Can you lose your Social Security benefits?
In addition to its retirement benefits, the Social Security Administration offers financial support for people too disabled to work. Disability benefits are paid by either Social Security disability insurance or Supplemental Security Income. It's possible to lose your chance at disability benefits by failing the qualifications tests the Social Security Administration applies, or to start receiving benefits, and then have Social Security cut them off---for example, if you work and earn income above the SSA's cut-off point.
Instructions
1. Fail the earnings tests. Social Security's website says the "recent work" test requires that you put in a certain amount of work in the years before you became disabled; for example, if you're disabled after you turn 31, you must have worked five of the previous 10 years to qualify for aid. Under the "duration of work" test, a 38-year-old would have to have four years of work during his lifetime paying into Social Security; a 48-year-old would have to have six-and-a-half years. Some blind workers only have to meet the second test.
2. Fail to qualify as disabled. The SSA says some conditions, such as osteoarthritis so severe it causes nerve damage, qualify you automatically, but for everyone else, there are multiple tests: Whether you earn more each month than the cut-off point; whether your condition is severe enough to restrict basic work activities such as walking, sitting or remembering for at least one year; whether you're able to keep working at your current job; and whether you can perform other work. If you fail any one of these tests, you lose your chance at benefits.
3. Earn "substantial" monthly wages for more than nine months, once you've started receiving disability. The exact disqualifying figure is checked and adjusted annually. The government allows you to work and receive full benefits for a nine-month trial period, after which you have three years in which you can still receive benefits for any month where your earnings are not substantial. Once your benefits stop, you can request reinstatement if your disability makes it impossible to continue working.
4. Recover from your disability. If Social Security decides you've regained enough capability that you no longer qualified as disabled, your benefits end.
5. Fail to appeal. If you disagree with any SSA decision denying you benefits, you have the right to appeal, and to hire a lawyer to represent you in the appeals process. You must start the appeals process within 60 days of being turned down. First, you can ask the SSA to reconsider your denial; if they still say no, then comes an administrative hearing; then an Appeals Council review; and if you're still not satisfied, you can file a federal court lawsuit as a last resort.
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