Social Security and Disability

Social Security and Disability in the U.S.

Social Security is an involuntary national insurance policy. A certain amount of money is taken out of your pay check every week (your FICA taxes) to cover benefit payments and Medicare when you reach retirement age, or if you become disabled. Almost everyone knows about the retirement function, and it’s one of the better run government programs.

If you work long enough at a job which is covered by Social Security and you become disabled you are probably eligible for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits.

According to the Social Security Administration, a “Disability” can be physical or emotional, or some combination of both. In order to win benefits you must have a disability severe enough to keep you from working in any regular paying job for at least 12 consecutive months.

The test for eligibility is not whether you can go back to a job you’ve lost. Nor is it whether you’ve been able to find a job recently. The test is whether you are physically and emotionally capable of doing a job that is generally available in the every day workplace.

Furthermore, to obtain your Social Security Disability benefits you must have a doctor state that you are disabled “by medically acceptable clinical and laboratory findings.” Unfortunately many genuinely disabling conditions are difficult to diagnose by objective testing.

Supplemental Security Income

Supplemental Security Income (or SSI) is a monthly stipend provided to aged (legally deemed to be 65 or older), blind, or disabled persons based on need, paid by the United States Government. The program is administered by the Social Security Administration. Payments are made from the US Treasury general funds, not the Social Security trust funds. The payments are generally paid on the 1st of the month, for the current month (as opposed to social security benefits which are paid for the prior month). The program was created in 1974 to replace various state-administered programs which served the same purpose, as a way to standardize in the level of benefits through the addition of Title XVI (Title 16) of the Social Security Act.

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