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Tulsa Social Security Disability Law Firm BLOG

Working While Receiving Disability Benefits Leads to Trouble

May 11th, 2012

One of the more common ways in which people get into trouble while receiving disability benefits is when they start working without reporting this to the Social Security Administration (“SSA”). Most of them start off as legitimate beneficiaries – they suffered a severe injury, applied for benefits, and then started receiving them based on the taxes they had already been paying into the system. This is the way it is supposed to work, but the SSA regularly catches people who no longer need disability benefits even though they continue to illegally collect them. Here are a few of the more recent SSA investigations. Connecticut woman uses fake name to steal $90,000 in benefits The woman legitimately started receiving disability benefits back in 1993 after the SSA determined that she was disabled and unable to work at all. However, the next year 1994, she returned to work under a different last…
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The Unemployment Rate for Disabled Americans

May 9th, 2012

The first three months of 2012 saw the employment picture get worse for disabled Americans. Their unemployment rate, which dropped at the end of last year, jumped back up 1.4 percentage points to 14.6 percent. The unemployment rate for those without disabilities is at 8.4 percent. These official numbers are generally about half as much as true unemployment rates, many economists point out. The official numbers often seen in newspapers do not include people who have stopped looking for work or those who accepted part-time work but would prefer full time. As a result, the actual unemployment numbers are about twice as high, putting the unemployment rates for disabled Americans in the neighborhood of 30 percent and for non-disabled Americans around 16 percent. Difficulties disabled workers face in returning to work Disability benefits like SSDI or SSI benefits help disabled Americans and their families make ends meet, but receiving them…
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No More Disability Benefits After 2016?

May 7th, 2012

Late April saw the release of the latest report from the Social Security Board of Trustees regarding the financial status of Social Security Trust Funds, which cover retirement, disability and survivors benefits. As the Trustees were expecting before they looked at the latest financial figures, the news got worse for Social Security beneficiaries. All of the estimates of when benefits are expected to run out got bumped up a few years. The Trustees reported that all benefits will be exhausted in 2033, which is three years earlier than last year’s predicted date. If that event does eventually occur, Social Security will only be able to pay a portion of benefits to beneficiaries with the money that is coming in – about 75 percent. Regarding the disability benefits fund, those funds will be empty in four years in 2016, two years earlier than last year’s date. The Trustees – comprised of…
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Financial Stresses of Applying for Disability Benefits

May 4th, 2012

This week we have been discussing the impact of receiving Social Security disability benefits on your financial life. In many ways, the two stay separate. As we mentioned Monday, creditors cannot garnish your benefits in order to repay debt. On Wednesday, we talked about how being a disability beneficiary may impact your ability to get credit, but your credit score, credit history and overall income are far more important. What we bring up today is an extremely important link between your credit and disability benefits that disabled Americans need to take note of – although your status as a beneficiary does not go on your credit history, once you become disabled and unable to work, you will likely face difficult financial times in the years ahead. Unless you qualify for one of Social Security’s fast-track programs, your wait for disability benefits will likely be around two years or more if…
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