You may believe that you accurately depicted the state of your current disability upon submitting your initial Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits applications with the Social Security Administration (SSA). However, while your application is being processed, you may sadly face the unfortunate reality that your disability is only growing in severity with time. And so, you may now worry that you will not be granted an appropriate amount of financial aid to cover the full extent of your disability. If this is a top concern of yours, please continue reading to learn what happens to your SSDI benefits if your disability worsens over time and how an experienced New Jersey SSDI attorney at The Law Offices of Sheryl Gandel Mazur can help you get the financial coverage you need to get through this.
What happens to my SSDI benefits if my disability worsens over time?
Contrary to what you may initially assume, your monthly SSDI benefits payments may not be changed to a higher amount if your disability worsens over time. In short, your SSDI benefits may be based on your past earnings and employment record rather than the current severity of your disability. In a sense, your SSDI benefits may be the same amount as your full retirement benefit, which is the amount you would have received based on your past earnings and employment record if you had been at full retirement age when you incurred a disability.
After all, to qualify for SSDI benefits in the first place, the SSA has already deemed your condition debilitating enough to restrict you from doing most work. So since you already meet the SSA’s definition of fully disabled, they do not consider increasing the amount they administer to you every month in congruence with the rate of your condition declining.
What happens if my disability improves over time?
While it does not matter to the SSA if your disability worsens over time, they will care if it makes significant improvement. While this may be a harsh way of putting it, it is nonetheless true. This is because the SSA will want to cease your monthly SSDI benefits payments once your condition improves enough that you no longer meet their definition of disabled and can now possibly participate in substantial gainful activity in the workforce.
The SSA may periodically conduct medical reviews to assess the current state of your disability. In these reviews, you must be honest and provide all relevant medical documents that accurately depict your condition, even if you think it will terminate your benefits effective immediately. Otherwise, you may face consequences like having to repay the SSA your supposedly overpaid benefits or even having the SSA accuse you of committing fraud.
There is no sense waiting any longer if you already know you qualify for and require SSDI benefits. So please reach out to a skilled New Jersey SSDI attorney from The Law Offices of Sheryl Gandel Mazur today.
