Disability Determination for Social Security Disability Benefits
The following page discusses the disability determination process used by the social security administration, which includes the initial claim filing (the application), the first level of appeal (reconsideration) and the second level of appeal (the hearing that is held by a federal judge).
The page discusses the fact that the disability process is not easy, takes far too long to get through, and also the fact that the help and support of one's treating doctor can be very important from the standpoint of winning a claim.
Lastly, the page discusses the benefits of an RFC, a residual functional capacity form, which is used by both physicians and the social security administration to indicate the prognosis, employability, and benefit eligibility of an individual filing for disability.
The Social Security Disability Determination Process
Return to:
Social Security Disability Secrets
Additional Entries
Social Security disability benefits and working
Social security disability - what questions will they ask?
What should I take when I file for disability
What happens if I miss my social security disability appointment
Can I apply for disability at any social security office?
Social Security disability quality control
Social security disability doctor appointment - what if you don't go?
The page discusses the fact that the disability process is not easy, takes far too long to get through, and also the fact that the help and support of one's treating doctor can be very important from the standpoint of winning a claim.
Lastly, the page discusses the benefits of an RFC, a residual functional capacity form, which is used by both physicians and the social security administration to indicate the prognosis, employability, and benefit eligibility of an individual filing for disability.
The Social Security Disability Determination Process
Return to:
Additional Entries
Social Security disability benefits and working
Social security disability - what questions will they ask?
What should I take when I file for disability
What happens if I miss my social security disability appointment
Can I apply for disability at any social security office?
Social Security disability quality control
Social security disability doctor appointment - what if you don't go?
2 Comments:
At November 6, 2009 12:06 AM ,
Chris said...
I have just been approved for SSD benefits, and received my backpay and a schedule of how I will recieve my checks and how much they wil be. I applied on my own without using an attorney. It took almost 4 months to get the approval, and in that time we nearly lost everything. However, when approved, SS Adm allowed a date of disability as 7/23/07 - the date of my last failed surgery (there had been 6) on my left arm, and calculated the benefits based on my work history of nearly 35 years.
My question is based on the fact that during my 15 year tenure at a company that was owned by 3 brothers, and for which I was the CFO,there was also the unsual issue that one of the 3 brothers was also a physician,(I am a nurse as well) and I was hired to set up his new office and function as his nurse - in fact I was the only employee he ever had and I served as the entore office staff - for the same 15 years. For 9 of the 15 years I received 2 paychecks - one from the MD office and 1 from the retail entity - however, when my total gross pay totalled more than the SS deduction / company match limit for annual earnings, the doc said that it would just be easier for me to get 1 paycheck rather than 2, and - duh! I did not even think that there was more to this than just easier! - his move was very clearly calculated by the cutoff of withheld/matched taxes as I would note have 2 companiescontributing a paycheck and therefore 2 totalos to excede, and that with only 1 check I would meet the cutoff total early on as my pay went from 60 to 70 to eventually - when I left - it had grownto over $125K - so if I was paid with 1 check, even though I was still doing the same 2 jobs in the same office! - I was only required to meet 1annual total if I was paid by only 1 company. His idea to combine the 2 paychecks into one never struck me as odd, and the result of that action was that even though my ending salary when I left on 3/23/05 was $ 125K+ annually, the cutoff for SS was $65-$70K - something along those lines - so the difference that would have been SS taxed as an MD employee was lost because as far as the IRS and SSA were concerned, I received 1 W-2 and had 1 job - I never considered this to be the reason for the consolidation for the 2 paychecks into one - and I always listed on my tax return 2 job titles- but as the other 2 brothers (this was a family business run and owned by 3 brothers) and the other 2 had nothing to do with the medical practice, it only benefited the physician - even though it was all their and his money for the retail company, he was the sole owner of the meical practice - as he was paying me via one check and company, he was therefore taking advantage of the SS cutoff - as this went on for several years before I oleft due to another failed operation and serious depression - I lknow this has affected my benefit total, but have no idea if I should bring it up and if I do - can they stop my benefits until it goes through some lengthy legal process to figure out whathoew to address this - and can he get into trouble? I cannot afford to lose the beefits now that I finally recievd them, bnut I sus[ect the end result of this action is a significantly lower SSD check and I had no idea when agreeing to the 1 check that there was an agenda behind it - any suggestions as to what I might dfo and what could happen if I do it? Is it worth stirring the pot, so to speak- I do not want to cause him trouble, but at 58 I had another 10 years of work - I thought - at a 6 figure salary, andnow we are barely existing, and I am physically compromised - any suggestions/ideas? Thank you for your time - Karen Martinelli -
At November 9, 2009 8:00 AM ,
Dnews said...
Karen, I am sorry to say that none of what you mentioned below has anything to do with how the amount of your disability benefit is calculated. Social Security will base their computation on your earnings up to the point when you became unable to work. The fact that you received one, two, or three checks from employers does not affect the amount of your disability benefit. Social Security has an earnings cut off that counts toward your benefits computation but it does not matter how or when you reach the cutoff during the year. Social Security looks at gross earnings for the year not the amount of checks a person gets to reach their total gross earnings. I think that you are feeling that you may have had more taxes reporting if you had the two jobs but your benefit is based on total earnings not the taxes you paid. So if there was one check or two it does not matter. There is no reason to "stir the pot" in this case because it will not increase your disability benefit even if you went back through all of those years and assigned a portion to the doctor and a portion to the retail business. There is still one maximum for the year and you were taxed on your salary whether it came from two sources or one. I'm sorry but I have no suggestions that would increase you disability benefit amount.
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