How to Qualify for SSDI?

So, in order to qualify for SSDI, Social Security disability income, there’s really four things you need. Number one is you have to have earned enough credits. Number two is you have to have a disabling condition. Number three is you have to have a doctor diagnosing you and keeping you out of work. And number four is you can’t be capable of any form of gainful employment. So, if we look a little deeper at those four things, to say that you have earned enough credits means that you’ve been working, right? And at a minimum, you’ve worked at least five out of the last 10 years because you’re paying into the Social Security system earning credits in order to qualify. Number two is a disabling condition. So, you have to have a doctor who says that you have a disabling condition, which really turns into meaning that you have a condition that’s going to last a minimum of one year. If you have a serious condition, but you’re better in nine months and able to return to work, it wouldn’t qualify. So, people should know that if you have a serious car accident and it’s catastrophic and you can’t work anything for a year and a half, you can collect SSDI for that year and a half. You of course, if you have a disabling condition that lasts a lifetime, from the date that that happens, you can be on SSDI for the rest of your life. There’s different factors that we need to look at to make sure that you can’t have any form of gainful employment. So for a doctor, right, who’s a surgeon and has a serious hand injury can no longer perform surgery, doesn’t mean that he qualifies because if he could work in a call center, right, and do some other form of gainful employment, he wouldn’t qualify. So it really means you can’t lift, you can’t bend, you can’t stoop, you can’t sit. And so you have to have a doctor who says that you’re not capable of any form of gainful employment, which really means that it’s not that you can’t do the job you’re doing now. It means that you’re not capable of doing any job whatsoever. And so as long as you hit those standards, that’s really the qualification for Social Security.