Arizona Social Security Disability Lawyer

Generally, Social Security Administration takes about 6 months to process a New application, gather medical evidence, and evaluate forms you completed as part of your application. If you are initially denied, you can file an appeal and request a Reconsideration. This appeal is asking SSA to take another look at your application and evidence. The reconsideration generally takes another 6 months to get a determination. If the reconsideration is denied, you can appeal and request a Hearing before a judge. The wait for a hearing is generally 8 to 12 months. Because a wait for a grant of disability can take many, many months, it is important to file an application as soon as possible and be attentive to the forms requested of you by Social Security Administration. 

Social Security Administration will not take your statements about your pain and symptoms (such as fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety, frequency of seizures, depression) as conclusive evidence you are disabled. You must first have proof of a medical diagnosis with supportive testing. For most, that is the easy part. Then Social Security Administration considers the credibility of your statements about the intensity and persistence of your symptoms. Social Security Administration looks for inconsistencies in the records and your statements. Often they review your work history, legal history, drug or alcohol abuse, your answers on the multiple duplicate forms you completed, and any statements you made to your healthcare providers or to staff at Social Security Administration offices. The rules allow the judge to use “ordinary techniques of credibility evaluation.” Judges often reject credibility because they find your daily activities greater than your stated limitations. They compare your statements about pain and symptoms to your daily household activities, recreation activities, frequency or distance of travel, or vacations in the rejection of your statements. Social Security Administration looks for inconsistencies with your work such as the reasons you gave for your job ending. They consider legal history. They can took to frequent missed or cancelled medical appointments or medication non-compliance to reject credibility. Consistency in your records is essential.

The Social Security Administration requires judges consider if an individual’s substance abuse problems are a factor material to the disability determination. This means the judge will consider the effects of drugs on your disability.

Often SSA uses a period of known sobriety and compares the symptoms and limitations during that time with the symptoms and limitations with periods of know drug use. If there is substantial evidence in the record that demonstrates that when the claimant is NOT abusing drugs or alcohol the claimant’s symptoms are managed and is capable of working, the judge can deny benefits finding drugs or alcohol are responsible for not working and the claimant’s health would improve and could work if stopped using drugs or alcohol.

If you have a change in your name (marriage, divorce, court order) or need to correct your name for other reasons, you must tell Social Security so you can get a replacement Social Security number (SSN) card with your correct legal name. To get a name corrected SSN card, you will need to complete an Application for a Social Security Card and show Social Security Administration the required certified, legal documents.

You can apply for Social Security early retirement benefits beginning at age 62. Early retirement benefits will be reduced based on how many months you received early retirement (called the “reduction factor”) prior to your full retirement age. If you qualify for Social Security Disability, it makes sense for you to apply for disability benefit instead of drawing early retirement because SSD is often more than early retirement and can qualify you for Medicare after 24 months. If you decide to take early retirement because you need the income while waiting to hear about your SSD application, you can take the early retirement. If you are found to have met the disability requirements before you began to receive early retirement, you would be entitled to retroactive benefits equal to the difference between your early retirement payment and what you were entitled to for SSD. However, if Social Security determines that your disability did not begin until after you received early retirement, you won’t receive any retroactive payments and Social Security payments will simply convert to your SSD benefit amount.

An important consideration when deciding to take early retirement is your eligibility for AHCCCS. If early retirements kick you off AHCCCS, early retirement benefits may not be advantageous.

Once you reach full retirement age, your SSD benefits amount remains the same but it becomes retirement benefits.

Your Social Security disability monthly benefits is determined by Social Security Administration and is based on the amount you paid into the FICA taxes for all the years you worked. The severity of your disability does not affect the amount of benefits you receive. Individuals with dependents (under 18) could receive an additional amount. You can estimate your monthly SSDI payment with the Social Security Administration calculator or find the amount in your Annual Statement.

Once awarded disability benefits, Social Security Administration will compensate you for up to one year prior to your Social Security Disability (SSD) application date. Therefore, the maximum amount of retroactive pay that you can receive would be one year’s worth of benefits prior to the application date. Social Security Administration payments of SSI Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will use your application date as your alleged onset date and pay from that date forward. This is why it is important to avoid delays when applying for benefits.

