When you’re sick or injured and unable to work, Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits are supposed to be a lifeline – but a lot of people misunderstand how the system works and feel intimidated about the process.
It doesn’t help that there are all kinds of myths out there about how Social Security Disability claims work. Here are some of the biggest misconceptions you may hear:
Myth: Everybody gets denied the first time they file
This is the sort of thing that’s been said so often that a lot of people take it as fact, and that can cause them to put less effort into their initial application than they should. (After all, why bother with a ton of frustrating paperwork for a claim that you’re just going to have to redo upon appeal, right?) The reality is that roughly 62% of applicants will have their initial claims denied – but that means that the other 38% are approved. You can bet that those are the 38% of claimants whose applications were the most well-developed and complete.
Myth: It’s better to file a whole new claim than an appeal
This rumor is tied to the idea that initial claims are arbitrarily denied just to discourage too many people from seeking benefits. If you simply file a new claim, you lose the original protective filing date you had on your initial application. That’s the date the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses to fix the start date for your benefits. If your new claim is eventually approved, you will lose all the potential back pay that you may have otherwise received through an appeal.
Myth: You have to have a “listed” condition to get benefits
Social Security maintains a list of mental and physical impairments, along with guidelines under each listed condition that indicates when it is “severe enough” to qualify for disability. However, you don’t have to exactly meet those guidelines nor even have a listed condition to be approved for benefits. SSA has a different evaluation process for people who don’t have a listed condition or don’t quite meet the guidelines, and many people are approved this way.
The moment that you mention that you’re considering filing for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits, you’re probably going to be swamped with suggestions by people who mean well – but take everything you hear with a grain of salt. Misinformation can really hurt your chances of a successful claim, so find out everything you need to know from a reliable and experienced source before moving forward.