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The Social Security Administration has many different terms and acronyms that are used to describe aspects of the retirement or disability process, but to a layman these terms and acronyms can be confusing and difficult to understand. Below are some terms and acronyms that are better explained. PIM:   Primary Insurance Amount is the monthly amount paid if you are a retired worker who is collecting Social Security benefits at full retirement age or if they are a disabled worker. Credits:           Workers who pay Social Security taxes earn credits that count toward eligibility for retirement and Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB). A maximum of four credits can be earned each year. Workers earn a work credit through every $1,200 you earn from work-related activity quarterly. The number of credits needed to be eligible for Social Security disability benefits depends on age. Early Retirement:      Workers are eligible to receive early Social Security retirement benefits at age 62, but collecting early will reduce you your monthly amount by about 80 percent of what your full retirement amount would be. Full Retirement Age: Some people may not be aware that full retirement age is different depending on what year you were born. All people born 1937 and earlier have a full retirement age of 65. Those born between 1938 and 1959 will have a full retirement age somewhere between 65 years and two months and 66 years and 10 months old. All workers born 1960 and later have a full retirement age of 67. Backpay:        Monthly benefits that a worker may be entitled to prior to the month or date in which they applied for benefits if all other disability requirements are met. For more information about a variety of terms related to the Social Security retirement or disability process click here.

Social Security disability claimants who receive notice that their request for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) has been transferred to the National Hearing Center (NHC) sometimes get easily confused about what this means. Request for hearings are transferred to the NHC to help speed up the hearings process when a local hearing’s office has a caseload backlog. When this is the case the NHC will pick-up the case and assign a judge from a different jurisdiction to adjudicate the hearing. The hearing will remain in the locale of the claimant’s hearing office, but the ALJ will be in a different location and will appear via video conferencing. The main purpose of cases being transferred, according to the Social Security Administration, is “the NHC’s flexibility has allowed the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) to transfer older cases from some of the most heavily backlogged offices, thereby assisting those offices in reducing their pending levels and processing times.” Although Social Security sees the benefits of the NHC assisting with disability hearings, there are also some drawbacks. The first challenge the NHC has is that some of the NHC has limited space and limited access to the types of video equipment required for video hearings. In addition, because the NHCs prefer using vocational and medical experts located in the same jurisdiction as the claimant, this can create scheduling conflicts for these experts who have been ordered to appeal before the ALJ to give testimony. If a claimant is notified that their case has been transferred to a NHC it is not an absolute they have to have a video hearing. Claimants have the right to ask Social Security to have an in-person hearing before a local ALJ rather than having a video hearing. For more information about the NHC click here.

A huge sigh of relief usually follows the notification that a claimant’s Social Security disability hearing is scheduled. Finally, it gives a claimant a chance to have their “day in court” to prove they deserve either Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Sometimes that relief is soon replaced with trepidation about the hearing process when informed that a Vocational Expert (VE) will testify at the hearing. The first question many people have is “what is a vocational expert?” The question that soon follows is “what are they going to testify about?” The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) will appoint an independent VE in all cases where non-exertion limitations are claimed. Non-exertion limitations are all limitations that are NOT exertion limitations such as the ability to sit, stand, walk, lift, push and pull. To learn more about how Social Security classifies exertion limitations and non-exertion limitations visit http://ssblog.bsgfdlaw.com/what-are-non-exertional-limitations/. Vocational Experts are appointed to appear either in person or by phone in over 90 percent of ALJ hearings. These VEs are supposed to be independent sources of information without any stake in the outcome of a disability hearing. The VE will be asked to give his or her opinion about what jobs a claimant can perform and what sort of limitations a claimant may be faced within performing the duties of those jobs. An ALJ will ask the VE if a claimant can perform his or her past jobs, and if not, whether the claimant can do other work. If the VE believes a claimant can do other work more detail will be provided on what types of jobs the claimant can perform and the VE will give an overview of the current job market for those jobs in the claimant’s community. Fortunately, the claimant or the claimant’s representative, who can include an attorney, is permitted to question the VE to try and exclude any jobs the VE indicated were viable options based on the claimant’s disabilities. The VE’s testimony, along with medical evidence, can be a deciding factor in the outcome of a disability hearing. For more information about VE testimony and how it may impact a Social Security disability hearing visit http://www.disabilitysecrets.com/vocational-expert-said-no-jobs-available.html.  

One of the lesser known Social Security disability benefit programs is the Disabled Adult Child benefits (DAC) program. There are special rules to be eligible for DAC benefits, mainly that you must prove to Social Security that you became disabled prior to age 22 and have a parent who is collecting Social Security disability or retirement benefits, or have parent who is deceased. Although Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is based on the disabled person’s earning record and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are based on financial need with a monthly income maximum of $711, DAC benefits are based on a parent’s earnings. Because younger people who qualify for disability benefits usually have a limited earning history or no earnings at all, the DAC program can provide for larger monthly incomes for DAC recipients. Remember, as is the case with any type of Social Security disability claim, SSDI or SSI, and individual should apply for disability benefits as early as possible. Social Security will pay under either the SSDI program or SSI until it is time to transfer the benefit to a DAC claim. The idea of a DAC claim is that medical evidence must be available to prove that an adult child was disabled prior to age 22. This can be achieved through the collection of medical and school records. In addition to your own Social Security number as a DAC claimant, you will also need to know the Social Security number of the parent you are applying for a DAC claim under. Make sure to file a DAC claim as soon as possible. If you wait, you might not get all the benefits you are entitled to, since Social Security looks at the date of the application when it processes payments. For more information click here. JK

Try submitting a search on Google about Social Security disability and you will undoubtedly be bombarded with many stories from conservative news outlets about how the American public is attempting to defraud the government by receiving Social Security disability payments when they don’t deserve it. Rarely, do we see it publicized that the cases of fraud involving Social Security disability are extremely small, even tough that is the truth. Social Security disability remains an easy punching bag for conservatives and they never let the facts get in the way. One way or another we can eventually get to the truth even through slanted news stories. Last month the Associated Press reported a story indicating that Social Security’s inspector general found evidence that $2 billion in benefit payments were given to people who did not qualify for disability payments. Obviously $2 billion worth of the taxpayer’s money is certainly a big deal and worth reporting on, but in what context? The $2 billion wrongly handed out was over a seven-year period, which roughly equates to about $285 million per year, still a large junk of money and something to be concerned about, but $2 billion makes for better headlines. Then we have to look at all the money Social Security paid out during this time that went accurately to people who were disabled and qualified for the disability programs. It turns out Social Security paid out $900 billion during this time, so the $2 billion worth of improper payments equates to about 0.2 percent of all payments. No one is insisting that people who are not disabled should be receiving disability payments and Social Security should continue to stamp out fraud in its disability programs, but if headlines read that 99.8 percent of Social Security payments were proper over the last seven years, would there be outrage? To learn more about this story click here.