Social Security Disability (not SSI) do you need a lawyer?

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I need to get on Social Security Disability as the adult child of a worker. I'm already on SSI but am only getting $146 a month and am going to lose my home if I don't get more, and on this program my family members are restricted from helping me financially and I can't inherit.

I applied, was turned down (which I was told to expect) and am awaiting a hearing. I was told I would need a lawyer to have a chance of success.

Now my mom (in her eighties) insists that if you get a lawyer the board at the hearing won't like it. She heard this from her (very eccentric) psychologist.

My situation: as a kid I was constantly referred to therapists, but records from that no longer exist. I was not officially diagnosed until about age 48. I did graduate college and work 2 years but have not had any work since and have had to be supported by my parents.

My situation gets worse by the day and I really feel I need legal advice from a lawyer and not from my mom's friends. Besides the Social Security Disability thing I'd also like to ask about getting my house put in my name alone, rather than mine and my mom's. (She has her own house, I'm the only one that lives in mine and it was always intended to go in my name.) I think I might be eligible for more aid programs--- home heating and the like--- if I didn't have my mom's name on the house.

But my mom, who had been urging me to go to a lawyer quick because of 'legal advice' from one of her friends, now doesn't want me to go at all. (I know, I'm letting my mom have complete control of me and I'm over 50, but she's the one who controls the money so I have no choices.)

Anyway, I would love to hear from others who have had experience getting Social Security Disability as an adult child. (Not so sure I'm wanting to hear from the folks who think I'm terrible for resorting to government handouts. I already know that.)

The woman that rents an apartment from my brother is on disability she told me she tried two times without a lawyer and failed each time. But she got a lawyer who specializes in disability cases. They advertise all the time in NY on tv. The lawyer got her on disability in I think 6 months. From the day you seign up they will owe you the money for months you were waiting to be put on disability. The lawyer takes its payment from this money. If the lawyer does not get you on disability they don't get paid so they really push for you.

I sure hope Social Security isn't your sole source of income.

Get a loan, get a job, and pay your debts. People don't pay taxes just so others can leech off the government.

I knew someone who found a good disability lawyer and the lawyer told him which doctor to go to. The court likes to have something in writing from a doctor.

A lawyer is what you need.

Get a LOAN? How does going into debt help?

And, if you had read my post you might have noticed that I have a disability which has so far not proved compatible with my holding down a job. I do apply for jobs even when I'm sure I won't be very able to do the work (as in at a busy retail store which I can't stand even shopping in), but I NEVER GET HIRED. People can tell I'm 'different'.

I don't like having to leech off the government. But it's a matter of SURVIVAL. If I just waited for the job fairy to give me a job (after decades of not being able to even get hired since I am so obviously 'different'), I would become homeless, not have food, and not have diabetes medication, and die.

Quite frankly, I'm not willing to die when there is an alternative. And there are lots of tax-paying Americans who don't want disabled people dead.

It's for the courts to decide, not this individual. How can someone who has never seen you or met you possibly know how disabled you are? The post seems to hail from ignorance of your situation.

Don't give up hope. Just find a good disability lawyer asap. Don't put it off or it may mean more waiting.

You also stated that you graduated college and worked for two years.

SSD provides monthly benefits to people who have worked long enough to have earned Social Security benefits, and to adult children who are disabled and unable to work long enough to contribute to Social Security to qualify for benefits. To qualify as an adult child, the adult child must have become disabled before they turned 22.

You were able to graduate college and work two years, so it may be difficult to prove you became disabled before the age of 22.

If you became disabled after age 22, from my simplified interpretation you need to have worked for around 8 years

So by my non-lawyer interpretation, it doesn't look good.

But there are million loopholes and that's why you need a real lawyer.

Uhm... I think you're making a lot of assumptions here. "Get a job" is not easy for an autistic person. Most of the jobs I've gotten have been because people were desperate to hire anybody (in one case, I was the replacement for a stoner who regularly fell asleep on the job) or who felt sorry for me (like the boss who had autistic sons himself and hired me because he knew I would be good at seeing details and thus a good janitor). During the recent recession, nobody would hire me at all because nobody was desperate enough. "Leeching off the government" is not something anybody wants to do, but it's a really good alternative to starving or freezing on the street. Even having a college degree is no guarantee that you can work, because work and school often take different skill sets.

Sure, if you can, get a job. Even a minimum-wage job pays way more than the government ever will. Disability payments are, most of the time, way below the poverty line. But if you can't get a job and you're disabled, you have to do something to keep yourself fed, and this is one of those options.

SSI requires you to have worked I think, but Social Security doesn't. I have heard a lawyer is necessary if you are getting denied. However, SSR does also have job placement programs. If your desire is for a job, I would suggest you not give up. Especially as the debt is going to cut more and more benefits.

SSDI requires you to have worked. You may have been denied because you didn't work long enough, in which case SSI would be your fall-back option.

But like everybody says, if you can get a job and keep it, get one. It's a lot better than SSI in every way.

Oh, one more thing--Check your library. There are disability-law guides for non-lawyers available. I know my library has them.

