Mankato Social Security Disability Lawyers
When it comes to a terminal illness, the financial means of your family will likely be the last thing that anyone is thinking about. Yet, there may come a point where it rears its head and you just cannot ignore your financial state anymore. However, for those that are terminally ill, they may find themselves on the fast track for Social Security disability approval to help pay for medical bills and the regular expenses of your family when you can no longer work.
Qualifying for Social Security Disability Benefits
Receiving Social Security disability is all about having a condition that meets the specific qualifications. While they have a number of qualifying conditions, the general rule of thumb is having a condition that prevents your ability to work for 12 months or more, or having a condition that is expected to result in your death. So, in essence, a terminal diagnosis will be one of the few cases that is likely to get approved at the initial application stage, instead of having to jump through the additional hoops as the bulk of the majority cases. While many illnesses can be terminal, those who are already in end of life care will qualify, that is unless they are still working and making substantial money.
Unfortunately, things become complicated if the terminal patient is already over the age of 65. Social Security disability benefits and Social Security retirement benefits are not two separate entities, in fact, they are the same entity. You can collect disability until you get to age 65, then those disability benefits become retirement benefits, so you cannot collect both. Thus, if the terminal patient is already collecting retirement, generally, and with some exceptions, they cannot collect disability as well.
Survivor’s Benefits
While it is likely that the family of someone with terminal illness will need the help of disability benefits to keep things afloat, they may also qualify for Survivor’s Benefits after the terminal illness has ran its course. In Survivor’s Benefits, the qualifying survivors could receive up to 75 percent of disability payments. However, only certain people qualify, including:
- Children under the age of 18
- Spouses over the age of 60
- A disabled spouse over the age of 50
- Spouses who are caring for children under the age of 16
While this is a rather limited scope, Survivor’s Benefits exist because these people will likely need the financial help after a passing. Survivor’s Benefits will continue until qualifying children reach the age of majority or the spouse ages into collecting retirement benefits.
Need Help?
If you or a member of your family has a terminal illness that may take their life, the last way they want to spend their days is dealing with the Social Security Administrations. However, for those who are looking at the end of their life, the Social Security Administration is as kind as a government entity can be. In some cases, all it takes is a diagnosis for the application to be approved. For many other terminal illnesses, if the proper medical evidence, including the diagnosis and supporting medical tests, their application will be flagged for fast approval. It can take between two weeks to a month to have a terminal case to be approved for benefits.
However, if you want to make sure an application has all the available information necessary for a fast approval for the benefits you need, contact us today. The Farrish Johnson Law Office can help make sure that you get your Social Security disability benefits as quickly as possible and don’t get caught fighting through the appeals process.
