Social Security

• Social Security Disability
• Tulsa, Oklahoma Disability Insurance Benefits Attorney
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• Children’s & Childhood SSI Disability Benefits
• Disability Cessation Cases
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• THE 5-STEP DISABILITY EVALUATION PROCESS
• Medical-Vocational Guidelines
• Your Residual Functional Capacity (RFC)
• Meeting or Equaling a ‘Listing’
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• Glossary / Acronyms
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Tulsa, Oklahoma Disability Insurance Benefits Attorney

DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS (‘DIB’)

DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS (‘DIB’) vs. SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME (‘SSI’)

There are generally two types of benefit programs for adult applicants for social security disability. The first program is DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS, or ‘DIB’. The key term here is ‘INSURANCE’. DIBs are usually preferable to SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME, or ‘SSI’ since the monthly dollar benefit level will usually be higher for DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS compared to SSI, and DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS can be paid for up to one-year before the date you filed your application for benefits, whereas SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME can only become effective and be paid from the date of your application. Income and resource requirements do not apply to DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS as they do for SSI benefits. In some specified circumstances you may be able to draw both DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS & SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME at the same time.

ELIGIBILITY FOR DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS (‘DIB’)

You are or become eligible for DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS by being ‘insured’. You become insured by performing a certain quantity of work during a specified period of time, and during this time paying in social security taxes, i.e. FICA taxes deducted from your payroll if you are an employee &/or self-employment taxes for contractors, business owners and other ‘self-employed’ persons. Many refer to this as ‘working on the books’. Likewise, if one works for cash or otherwise does not report his or her income to the IRS, i.e. ‘working off the books’, he or she will not be insured and will not qualify for DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS, but may qualify for SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME–similar to those persons who have never worked or who have worked too little to be eligible for DIB.

Although the rules prescribing who is or is not insured can vary from case to case, generally one has to have worked and paid in to social security for twenty quarters out of the last forty (or have worked in aggragate five of the last ten years). Of course how much you pay in, consistency in your paying in each quarter, and how long you have paid in will determine your monthly benefit level.

Like any type of insurance, once you quit paying for this insurance, or for DIB purposes you cease paying in social security taxes, you at some point lose your insurance. As far as your elibility for DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFITS, you will only qualify for these benefits if you can establish that you had a severe physical &/or mental medical condition which caused you to be disabled according to social security before your DIB insurance ran out or expired. This latter date is referred to by Social Security as your DATE LAST INSURED, or ‘DLI’, and will usually by no more that a few years after you have discontinued working, for whatever reason. Note however, if you are found disabled after your date last insured, or DLI, you may be entitled to SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME benefits.

In addition to DISABILITY INSURANCE BENEFIT (‘DIB’) & SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME (‘SSI’) cases THE ASH LAW FIRM attorney handles SOCIAL SECURITY claims of all types, and serves the entire state of Oklahoma including the following areas: Adair, Arkoma, Bartlesville, Beggs, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Catoosa, Claremore, Coweta, Cushing, Drumright, Eufaula, Glenpool, Henryetta, Jay, Jenks, Ketchum, Langley, Locust Grove, McAlester, Miami, Morris, Mounds, Muskogee, Nowata, Okmulgee, Owasso, Pawnee, Poteau, Pryor, Sallisaw, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, Shawnee, Skiatook, Sperry, Stillwater, Tahlequah, Tulsa, Vinita & Wagoner.