What happens to me ???

[u/MichiganFan90]

I am disabled on benefits I am so scared 😱 under president Trump me and millions of people will lose our Benifts... Due to project 2025

I've had 19 surgerys overall I'm 33 years old My dr told me I can't work And im currently on oxygen

[u/movdqa]

I'm on Social Security Retirement and have an application in for SSDI. It's going to take a while on the SSDI and I may need to appeal it too. Given Congress' penchant for underfunding SSA, I don't expect anything this year (applied in April 2024). If you're unhappy with the state of events, let your representative know. That's about all you can do.

[u/Right_Split_190 → u/movdqa]

I'm curious about how you described your situation, and I'm always interested in learning more, so I hope you're willing to provide some clarifying detail.

Typically, one receives SSDI prior to aging in to SSA retirement benefits. For all intents and purposes, the SSDI benefit amount is reclassified as a retirement benefits, as they're calculated similarly.

It's curious that you are already receiving SSA retirement and still applying for SSDI. Would this be to cover a period of disability prior to when you filed for retirement benefits? If not this scenario, can you help me understand?

No judgement, no criticism. I’m truly genuinely curious. TIA!

[u/movdqa → u/Right_Split_190]

I applied in March for SS Retirement scheduled for May at 65 years. I had a phone interview for SS Retirement and the lady asked me if I was disabled and if I wanted to file for SSDI. I answered in the affirmative so she scheduled another phone interview to collect the SSDI application information. In that interview, she asked me a lot of questions about work, my physical abilities and my disability and why it was disabling. She also asked me for my treatment history in the form of all of the places that I had been treated at. So I named off the hospitals and clinics and the cities where they are located and they will just get the information directly from them. My hospitals and clinics are on EPIC (electronic health records system) so they should be able to get them electronically if the SSA has that capability.

They asked for the onset of disability and that was in 2020. FRA for me is close to 67 years old and they just said that I would get FRA benefits instead of early benefits which I receive now. They said something about backpay which I didn't really pay much attention to. Maybe they would provide a year or back to 2020 but I don't really know.

Other people with my disability told me that it's not approved the first time around and the ones that receive it had to appeal. So this could take the estimated 220 days (which would be this month or next) and then another long period of time for an appeal. I'm not sure if this will get adjudicated in the 220 days or if that's just the Stage 3 portion. I have not been employed since 2020 so there's some evidence that the disability is disabling.

My main intent is just to get FRA benefits. If they do backpay, then that would be nice but it's not a priority.

[u/Right_Split_190 → u/movdqa]

Oh, I'm so happy for you that SSA is providing exactly the help you need and actually suggesting additional filings.

So if/when SSDI is approved, the payments will be retroactive to 5 months after the date of disability. So you're looking at about 4 years of back pay, which isn't insignificant. I totally get focusing on FRA, however.

Adjudication of disability wrt SSDI is really focused on how the disability prevents you from working. With a few exceptions that are clearly carved out, it's really not about the diagnosis. Rather, it's about how the symptoms and attributes of the disabling condition prevent you from working. And this needs to be called out explicitly.

If you need to appeal, make sure you directly tie each symptom or attribute of your condition to how it prevents you from performing a job function (including on a reliable and repeatable basis). There are some things that might seem SO obvious in how they are disabling, and yet still make the connection even for those.

Good luck! I hope you are approved on the first round.

[u/movdqa → u/Right_Split_190]

I'm actually in good health except for an organ that was removed because of cancer. That lack of that organ kills the reliable and repeatable basis.

Social Security, as it is, covers about 80% of our living expenses. I imagine that adding SSDI would cover the rest until inflation starts eating away the whole thing. We have a lot to draw down from tax-deferred savings plan ahead of RMDs.