SSD How Difficult Is It?

[progressive hunter]

I hear you loud and clear - and could not agree more.
My father retired at 55 years old after working, on his feet, in labor for General Motors for 30 years.
He had a "second life" after he retired. Young enough to do whatever he wanted. He spent tons of awesome time with his grandchildren, went fishing 10,000 times... worked jobs he wanted to do off and on.
Etc.
I am in the same boat friend.
I have worked non stop, save one 30 day period in 1984, since I was 12 years old. It began with a paper route - together with mowing 3 lawns, shoveling snow, detassling corn, putting up hay etc. etc.
Started paying into the SS system at age 16 in 1981.
So I have paid in for 42 years. I am 58.
I would really have liked to retire at 62, at that point paying in for 46 years. But now - you can't get on Medicare until you are 65. So yeah... health insurance being astronomical that it is (with almost no benefit since Obamacare passed)
I have 7 years to go. At age 65 will I be able to do what I want? Probably not. I have the conditions I mentioned that are incurable.

my life mirrors yours pretty close except I started when I was 5 helping my brother cut grass and shoveling snow,,

SSD should be extremely hard to get and meet rigorous standards,, I have seen to many freeloaders that are more than capable of working collect it,,

 

[iamwhatiseem]

my life mirrors yours pretty close except I started when I was 5 helping my brother cut grass and shoveling snow,,

SSD should be extremely hard to get and meet rigorous standards,, I have seen to many freeloaders that are more than capable of working collect it,,

Which is one of the reasons why the age was shifted, and why it is so difficult to get.
Not to mention non citizens who have only barely paid into it - getting life long payments.

America has an extremally bad habit of financing it's own poverty.
Literally financing it. Securing it. Guaranteeing it.
We give massive sums of money to people for being non productive. And give them even more for making bad decisions like having more children they already can't afford. Just keep those checks going out.
Meanwhile, productive people are getting more and more squeezed with each passing decade since the 60s.

 

[JohnDB]

Unless you can prove that you can no longer continue your occupation due to physical disabilities you won't get it.

Ummmm....no cartilage and bone on bone grinding.

I hear you loud and clear - and could not agree more.
My father retired at 55 years old after working, on his feet, in labor for General Motors for 30 years.
He had a "second life" after he retired. Young enough to do whatever he wanted. He spent tons of awesome time with his grandchildren, went fishing 10,000 times... worked jobs he wanted to do off and on.
Etc.
I am in the same boat friend.
I have worked non stop, save one 30 day period in 1984, since I was 12 years old. It began with a paper route - together with mowing 3 lawns, shoveling snow, detassling corn, putting up hay etc. etc.
Started paying into the SS system at age 16 in 1981.
So I have paid in for 42 years. I am 58.
I would really have liked to retire at 62, at that point paying in for 46 years. But now - you can't get on Medicare until you are 65. So yeah... health insurance being astronomical that it is (with almost no benefit since Obamacare passed)
I have 7 years to go. At age 65 will I be able to do what I want? Probably not. I have the conditions I mentioned that are incurable.

Just as an opinion that's never mattered before....
I think they ought to have it be an "automatic approval " if a person has 160 calendar quarters paid in. It's an obvious situation that they wouldn't be filling if they didn't need to at that point.

They will have then worked 40 years...what more do they want before handing out the benefits? It's not like we are not taking a reduced benefit.

 

[Moonglow]

Ummmm....no cartilage and bone on bone grinding.


Just as an opinion that's never mattered before....
I think they ought to have it be an "automatic approval " if a person has 160 calendar quarters paid in. It's an obvious situation that they wouldn't be filling if they didn't need to at that point.

They will have then worked 40 years...what more do they want before handing out the benefits? It's not like we are not taking a reduced benefit.

They do not have sympathy only pathology.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

They do not have sympathy only pathology.

You mean pathological?

 

[Moonglow]

You mean pathological?

