If you have been sadly laid off from your employment, the expectation is for you to pursue your next role actively. However, in your streak of bad luck, you may also get diagnosed with a physical, mental, or emotional disability during this time of unemployment. And so, instead of applying for new jobs, you may focus on petitioning for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. With that being said, please read on to discover whether you can still collect SSDI benefits after getting fired and how a seasoned lawyer in SSDI eligibility in New Jersey, at The Law Offices of Sheryl Gandel Mazur, can help you retrieve some sort of financial resource at this time.
Can I collect SSDI benefits if I was fired before my diagnosis?
Well, there is no definitive answer as to whether getting fired influences your eligibility to collect SSDI benefits. This is because the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) eligibility requirements do not necessarily differ whether you were working or recently laid off when being diagnosed with your disability. That is, you must first have a recognized physical, mental, or emotional disability disclosed on the SSA’s List of Impairments. Then, your disability must have lasted or is expected to last 12 months or longer. Further, it may be likely to result in death or otherwise prevent you from engaging in similar work or adjusting to similar work for an indefinite amount of time.
On top of these disability requirements, the SSA holds work requirements. But again, it has little to do with your current employment status. Rather, you need to have earned at least 40 work credits during your professional career, with 20 of these credits earned within the last 10 years. For context, you may have had the capacity to earn up to four work credits per year, depending on how much you contributed to Social Security taxes annually. So, this is to say that there may have been an incident in which you were let go from your employment before reaching this minimum work credit requirement. Now, with your disability, this minimum may be impossible to meet.
What happens if I’m already collecting unemployment benefits?
Even if you qualify for SSDI benefits, you may find that it takes a while for your application to be processed and for your first payment to be sent. And if you were recently fired, you may be desperate for some source of income to keep you financially afloat. Understandably, you may apply for unemployment benefits in the meantime.
While collecting unemployment benefits will not necessarily disqualify you for SSDI benefits, it may make it more difficult to get them. This is because unemployment benefits insinuate that you are actively seeking new employment and just need financial aid in the meantime. On the other hand, though, SSDI benefits indicate that you cannot participate in any substantial, gainful employment activity for the foreseeable future. All in all, these contradictory claims may cause the SSA to question the credibility of your disability benefits application.
We understand that you must be eager to start this process. So, without further delay, please schedule your initial consultation with a competent lawyer in SSDI eligibility in New Jersey, from The Law Offices of Sheryl Gandel Mazur, today.
