A debilitating injury or illness in Ohio may qualify you to receive Social Security Disability benefits. Your condition does not need to be work-related in order for you to qualify, but you do have to have earned work credits in the recent past to be eligible.
Before awarding you any benefits, the Social Security Administration will have to determine whether or not you are disabled. To accomplish this, it asks a series of questions about your condition, presented here in no particular order.
- Can you do the work you did before?
A qualifying disability prevents you from returning to the work you did previously. Therefore, if you can return to your prior work, the SSA will determine that you do not have a qualifying disability.
- Can you do any other type of work, and are you working now?
It may be that you cannot return to the exact type of work that you did previously but your condition does not prevent you from doing other types of work. If this is the case, you are generally not eligible to receive SSDI if you are currently working and earning more than $1,220 per month.
- Is your condition on the list of disabling conditions?
If you are not, it does not automatically disqualify you from receiving SSDI. The Social Security Administration will have to determine the severity of your condition.
- Is your condition severe?
Even a condition that is not on the list of disabling conditions may still qualify for SSDI if it is severe enough to prevent you from doing basic work tasks like sitting, standing or lifting.
The information in this article is not intended as legal advice but provided for educational purposes only.