Social Security Administration encourages claimants to return to work so they can determine you are no longer disabled and stop your benefits!!!  Any Earnings of $750 or more a month is a trigger for Social Security Administration. Social Security Administration will consider any month with earnings of $750 or more as a month you tried to work. If you have more than 9 months (not necessarily consecutive) of earnings of $750 or greater in a 5 year (60 month period), Social Security may review your case to see if you are still disabled. This is called a “Trial Work Period.”

Social Security Administration also has a program called Ticket To Work that they represent as providing a safety net that allows you to work another three years.  During those three years, you can work and still receive benefits. At the end of the three years your benefits are stopped.

Working while on Supplemental Security Income

If you receive SSI and work, you must report every month’s earnings. Social Security Administration will not offset any earning less than $65 a month. Any earning over $65 a month will reduce your benefits.

Any work and all earnings can affect your disability benefits. If you have a job opportunity, please call and consult with the attorney about how the job will affect your benefits or case.

You can try to ask for an expedited hearing because of dire needs. In our experience this has not been very successful but we are happy to make the request.

Social Security Administration looks at the following information when considering a dire need:

The claimant must allege specific, immediate circumstances:

(1) lack of food (i.e., without and unable to obtain food),

(2) lack of medicine or medical care (e.g., the claimant expresses that he/she needs medicine/medical care but is without and unable to obtain it; the claimant does not have any health insurance, or indicates that access to necessary medical care is restricted because of lack of resources), and/or

(3) lack of shelter (e.g., shut-off of utilities such that home is uninhabitable, homelessness, expiration of shelter stay, or imminent eviction or foreclosure with no means to remedy the situation or obtain shelter).

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We will ask you to write a short letter about your dire need and we can submit to Social Security Administration.

You may receive SSD payments outside the United States as long as you are eligible for payment and you are in a country where we can send payments.  Social Security Administration has a helpful Payment Abroad Screening Tool to determine your ability to continue to receive benefits outside the United States.

You MUST live in the USA to receive SSI benefits. SSI benefits will be stopped if you are outside the USA for more than 30 consecutive days or a calendar month.

Sadly, many disability claimants have poor health and die before disability benefits are paid out. Depending on the type of benefits, retroactive benefits due to the deceased may be paid out to next of kin. If you have questions about disability and death, contact Taylor and Associates.

An adult disabled before age 22 may be eligible for child’s benefits if they meet the criteria for disability as an adult and have a parent that is deceased or starts receiving retirement or disability benefits. This is considered a “child’s” benefit because it is paid on a parent’s Social Security earnings record. It is often referred to as Disabled Adult Child’s benefits. An adult disabled before age 22 that does not have parents that fit this criteria is not eligible for Disabled Adult Child’s benefits but may still qualify for Supplemental Security Income benefits if they meet requirements for adult disability and the financial requirements.

There are a few special circumstances for Disabled Adult Child’s benefit recipients regarding marriage and working.

The United States Supreme Court reviewed the issue of marriage and Disabled Adult Child’s benefits and decided if a person receiving Disabled Adult Child’s benefits gets married, that individual is no longer eligible for those benefits. If the marriage ends (death or divorce), and the individual that was getting Disabled Adult Child’s benefits needs to re-apply for benefits, he may be eligible for benefits but not under the Disabled Adult Child’s benefits criteria. The important cases about this are Fiola v. Sullivan, 922 F.2d 526 (9th Cir. 1990) and McMahon v. Califano, 605 F.2d 49 (2d Cir. 1979), cert. denied 444 U.S. 847, 100 S. Ct. 93, 62 L.Ed.2d 60.

Also, if an individual receiving Disabled Adult Child’s benefits should find gainful work and benefits end, should that individual later have difficulty and need to reapply for Social Security Disability benefits, he will not be considered for Disabled Adult Child’s benefits because Social Security considers his ability to have sustained work negates a continuous period of disability from the age of 22. He may be able to reapply but not under Disabled Adult Child’s status.