No, you can also get SSDI as an adult child of a worker if you became disabled before age 22. Since I am diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, which is something I've had all my life (and even the SSI agreed I was disabled from birth) I ought to be eligible but it will take time.

What I was hoping for was more people who have had actual experience going through this. I mean, I can read the official guidelines and such, but it helps to know from real people's experiences.

And yes, I do know it would be better if I were the kind of person who could hold down a job. Just like it would be better for me if I were non-diabetic, non-arthritic, phobia-free, ADHD-free, non-gay, non-female, and thirty years younger (age makes a HUGE difference in employment opportunities).

I have tried to talk to my therapist about getting a job and he reacts like I was a person with no legs proposing to become a ballerina. I know a lot of folks think I ought to obsess over my jobless status more, but I'm not sure getting depressed by doing that is really helping things out.

I think that if you were putting in as much effort as you are to getting SSDI (thank you Callista) into getting a job, you might get one. Like posting to say, "please help me get a job." I don't mean that to be rude, just as something that makes sense to me. I think that there is somewhere that would work around your disability.

I am not trying to depress you or say you are terrible. I would just hope that you didn't lose hope. I would be worried that the benefits would be cut. And, although I don't have experience with social security, I have heard that you can have the benefits as well as a job. With a college degree, that might be something you could ask about. It would seem so worth it since you could probably earn a lot more.

An attorney can help a lot, but they may take about 25 to 30 percent of the lump sum payment at the end.

Right now I'm applying for both, although it's really hard to find evidence for them in my childhood. All of my counseling records from 6-8 are apparently not even retrievable. I'm going to discuss at least the possibility of school records with my lawyer next month.

I hope - whatever happens - that you get what you need. $146/month is horribly low for a monthly payment to live on. I'm barely making it with $197, and that's apparently going to vanish entirely in November.

Trying to retrieve medical records from childhoo didn't pan out for me. Nobody saved any from my surgeries. If it wasn't for scars, I'd have nothing and scars don't really prove anything. I tried to retrieve records from the Children's hospital I was admitted to only to be told they were thrown out.

This is why it's a good idea to always make copies and keep your child's medical records. My mom has one insurance form from back then the doctor scribbled on some but it shows nothing definitive.

i live in michigan as well, and after going through the ssi route for my son, i can tell you that the social security department here is horrendous. we have had endless problems getting him approved, and then even after his approval, we have had to contact them three separate times over 5 months because they continually fail to enter him into the system for payment. i am holding my breath for monday to see if they finally got it right this time. i dont have any experience going through ssdi tho, but may soon. we filed for ssdi for my SO four months ago. they are sending him to be independently evaluated, which i think is going to be interesting, because he is suppose to go alone, and he doesnt talk to people without me.

i am curious as to why you only receive $146 from ssi? the standard payment is $674 and you should be receiving that if you have no other source of income. you also should be eligible for food assistance, home heating credit, home weatherization, and homestead tax credit.

if you have already been denied, there are four levels of appeals you can go through. i believe your first step would be to file an appeal and request a reconsideration. thats where someone who was not involved in the original decision reviews your file. if they still deny you at the reconsideration, thats when you appeal and request a hearing. after that comes review by the appeal council, then finally federal court. the reconsideration doesnt really involve you, so you can probably get through that without a lawyer, but if you go to a hearing then thats when you should probably have one.

its really really common to be denied the first time you file. thats why you see so many commercials on tv for social security disability lawyers.

i hope people realize the OP is in michigan, which has very high unemployment rates. the state went through what was called a "one state recession" from 2002 to 2007, and then kept declining during the national recession from 2007 to 2009. for four years, from 2006 to 2009, we had the highest unemployment rate in the country, then dropped to number two in 2010, and this month we are at number 6. woohoo. our state is practically hemorrhaging people due to the economic conditions, we are the only state in the nation whose population went DOWN between 2000 and 2010. some places are worse than others here too, the county i live in lost over 10% of its population during this time, and the annual per capita income here is barely over 13k. you would think that having lost so many people, there would be a lot of jobs available, but that simply isnt the case. entire industries, like home building, have come to a complete halt.

its not just a simple matter of trying to find a job, regardless of whether you are disabled or not.

I find that extremely frustrating. Because navigating the social system, in my experience, is degrading. They don't treat you well, you don't have access to the best doctors, you have to work to get your benefits. And you are treated like a second class citizen. At least it was in my case when I was transitioning out of foster care. They told me I was too disabled for them to place me in a job even though I was smart, passed all their tests, and learned to type. My boyfriend at the time, (now my husband) said forget them, we can do it and I didn't have much hope at all because I believed them, but we did it. He joined the military, we went through college, I was able to find work on my own (even though I did have trouble and was fired a couple of times) but we own our own house, have our own insurance and can make our own decisions about our care.

And here you have a smart woman with a college education and she has no hope. She's depressed hopeless, and it is shameful. She has skills! It makes me so mad that people with AS have a fifty percent unemployment rate. And the social system only makes you feel like your problems are your fault. That is just a huge loss of intelligent people for our economy who could be capable and thriving with just a little help in finding a right fit.