wanting one social security offers a workforce program you can sign up for where they will assist you in finding a job.
Now everyone may not apply for disability but if you have trouble holding a job due to your illness it doesn't hurt to try and apply for it. The worst they can say is say no.
I hope this article was informative on the subject of disability. If I left anything out feel free to comment and I will write another article with the stuff I missed.
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