Social Security payments

[Guest guest]

Hi Alan

When you get Social Security payments for disability, it's called SSDI. There's

a whole section at http://ssa.gov/ on all of this, under " Disability and SSI " .

The main thing is, your condition has to be such that you can't work (or not

much, I'm not sure of the fine print). The determination for how much you get

per month is based ONLY on your past income, and part of that formula is based

on the last few years.

The date you first actually sign an application is very important. You can

supply medical records afterwards and still " protect " that filing date. So IF

you're not working because of mito, don't delay filing.

IF you're approved, whether initially or upon appeal, you will also get BACK

payments based on another formula, depending on your filing date AND when you

first became disabled (I THINK the formula is " not further back than two years

from filing " and " six month waiting period from date of disability " ). If it

takes a long time to get approved (as it did for me), then that lump-sum can be

substantial. So you should try to prove (with a letter from your doctor) that

you were disabled as early as possible i.e. way before your actual filing. But

it won't help to date that further back than when you stopped working, because

the presumption is that you weren't disabled if you weren't working.

An aside: notice how this screws people who for a long time didn't realize they

were gradually getting sicker (and undiagnosed), and so they gradually throttled

down income, i.e. how much they were working, or what kind of work they were

doing. The screws: (1) The earliest date for finally getting back payments is

when they FINALLY stopped working altogether, (2) By now, the last few years of

income are not nearly what they were earning at their peak, (3) As if to add

insult to injury, the kind of work they were LAST doing becomes the test for

whether they can now work.

The military bit, and the reasons why they are " retiring " you, complicates the

above, I'm sure.

There's another kind of payment you can get IF you're approved for SSDI. This is

called SSI, and is based on NEED as determined by your family monthly income and

assets (not counting house and car). The need test for assets is $2000 or less

(I THINK) in all your bank accounts, etc., i.e. SSI is a safety net with DAMNED

big holes in it. IMHO that amount of assets, with no health insurance and no

income, is about two steps away from homelessness.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Steve D.

P.S. One more aside: there's a formula (I THINK it's one or two years from the

filing date) that determines when you're first " eligible " for Medicare. If

there's been a huge delay before you finally get approved, SSA assumes that you

WANTED Medicare starting on that NOW PAST eligibility date, so they take out of

your back lump-sum for it. This is ridiculous, because you are paying for

nothing, i.e. you pay the PREMIUMS but you can't go back in time and get them to

pay for long-past medical BILLS (whether you have paid them or even if they are

still owed).

Re: Hi everyone

Hi, I'm new to whole Mito thing. Is it your experience that Mito. people are

able to collect Social Security? I'm being retired from the military and I'm

worried I'll lose everything. Thanks, Alan