The Importance of Properly Filing your Taxes

Meeting both the medical and financial eligibility to receive disability benefits can be a daunting task. Your responsibilities not only include going to the doctor to fully document your impairments, but can also require that you accurately file your taxes.
A person can only be eligible for Title II disability, or SSDI, if they have worked for a certain length of time at above a certain level of income. [1] The income level changes every year, but the time requirement has remained the same over time.

In order to prove that you are insured and can receive SSDI benefits, you must have paid into Social Security and filed your taxes for any other jobs that you might have completed. Sometimes the Social Security Administration makes an honest mistake and cannot find your tax records that prove that you should be able to receive benefits. If possible, it may be beneficial to keep our tax records accessible so that you can show the Social Security Administration that you indeed made enough money to receive benefits. However, most of the time your employer reports your earnings and your Social Security payments are taken out of your paycheck automatically.

Being self-employed may create some complications to reporting your income. In order to possibly receive benefits, the Social Security Administration requires that if you made $400 or more in net earnings, you reported those earnings in your taxes. [2] Net earnings is the amount of money that you earned above the amount of losses you reported on your taxes. For example, if you earned $10,000 in profits from your business, but you lost $12,000 due to expenses or damages to products, then your net earnings would be $0 and you wouldn’t be paying into Social Security.

It’s imperative that in order to receive benefits from the Social Security Administration, that you not only filed your taxes but that your self-employment rose to the level where you had net earnings. In the year 2023, to get at least 1 credit, you would need to report net earnings of $1,640, with additional credits being earned, up to 4, for net earnings above $6,560. [3] While we at Premier Disability Services, LLC do not create eligibility for disability benefits, we can help you understand how to become eligible for benefits as well as discuss with you why the Social Security Administration has deemed you ineligible for benefits. So give us a call today so that we can discuss these complicated issues as your representative with you.

By: Devon Brady, of Premier Disability Services, LLC

1 See https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/qualify.html
2 See SSA’s handout labeled EN-05-10022
3 See https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/qualify.html

Lupus and Social Security Disability Benefits

Lupus is a chronic disease that can cause inflammation and pain in any part of your body. It is considered an autoimmune disease, which means that your immune system — the body system that usually fights infections — attacks healthy tissue instead. Lupus most commonly affects your skin, joints, and internal organs. Because it can affect many parts of the body, it can cause a variety of different symptoms, such as: fatigue, headaches, joint pain, fever, edema, hair loss, and abnormal blood clotting.

Nobody knows what causes lupus, but it and other autoimmune diseases do tend to run in families. Experts also think it may develop in response to certain hormones or environmental triggers. An environmental trigger is something outside the body that can bring on symptoms of lupus — or make them worse. Lupus is not contagious.

There are two ways you can qualify for Social Security Disability benefits for lupus. You can either (1) meet the requirements of a listing set out in Social Security’s list of qualifying impairments, or (2) show that you are unable to work due to your limitations.

Lupus is one of the diseases specifically notated in Social Security’s listing of impairments. To qualify as disabled under this listing, you must meet the following requirements:

• Your lupus must affect at least two body systems or organs, (such as the kidneys and the lungs, or the heart and the brain), with at least one involved to a moderate level of severity; and
• Your lupus must cause at least two of the following symptoms: severe fatigue, fever, malaise (feelings of physical discomfort or illness resulting in low physical or mental activity), and/or involuntary weight loss.

OR

• You must have repeated symptoms of lupus, with at least two of the symptoms above, resulting in one of the following limitations at the marked level: 
  • Limitations of activities of daily living
  • Limitation in maintaining social functioning
  • Limitation in completing tasks in a timely manner due to lack of focus or ability to work quickly.

You can also qualify for Social Security Disability for lupus if you can prove that you are unable to work due to the health problems caused by lupus. For example, an individual with lupus might have the following physical symptoms: fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, headaches, and abnormal heart rhythms. These limitations can make it difficult to stand or walk for a lengthy period of time, which rules out many jobs. Furthermore, those with lupus may suffer personality changes, including anxiety and depression, and may have difficulty concentrating or have increased forgetfulness. Social Security will take these limitations into account when deciding if the applicant can do even simple, routine tasks that don’t require skill. 

Contact our office today if you or anyone you know would like to learn more about qualifying for Social Security Disability benefits.

Learn more about lupus: https://www.lupus.org/resources/what-is-lupus 

Adult Listing for lupus: https://www.ssa.gov/disability/professionals/bluebook/14.00-Immune-Adult.htm#14_02 

By: Devon Brady of Premier Disability Services, LLC®

Removing Retirement Penalty through Disability

So you filed for disability benefits but the path to receiving benefits has led you to your 62nd birthday. Upon turning 62, you decided it would be best to file for early retirement. Now, you have to decide if continuing your disability case is worth it, even though you are receiving monthly payments already. After all, going in front of a judge can be intimidating! We’re here to tell you not to drop your disability case. In the end, your penalty for taking early retirement could be dropped and you could get possibly even get back-pay to when you became disabled!

Social Security’s website states that the penalties for taking early retirement can be up to 30% if taken right when you turn 62.^[1] However, the award for disability benefits and early retirement benefits are calculated the same way.^[2] The actual method for calculating your benefits involves several steps involving heavily complicated information, which we won’t get into here.^[3] If you’re curious, Social Security has a number of different benefit calculators available on their website.^[4]

The important thing to note, is that your early retirement benefit is essentially your potential disability benefit, but with a 30% reduction penalty. What does that mean? If you are found disabled prior to your 62nd birthday, you will receive your full retirement benefit amount! No reduction penalty! Not only that, but you could also be entitled to backpay even before you turned 62!

To find out more about how to file for disability and if you could possibly remove the penalty on your benefits, contact us at Premier Disability today!

By: Adam Sundling of Premier Disability Services, LLC®

^[1] See https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/early_late.html

^[2] See 20 CFR 404.210

^[3] 20 CFR 404.212 discusses how to compute the benefit if you become disabled or retire after 1984.

^[4] https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/calculators/