Concerned about Your Social Security Benefits?
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by: albert.tobega
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Word Count: 490
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 Time: 11:33 PM
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A: As defined by the Social Security Administration, disability is the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity." They determine substantial gainful activity according to the National Average Wage Index, which gives a dollar amount per month. They consider a person to be working any day that he or she "is the owner or part owner of a trade or business even if he or she does not actually work in the trade or business or receive any income from it."
The money your business makes may have an effect on your social security disability. The income you receive from your business, regardless of who runs it, may be considered substantial if it exceeds a determined SGA (or substantial gainful activity) level. The SSA determines this SGA level by doing a comparison of the income of your business to the income you received before you became disabled, as well as to the income of a healthy individual doing the same business.
Q: What will happen to my claim if I die while in the process of applying for benefits?
A: According to the Social Security Administration, if a person who may be eligible for social security benefits dies (this includes Supplemental Security Income), their survivors may apply for a Lump Sum Death Payment. This means that, if you were to die in the process of applying for social security benefits, your survivors may make a case for the social security benefits you may have earned after the waiting period. To do this, surviving family members need to prove that their deceased relative did or could have qualified for social security benefits in the month that they died.
Lump Sum Death Payment of social security benefits is available only to particular surviving family members. When making the claim, the family will need to provide information and records about the deceaseds social security benefits eligibility and application (if there was one). The SSA will also want to see information about the deceaseds overall disability, starting at fourteen months before death.
Q: If I am receiving social security benefits and I die, what happens to them?
A: A person who has worked and paid social security taxes may be eligible for survivors benefits upon their death. In general, for family members to receive survivors social security benefits, ten or so years of work will be needed (though this does vary). Survivors social security benefits can be paid to:
• A widow or widower, who will receive full benefits at retirement age, and reduced benefits starting at 60 • A disabled widow or widower, starting at age 50 • Unmarried children under 18 (or up to 19 if attending high school) • Currently disabled children who were disabled at less than 22 years of age • Dependent parents over 62 years of age.
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Information related to social security lawyer, try truthengine.com/blog/socialsecurityattorneyorlando.
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