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Posts Tagged ‘Social Security disability’

You will qualify for Social Security disability benefits if you become severely disabled. How much you receive depends on your salary and the number of years you have been covered by Social Security. Following are the ground rules for receiving Social Security disability payments:

• You must be disabled for at least five months and expect to be out of commission for at least a year, total. Expect the Social Security Administration to take at least three months to process your claim, so file as soon as you think you will be eligible.
• The amount you receive from Social Security will be reduced by other payments you get from other government disability programs. For example, any money you receive from military, civil service or government pensions, or from workers’ compensation is subtracted from your Social Security benefit. All of these income sources combined cannot exceed 80 percent of your average earnings before you became disabled.
• You must not be able to perform any job whatsoever, not just the work you did before you were injured.
• You qualify for Medicare after receiving Social Security payments for two years. You must enroll and pay the monthly premium to receive both medical and hospital coverage under Medicare.
• You must pay federal income tax on your disability benefits if your income exceeds a certain limit. The most recent limit for adjustable gross income (AGI) plus nontaxable interest income and half of all Social Security benefits is $34,000 for a single person and $44,000 for a couple filing jointly.