In May, Allsup is posting a blog series on Disability Insurance Awareness Month, a time when disability and insurance organizations join forces to raise awareness about the importance of protecting your income after a work-disrupting health issue. This series will take you through Five Fast Facts on SSDI that will help you incorporate these benefits into your overall financial protection plan.
Fast Fact No. 4: The Social Security Administration was given $190 million to tackle their backlog of disability hearings. But you can improve your own odds of avoiding the backlog by knowing your options when applying for disability benefits.
Even though Social Security has more money, they report it still may take until 2022 to improve this problem. Since 2015, about 1 million people have been waiting months for hearings, year after year. In fact, nearly 19,000 people have died in two years—just waiting for a hearing.
More than 154 million U.S. workers are insured for disability coverage through the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. If you are one of them, it is important to know about the resources available to help you navigate the disability application process.
Consider the costs of your wait for a hearing and your option of hiring a representative to help you apply for disability benefits. Some SSDI advocates, like Allsup, help former workers determine their eligibility for benefits and submit a thorough, accurate and complete application in order to avoid denials and appeals if possible.
To find out if you are likely to be eligible for SSDI, take our free online assessment. And learn more at bit.ly/TrueHelpUnderstandingSSDI
Our next topic will look at how SSDI benefits can help you return to work.
In case you missed it:
