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Medford, NJ Social Security Disability (SSDI) Lawyer

Disability payments can come from a few different sources, but one of the most common is Social Security Disability Income (SSDI). This is a federal insurance system that you pay into through your taxes, and it is supposed to be available for any injured workers throughout the country.

When applying for SSDI, it is important to work with a lawyer. Your application will often be rejected the first time, but our lawyers can help you make sure that it has everything needed to get the application accepted, potentially cutting down on the time it takes to get it accepted. We can also help appeal any denials or issues with the application.

For a free review of your case and help applying, call Young, Marr, Mallis & Associates at (609) 557-3081 for a free case review with our SSDI lawyers.

Who Qualifies for SSDI in Medford, NJ?

SSDI is available to anyone who has significant work experience and a good history of paying required Social Security taxes, so long as they meet other qualifications. If you do not have this history, you might be able to apply for SSI instead – a need-based version of the same program, called “Supplemental Security Income.” The other qualifications are as follows:

Qualifying Disability

The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes a Listing of Impairments. Your medical condition must usually be on this list for you to qualify for disability. This list has many different injuries and health conditions, including things like cancer, heart failure, sickle cell disease, multiple sclerosis, and even depression.

Keep in mind that to qualify with one of these conditions, you have to meet the SSA’s definition of the condition. The SSA’s listing will often have more severe or rigorous requirements for symptoms beyond what your doctor might need to clinically diagnose the disorder or condition, incorporating something of a “severity” requirement into the definitions used for SSDI applications.

If your condition is not on this list but it is still as severe as something on this list, our Social Security Disability Insurance attorneys might be able to apply for an exception that still gets you qualified with an unlisted condition.

Severity

Your condition must be “severe” for it to qualify you for SSDI. Generally, you can only qualify for SSDI if the condition will persist for at least a year or is a terminal condition. SSDI is not designed for short-term disabilities lasting only a few months, and benefits might be available for that through other programs provided by your employer.

The other way that severity is determined is by looking at your inability to work, which we will discuss more specifically as its own requirement.

Inability to Work

Some disabled people can still work to an extent and still qualify for SSDI. Rather than requiring that all applicants be completely unable to work, the SSA instead sets a “substantial gainful activity” (SGA) income limit. If your condition is severe enough that you cannot work to meet this minimum income limit, your condition can qualify.

The SGA limit for 2024 is $1,550 if you are not blind and $2,590 if you are blind, allowing blind peoples’ conditions to be considered “severe” more easily, given the added challenge that blindness causes. This number will usually increase year to year.

Aside from this limit is another limit on your active income: trial work period limits (TWP limits). If you work and make over $1,110 per month, you might accidentally activate a trial work period, during which you can make more money by working, but your qualifications for ongoing SSDI benefits might be reassessed, potentially kicking you off of your benefits.

Appealing Denials and Seeking Reconsideration for SSDI Applications in Medford, NJ

As mentioned, most applications are rejected on the first try. This speaks to the complexity and density of the SSA’s SSDI system, where millions of applications are reviewed annually, and the system simply struggles to keep up with paying benefits to qualifying applicants. As such, expect a few denials along the way, which our lawyers can tenaciously resubmit and appeal.

In many cases, the initial rejection will be based on insufficient information or missing information grounds, not any actual disqualification. Our lawyers can help you repair any ineffective applications and get the SSA the information it needs to accept your application.

If the SSDI application is denied on the basis that the SSA thinks your condition does not meet the medical definition or is not severe enough, we can submit more substantive appeals with exams from doctors and other evidence of your condition’s severity.

The appeals process usually starts with an application for reconsideration, where the application will simply be reviewed again. Reconsideration leads to accepted petitions a lot of the time, seeing applicants get the disability benefits they need without much additional stress or work.

If reconsideration is denied, our lawyers can submit appeals. This usually starts with a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). This hearing will involve evidence, medical records, work records, and information about your condition, all submitted to the judge for review to determine that you are truly disabled. If the ALJ hearing still results in a denial, we can continue the appeals process by taking the application before the SSA’s Appeals Council and, if it is still denied, to the federal courts for relief.

Most applications do not need to go this far, and qualifying disability applications will be granted well before ever appearing before a federal court.

Fighting SSDI Terminations and Suspensions in Medford, NJ

Terminations and suspensions of benefits often occur because of clerical errors, miscommunication, and insufficient information on the SSA’s end. Our lawyers can help if you have been sent any letters or communications from the SSA requiring you to submit additional medical information or reports to keep your benefits. If there were problems with these letters and they went unanswered, the SSA might have resorted to suspending or terminating your benefits already, and we can fight to get them restarted through similar methods to the appeals process discussed above.