I recently applied for SSI for my son - on my own.
He had previously been approved as disabled for Medicaid, but the workers sent the application through as Medicaid only - which was fine, it was what was need at the time.
Over the weekend, I got a denial letter from the social security office stating they did not evaluate his disability because he didn’t have any work credits. Duh - he’s been sick since he was 15 so I know he didn’t qualify for SSDI.
Is that just standard & I’ll receive another letter from somewhere else?
Or should I move on the 60-day appeal now?
Or have I just wasted my time by applying to the wrong place?
This was an online application that went directly to social security. In one place, it said you couldn’t apply for SSI online, then in another place it said you could.
I’ve got a college degree, I design sophisticated computer systems, and I like to think I can follow directions, but filing for disability is worse than doing your taxes. I can’t imagine someone with a mental disability every figuring it all out.
Because of the overall glut of applications, a knowledgeable Social Security attorney here in Ohio told me that it is best to apply in person. He said that often the online applications tend to fall through the cracks. He also said expect at least one denial letter.This attorney handled my son’s application, my own, and my sister’s, as well as about a half a dozen other people I referred to him. In each case the entire case was won and completed within 120 days. I highly recommend that route for efficiency and peace of mind. It appears that the courts put attorney supported cases ahead of the DIY ones (so unfair!)-- I can’t see anyone with a mental disability ever figuring this system out and (sadly) I think it is that way by design.
By coincidence, we just got a call from the social security office.
He’s approved - we just have to come in & do the representative payee portion.
I think it was me writing chronic, persistent and debilitating 987 times on every piece of paperwork I sent in.
I also think it was because he was previously approved by the state for Medicaid. The lady said the state offices make the determination based on need & condition.
Very good! My son’s application also went thru without any legal involvement. Good letters from doctors, and other supporting evidence made it go thru quickly.
I told him it would pay for things he wants/needs like his cigarettes and the invisaligns he wants but our insurance probably won’t cover. I promised I’d pay for them if the disability didn’t come through as long as he got all the dental work he needs, but this will make it much easier.
He asked if he could use the money if he wanted to take a class or something - so that was encouraging.
I’ve been worried he’d say something about buying alcohol if he wanted or finding drugs on the dark web. Right now, he seems to want cold-brew coffee more than alcohol anyway - I’m going to start making it at home so I can do a half-caff version.
It all went much better than I expected - I’m still expecting a future battle. .
Hi. I’d say don’t worry about it. My son got the same letter regarding SSDI when he was clearly just eligible for SSI. The SSI responses will come next.
Edit: never mind. Didn’t read the full thread. Looks like you’re all set.
I know that there is a way to get disability through you or your husband’s work history. I don’t know the requirements except that the illness had to be established and well documented before age 18.
Since my son’s jobs were mainly of a simple nature, he still gets ssi to bring his disability payments up to a certain amount. It could be that your son would or wouldn’t get more money if he somehow received disability on you or your husband’s work records.
Maybe someone will respond who has gone through this process and knows what else is required besides the illness being established before age 18?
I just turned 51 - in the past year, I decided that I’ll work until I’m 70 if I’m healthy enough.
(I had decided anyway, but my employer just announced they’re changing our traditional pension program in 5 years to 401K contributions. That sounds terrible, but it means they’ll contribute 22% of my salary for the 5 years after than, then 24%, as catchup contributions. That’s a lot of money - plus Social Security maxes out for me at 70. It’s an additional 8% per year that I delay, and it means that if I can hold it together long enough, we would be in good shape plus be able to put a substantial amount in a trust for our son. And, if I’m the last one living, I guess I’ll donate it all to something SZ related.)
My husband is a little younger than I am, but he worked construction, then quit for awhile, then had an accident that makes him pretty much disabled when it comes to that. However, his work credits had aged over 10 years by the time we thought about applying for him - so he’ll draw on my record once I start drawing.
If our son is still on disability when I retire, I’ll fight to get his benefits increased. After all, I’ll have plenty of time on my hands then.
Sometimes I think my husband is getting worse. He keeps talking about moving up his retirement nearly every day. Jeb needs to take meds so I can find him a group home that will keep him, our state is currently trying to get such things going. Both of them here every day all day week in and week out… not a pretty picture.
That’s why my husband can’t be at home all the time.
I’m lucky that we came into some money about 10 years ago & bought some property out in the country.
He stays out there most of the time in a camper -hopefully, we can refinance it all in a year or two and put a small house out there.
It’s where he wants to be anyway. We had hoped we’d all move out there, but I don’t think that’s going to happen now.
I need more time to get Jeb ready to be somewhere else, if that is possible. Did think about a camper type piece of land for us to escape to on weekends. He would rather we have weekends away in a different places from time to time.
We were going to buy it anyway, but when our son started to get sicker and it was obvious my husband aggravated the situation, we bought a 32 foot camper with 2 huge pull-outs from a foreclosure place here.
We still had to put some money into it over the past year and a half, but he takes water to it in those 250 gallon caged containers, takes the waste to a local campground to dump & runs the generator and batteries for power. He skirted it in & insulated it underneath so he doesn’t have much of a problem in the winter.
It was fun to start, but he’s getting tired of it so we’ll put something more permanent out there - hopefully next year.
He’s not roughing it by any means - he has air conditioning, a furnace, a nice sized refrigerator, queen-sized bed, a 50-inch LED TV. It’s probably better than some apartments. He just gets tired of all the work it takes to keep it going, but for the weekends, it wouldn’t be so bad.
He also has a couple tractors, ATV’s, all his hunting dogs, a bunch of chickens, neighbors he’s friends with - he’s always got something to do out there. It’s even close to his hunt club and several huge state parks where he can go fishing and stuff.
I recently thought what we need for housing in my state are trailer parks with trailers mentally ill people can rent where they aren’t required to take meds to live there.