Depends if you can get away with it.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

It depends on how old you are when your disability began as to your eligibility:

• Before age 24 - You may qualify if you have 6 credits earned in the 3-year period ending when your disability starts.
• Age 24 to 31 – In general, you may qualify if you have credit for working half the time between age 21 and the time your disability began. As an example, if you develop a disability at age 27, you would need 3 years of work (12 credits) out of the past 6 years (between ages 21 and 27).
• Age 31 or older - In general, you must have at least 20 credits in the 10-year period immediately before your disability began.

Benefits Planner | Social Security Credits and Benefit Eligibility | SSA

To be eligible for Social Security benefits you must earn Social Security Credits. You earn these credits by paying Social Security tax on your income. Read more to understand how credits work and how many you will need to qualify for benefits.

www.ssa.gov

As for the OP you don't need a lawyer. It is also an area where you can have a non-lawyer advocate help you if you want or you can do yourself. Generally, you apply and unless you clearly fall in one of the strict categories you get denied saying you could work in one of those non-existent jobs like laundry room attendant. You then apply for reconsideration. which you will also likely be denied (reconsideration is really about them reviewing the person who denied you moreso than you), You appeal that. They will send you to one of their doctors for an exam who will look at everything wrong with you whether it is related to your applied for disability or not. That hearing is your real meat and taters hearing and is the point at which most people who get it will get it. You basically have to explain your issues and how it keeps you from working. A lot of lawyers won't take a disability case until you have been denied out of reconsideration because they want to do as little work as possible for their their limited cut of your potential award. By that time you will have done all the work for them so you really don't need one unless you can't speak for yourself.

disability doesnt require that you worked at all.

 

[Moonglow]

I used neurosurgeons to make statements about my condition and the inherent dangers if I continued.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Ummmm....no cartilage and bone on bone grinding.


Just as an opinion that's never mattered before....
I think they ought to have it be an "automatic approval " if a person has 160 calendar quarters paid in. It's an obvious situation that they wouldn't be filling if they didn't need to at that point.

They will have then worked 40 years...what more do they want before handing out the benefits? It's not like we are not taking a reduced benefit.

It is a complex thing... life in America.
Politics is in everything now. The federal government, I believe, for the first half of the 20th century were generally interested in what is good for America and serving the public with at least a reasonable degree of care.
Today that is not even close to being true. The absolute last people they care about - at all - are middle class people. We get it from both ends. We are fucked every day.
The wealthy get everything they want, and the poor get everything they want and we finance both.
They only care about the taxes we pay, and how to get as much of our money we earn as possible in the form of taxation, insurance and fees.
The entire insurance industry, especially .

Look at this...... since Obamacare passed on 2010 - Insurance premiums have increased by 54%. While wages have increased 30%. Not to mention that deductibles have doubled in the same time period.

In 2005, the health insurance industry paid over 85% of the money they collected to healthcare providers.
In 2022 - They collected just over $800 million in premiums. And paid out about $630 million to providers. Which is only 78% back to providers. They are collecting higher premiums while paying less back out.
What a deal.

 

[Dekster]

disability doesnt require that you worked at all.

only if you are special needs or drawing off a parent, but the link I provided is straight to the social security administration so take it up with them.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I know of an elderly woman who arrived in the US via here daughter who was a naturslized citizen

And she went onto SSA within a year

my mother in law never worked a day in her life.....yet she was on it until the day she passed....

 

[leftwinger]

Reason being is that I have filled.
I've worked at least part time since I was 14. (Full time once out of school...even in college)
Always on my feet...always paid taxes and SS.
Now I'm 57 and the arthritis in my legs is to the point that I can't pull an 8 hr shift. (Much less the 6-10's or 12's that is almost standard)

They make some great knee replacements these days but that's not the only problem. They make ankles but they are still experimental and about half go bad and they amputate your foot when they fail. Shots help but again...not really a fix. There's times I could use a cane but I really don't want to use one until I begin falling.

