Stacy Thompson

Did You Know You Can Manage Your Social Security Benefits Online? With a free my Social Security account, you can take advantage of many convenient and secure services online, at www.ssa.gov/myaccount. Whether at home or on the go, you can use this account to complete most Social Security business online, without calling or requesting an appointment.

If you’re looking into applying for Social Security Disability, it can feel overwhelming and you may find yourself with a lot of questions. “What will the judge ask at my disability hearing?” is one that we hear often, and answered in a previous blog. There’s one more very common question we hear, and we’d like to take the time to answer that question for you today.

If your household has been scrambling to make ends meet after an illness or injury puts you, or a loved one out of work, having your SSDI application approved can feel like a real victory. While a Social Security Disability approval can help you bridge the gap between treatment for your disability and when you can return to work, there are some obligations that you will have to the Social Security Administration that you’ll need to keep in mind. Some problems can occur even after your disability application was approved, and taking just a couple of steps can help you to avoid them.

  Most applications for Social Security Disability benefits are not immediately approved, and applicants may wait for two years for a final decision. Even after approval, the backlog of cases in nearly every local Social Security Administration office means that some recipients don’t receive their first payments until months or even a year after approval. The upside to this unfortunate reality is that Social Security Disability benefits include back pay for most or all of that time spent waiting, in the form of a single lump sum. This sum can be substantial, depending on the amount of benefits approved. Individuals who have received ‘lump sum payments’ in other situations have been dismayed to learn that their payments were taxed at a higher rate than they expected, or threw off their ‘Annual Income’ for the year and raised their tax bracket. This may make the prospect of receiving a similar lump […]

When most people think of Social Security Disability, they generally picture people who fall into one of two categories: adults who are no longer able to work due to a sudden disabling injury or illness or people disabled at birth or in early childhood or young adulthood However, there is a third category of people who may be eligible for Social Security Disability — those who suffer from a progressive disability that only gradually removes their ability to work. Hearing loss is not always disabling, but in some cases previously-hearing people have lost the ability to maintain employment as their hearing loss worsens. People suffering from disabling hearing loss may qualify for Social Security Disability payments to help make ends meet.