Disability/How does it work?

Both pdoc and T think that I would be a good candidate for disability because my bipolar has caused severe impairment in my life. Neither is pushing, they are letting me decide on my own, but it is very clear that they think I should consider it...and I wasn't, until today when I was at T and we were talking.

I wouldn't go on full disability, I'd go on partial so I could still work part time, because working is very important to me, and it's something I like doing. I've been that way since I was like 16. I'm still not sure I want to do it, but in so many ways it makes so much sense.

I'm turning 26 this year, which means that I need to get my own health insurance by January because I'll be kicked off my mom's then...and to get that from a job I would have to be working full time which isn't something I could do right now and haven't been able to do well in the past. Right now, I'm struggling even with PT work. So disability would get me some money, help get me a place to live, get me on medicare, and allow me to work PT without all the stress of FT work.

My question is: How does it all work?

Following

Let's see.....first, you can't really get partial disability. However you can work up to a certain amount (I think a percentage of your income) through programs that social security has in place. Going in to an application though you need to not be able to work at all.

You apply through social security, online or at the social security office. You get SSDI or SSI depending on how many quarters you've worked. THey'll help with that.

Many people use an attorney (who speciailizes in disability) to help get through the application process. The attorney isn't paid until you are approved and get some percentage of your back-pay. Personally I chose to initially myself and use an attorney if I needed to appeal and I never needed the attorney. However my career was spent doing evaluations of what people could and couldn't do for Medicare so I was used to doing it and used to government forms for this topic. When you are applying you need to emphasize what you can't do or how you struggle to do what you can do (ie I can do things but only with great difficulty that I meet by doing ____).

You will fill out a form listing anyone who has treated you and giving SS permission to request their records. List everyone you can think of; nobody was ever hurt by too many records I think. They will also send at least some providers (my therapist) a form to fill out very similar to what you do about your abilities.

I was approved in 11 weeks which is about as fast as I've heard of. Sometimes it goes that easily. In most cases people are denied the first time around and have to appeal. I'll let someone else discuss that part. Different states take different amounts of times for approvals.

It can be a long process and quite frustrating but if you can't work anymore it helps so much to have it. Once you get approved you get a "date of disability" and 2 1/2 years from that date you'll get Medicare. In a lot of states there are Medicaid options while you are applying. The hard thing with applying is lack of income for a potentially long time.

Feel free to ask questions; I'm sure I've forgotten something or don't know something since mine went through so quickly.

My T said I could get partial disability, so what's up with that? She also said it would immediately qualify me for medicare and section 8...I'm so confused! Maybe it's different in different states?

BeyondtheRainbow explained the process very well. Not sure what your T meant.

Those are not things that vary by state. Maybe your therapist has somehow confused short term disability through work with SSDI and ended up with a confused description?

The only things that vary by state are how long processing takes and maybe small details I'm forgetting but it is a federal program so it is consistent otherwise.

Strange. She has lots of clients on disability, so I'm assuming she knows what she's talking about.

Also I don't think that you are likely to qualify for section 8 if you are getting SSDI (which is where you'd get Medicare; with SSI you get Medicaid). THey send out an annual notice of how much SSDI you've qualified for/if you have qualified for it to everyone who is working so you may have that somewhere; otherwise your SS office can tell you if you are eligible for SSDI or SSI. The difference is in amount of income and whether you get Medicare. SSDI you have paid into while working and have to have paid in long enough and in a specific time frame and it is an earned thing, basically just getting retirement earlier than you wanted.

You should already qualify for section 8 and medicaid. They're income based not based on disability.

I guess I'll talk to T more about it, but she was definitely adamant about the section 8 and medicare, not medicaid.

https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10029.pdf

Today is the kind of day where I think disability might be a necessity for me If calling in sick to work wouldn't get me fired, I would be doing it tonight...but I'm pretty certain it would so...I'm gonna do my best to grin and bear it.

Applying for SSDI became a necessity for me in my mid 40's. Being certain I could support myself was really fading fast. I'd love to work for an income but that has become a pipe dream in my 50's. Professionals (p docs, T) don't know the half of what it takes to get any type of benefits or assistance. It can be a full time job in itself.

One of the things that I am most thankful for in the world is that after I applied for SSDI my pdoc admitted that she had been documenting for many years that my ability to work was more and more compromised and how hard I fought to work. My therapist had done the same and I'd seen both of them for years at the time. Essentially I had 10 years of "this is what she is doing to be able to work and how she is failing". That combined with several hospitalizations, one long for a suicide plan, made approval easier than I think it would have been.

I m on disability, medicare, medicaid, and section 8. Medicaid n section 8 ARE based on income.

I've been on SSDI for 8 years or so... BTR has it right. I managed to be approved the first time through, somehow, but it took over a year. I knew a vet with PTSD who said it only took six weeks for him, but he went around to every doc who had ever treated him for anything and got his medical records and plopped them on the worker's desk when he went to apply. That's probably good advice.

While I waited for SSDI I was on Medicaid (TennCare here in Tennessee). I stayed on that until Medicare came through a couple of years later. And SSDI doesn't do certain percentages of disability, either you are or are not. It's basically going on Social Security early. Hate to say it, but at age 25 I have to wonder how much of a benefit you'll qualify for. Also, you can work while on SSDI up to a certain point. I haven't checked for awhile, but it used to be around $800 per month without messing up your benefit. And if you go back to work full time they don't bump you off right away, you'll get something like 9 months to see if it's going to work out.

So good luck to you... Navigating the system can be really confusing, but if you're not able to hack it in the workaday world it can be the difference between sleeping in a bed or sleeping on the street.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm going to talk to my T about it some more because I don't see how I can work full time, as much as I want to. I know that she has thought for years that I may need to go on disability -- she told me that a few years back she told that to my mom, and she has at least 2 files on me. Pdoc has one very long file on me, and she'll help out in any/every way she can.

Welp, I just put in my application for disability. Guess we'll just wait and see what happens.

I hope you get it

Good luck

Thanks guys! I'll keep you updated.

Denied. Kinda relieved, kinda upset. Didn't want it, but do kinda need it...

are you fighting it?

Haven't decided, but probably not. More of me is happy about being denied than the part of me that's upset.

Appeal, Appeal, Appeal.