Personal Injury Lawsuits
You’ve been injured and are unable to work. Depending upon how you became disabled, you may be pursuing a personal injury lawsuit against the person responsible, but one way or another your bills are mounting and you have no hope of returning to work or being able to earn income anytime soon – or maybe even ever again. What can you do?
If you think back to all of the years that you worked and all of the paychecks that you received, you will remember that every one of them noted that a small percentage of your earnings went to Social Security Disability Insurance. At the time, you may have wondered what that was for, or may even have bemoaned the fact that you had to pay into it – but now that you are seriously and permanently disabled, it may provide you with a significant source of income, especially if you’re waiting for a personal injury settlement.
Social Security Disability benefits are specifically designed to provide for those who are totally disabled and expected to be unable to work for at least twelve months. If that describes you, and you worked and paid into the Social Security system long enough, that may include you. To find out whether you qualify, you need to submit an application to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for benefits.
There are a number of ways to go about submitting your application for benefits, but like everything else these days, the internet provides the fastest and most straightforward method. The application is available on the SSA’s website, which will take you through the various steps and provide you with invaluable tools such as a worksheet for calculating the benefits you are eligible for and a checklist of what you will need to complete the application. That list will include contact information for your health care providers, information on your disability and the treatment you are receiving, your Social Security Number so that the administration can review your account. Upon receipt of your application, the SSSA will review several important pieces of information, including your physical condition based on the medical records you’ve submitted, how long you paid into the system, and whether you have other sources of income such as workers’ compensation or pension benefits. If you are approved, you will receive much-needed income, and if your application is denied you can submit an appeal within 60 days of that rejection that will allow your file to be reviewed and reconsidered. The majority of applications for Social Security Disability Income are initially rejected, but that does not mean that you have no recourse.
If you have suffered a personal injury that has left you totally disabled, Social Security Disability Insurance is one of many options available to you. Contact our office today to get help with your application, as well as to learn the other ways that we can help.