So I have filled out the paperwork and sent doctor notes and diagnosis off so they can see that I'm telling the truth.
And I was curious about it all.
IOW it's a coin toss?

What a shame....I was hoping for better.

Unless you can't walk or talk or hear or see or missing limbs, I heard it was very difficult nowdays? The days of the phony bad back signed off by a corrupt DR. might be over?

 

[leftwinger]

I would hope they wouldnt just give it for that reason,, there are other jobs that dont requiring standing and moving all day,,

yep. they will probably say switch carreers to night watchman or truck driver or other.

 

[leftwinger]

I have been able to work circles around the kids as an electrician and as a chef/baker.

They look at me as if I'm an alien when I run on average of 250' of single conduit in a day with nothing more than a 12' ladder and a pipe bender (including boxes and junctions) and not a rack of pipe. And as a chef I regularly made 30 individual tarts an hour. (The kids do extremely good to make a dozen...)

Most electrician kids run 70' to 90' feet and think they have done something that day....and usually the kids have to do their work 2-3 times over again before the boss says it's acceptable. (I'm one and done)

But....
I'm getting slower as I age....used to do more. Tendinitis and arthritis and just general unwillingness to produce when it gets me nothing...except that I usually stay employed when the kids get layed off easier and faster than I do. (Every job ends)

But now it's to the point that it's ridiculous. I'm looking for retirement and they moved the age on me. Used to be that construction and other physically demanding trades retired at 55 and others at 62 or older. Now it's a mess and "one size shoe fits everyone" crap. The truth is not relevant and only being "more equal than others" is all that's relevant.

this is why I hate it when LW loons say "raise the SS Retirment age" like one size fits all.

 

[leftwinger]

Ummmm....no cartilage and bone on bone grinding.


Just as an opinion that's never mattered before....
I think they ought to have it be an "automatic approval " if a person has 160 calendar quarters paid in. It's an obvious situation that they wouldn't be filling if they didn't need to at that point.

They will have then worked 40 years...what more do they want before handing out the benefits? It's not like we are not taking a reduced benefit.

I think one problem is: SSDI payout is way more than age 62 regular SS payout for example. They want to work you up to your "early retirement age" and you take lower.

 

[progressive hunter]

yep. they will probably say switch carreers to night watchman or truck driver or other.

learn to code,,

 

[eagle1462010]

I have been able to work circles around the kids as an electrician and as a chef/baker.

They look at me as if I'm an alien when I run on average of 250' of single conduit in a day with nothing more than a 12' ladder and a pipe bender (including boxes and junctions) and not a rack of pipe. And as a chef I regularly made 30 individual tarts an hour. (The kids do extremely good to make a dozen...)

Most electrician kids run 70' to 90' feet and think they have done something that day....and usually the kids have to do their work 2-3 times over again before the boss says it's acceptable. (I'm one and done)

But....
I'm getting slower as I age....used to do more. Tendinitis and arthritis and just general unwillingness to produce when it gets me nothing...except that I usually stay employed when the kids get layed off easier and faster than I do. (Every job ends)

But now it's to the point that it's ridiculous. I'm looking for retirement and they moved the age on me. Used to be that construction and other physically demanding trades retired at 55 and others at 62 or older. Now it's a mess and "one size shoe fits everyone" crap. The truth is not relevant and only being "more equal than others" is all that's relevant.

You could try QC if you still have contacts in the field. Royal pain but can be an office job.

 

[JohnDB]

I think one problem is: SSDI payout is way more than age 62 regular SS payout for example. They want to work you up to your "early retirement age" and you take lower.

It's the same money as early retirement (I think) until such an age as they then grant you retirement and then you get a benefit increase.

 

[JohnDB]

As it is I personally don't think I'll end up homeless without the money but it is mine...I worked for it and paid for it. The wife and I could use it to do more normal things like travel and play.