Greeting all this is a real life story from Lady Luck about working and losing disability benefits then a fighting Social Security to get them back.
Lady details her experience about working, earning over the SGA, losing her benefits and then the happy ending is Lady gets here benefits back …
This is priceless info for anyone on SSDI who works or want to work and keep their benefits.
Regards Brian
———-lady’s story starts here ————-
For three years, a former employer of mine was prosecuted for various activities, and I was a witness. It turned into a mob war complete with all manner of violence, and when it was over, I totally lost my mind. I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and post -traumatic stress syndrome. In addition, I was suffering from brain damage as a result of an exhaust problem with my car. I was declared permanently disabled.
At the hospital, they told me that I would never be sane or lead a normal life again. I was there for many months, and it certainly seemed that they were right. However, when they released me, they released me to an award-winning halfway house for rehabilitation.
For quite a while, I didn’t consider working. However, Social Security insisted that I participate in a vocational rehabilitation program with my state vocational rehabilitation agency. They sent me to paralegal school. The halfway house program encouraged and supported me.
Paralegal school was interesting, and despite problems reading from the brain damage, I managed to graduate. I decided to try working, and found a part-time job doing copying and filing for an attorney. The substantial gainful activity level at the time was $200.00 a month, and that was what I earned.
After a year, I decided to try full-time employment and to get off of benefits. I found a full-time position as a paralegal and for a while it went well. However, after two and one half years, my manager and I had a bitter dispute that could not be resolved, and during which he threw my previous legal problems in my face. I quit.
My understanding at the time was that I could return to benefits without a new application if I quit or was fired within three years. Since I had worked full-time for only two and one half years, I applied to have my benefits resumed. Two months later, my checks started.
What had happened between my manager and myself had really rattled me, and for a while I made no attempt to work. However, after a few months, a part-time job came up through a mental health agency. It was a protected situation with a nice company and a job coach. I decided to take it.
That position eventually ended, and after that, I worked part-time when I could for many years, always trying to stay beneath the substantial gainful activity level. Twenty years went by, and suddenly I received a notice that my benefits were stopping. They told me that I hadn’t been entitled to any benefits since I had worked full-time as a paralegal, and that I owed them almost $193,000. They said that the fact that I had worked full-time had proved that my disability had ended, and that I had wrongly received benefits since then.
I filed an appeal, but did not get a copy date-stamped and they said that they did not get it. I filed for a Reconsideration, this time with the help of an attorney. I continue to be disabled. However, the problem seems to be that once you prove that you can work full-time for any length of time, you jeopardize your benefits, even if you quit or get fired within the specified period of time (I think that it is five years now). It is better to not try to work full-time at all if you think that you will need your benefits again in the future. If you want to work, stay well below the SGA. If you go over as a result of work-related expenses, save all receipts for the rest of your life, and get receipts from the Social Security office as proof that they received them.
Secondly, get copies of all documents that you provide to your Social Security office date-stamped. This includes pay stubs, appeals, and notices of starting and stopping working. You should save a date – stamped copy of every document.
Thirdly, save all letters from the Social Security Administration forever. In my case, Social Security was confused on certain dates, and I couldn’t prove it because I no longer had certain letters from them. I assumed that if they had made a mistake they would have found it promptly, and if they didn’t, they had copies of the letters, so when I was cleaning my file cabinet, I disposed of the oldest of the letters. In my case, they went back 22 years. There apparently is no statute of limitations, and they can go back 40 or 50 years if they want to. Therefore, you are required to keep all letters for the rest of your life.
When I filed my Reconsideration (this time getting a copy date-stamped) I was asked to meet with a Social Security worker. He asked me about my full-time employment. At the time that I quit, I simply told Social Security that “It didn‘t work out.” I did not want to bad-mouth my former manager or tell the truth about what had actually happened. When I met with the worker, I had to tell him the whole truth about how my manager had abused me, and the effect that it had had on my ability to perform at and keep subsequent part-time positions. The abuse that I had suffered caused a deterioration in my condition that made it impossible for me to continue working for him, or in fact, at any full-time position. It was difficult for me to keep a part-time position after that, and I was fired several times. Several days later, I received a notice that my benefits were being restored.
What I learned is that when you have to quit or get fired from a job, you need to be very honest about what happened, whether it was your fault, your employer‘s fault or some combination of both. Just telling them that you quit or were fired leads them to believe that you just don‘t want to work and can get another job. They need to know exactly what the problem was to make an accurate decision. No one wants to be in the position of speaking badly of a former employer”, nor is it easy to admit that you failed, and that the employer may have had a legitimate reason for firing you,” .
When your benefits are at stake, honesty is the best policy.”
Respectfully
Lady Luck
———-end of lady Luck’s story ————–
You can typically earn up to $980.00 per month and still keep your Disability Benefits.
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