SSI / SSDI Are Determined to be Confusing

[Hound dog]

I'm sure they can figure out what they're doing, but I'm confused, which these days is not difficult I admit. Lately my brain isn't cooperating too much.

So, jest of it is............Travis got notified that disability has accepted him and that he'll get x amt per month. Ok, fine, great, wonderful news. Then they go on to say they are back dating it from when he was declared disabled. Um ok, makes sense. Until you get to the date. They're back dating it a year. Travis didn't file a year ago. Now, hold on........not even gotten to the confusing part yet. lol

So, same day he gets that one he gets one from SSI. It states that he'll continue to get x amt of money. And from what I've deduced so far, it's at the same time as the other........so he'll get both.

Now my brain might not be cooperating, but I'm sure you're not supposed to get both. (while that would be great cuz the family income would shoot up to a positive instead of in the hole deep every month) And they seemed to know that disability is going to pay him too.

I'm going to have to read over it again and then have easy child read over it tomorrow. He got something else today and I just told him (he read it, I didn't) to stick it in my file drawer I'll read it tomorrow with the others. Makes my head hurt, I swear.

I'm sure these two are communicating with each other as they're actually the same darn thing basically. So what's up? Any known reason both would pay the boy? Cuz that just does not make sense to me.

 

[TeDo]

I have applied for difficult child 1, who receives SSDI on my account, that he would continue to get his SSDI and that amount will be deducted from whatever SSI he might get. I also had several clients when I was a county social worker that did receive both. My understanding is that the amount of the disability is based on the amount in their social security credit earnings (hard to describe) but if it's not up "enough", then SSI makes up the difference. It IS confusing but the way it was explained to me years ago made sense.......too bad my brain doesn't work so well any more either or I could explain it better.

Put simply, YES, he can get both!

 

[Hound dog]

Well, knowing someone can get both makes me feel better.

But SSDI is giving him the full amt someone can get (or at least what I ever heard of anyone getting), so why would SSI be adding to it? If I'm understanding it correctly, and granted I could easily not be, he'll be getting total about 1100.00 per mo and that doesn't sound right. I wonder if SSI might be staying tacked on to do the back payments if they've dated it back so far??

I'll make a big pot of coffee in the morning and then reread it all. I'm sure there is an explanation in there somewhere.

 

[TeDo]

Is that total for both put together? I get more than that and I'm only on disability.

 

[Hound dog]

Hmm. Maybe I am used to the child amt then. That's an estimate of the two combined.......760 from disability and 450 from SSI or there about.

But then he just got a new letter (they've flooded him in the past 2 days) saying he will no longer get SSI but he's not been removed from SSI. omg I think they make it confusing on purpose. lol

 

[witzend]

That's one good thing about having an attorney help - they're able to determine which one is better for you to apply for (I don't think you're supposed to apply for both) and can answer questions like this one.

As for the one year thing, you may not have applied a year ago, but Travis was disabled a year ago and would have been eligible at that point had you applied. They go back to the date of disability (maybe not more than a year?) and so long as you were eligible.

How is your application process going? Yours might be more difficult. Have you seen an attorney yet?

 

[flutterby]

SSI starts to pay much more quickly than SSDI. SSI is handled by your local SSA office, while SSDI is computed from a regional office - mine was in Chicago.

So, say they are paying him $450.00 month for SSI. Once SSDI gets their butt in gear and starts paying, SSI will stop (you'll get a letter about that), SSDI will pay the back pay (you'll get a letter or 3 about that), but the amount won't exceed the $760/mo. So, for the months he received SSI, they will subtract the $450 from the $760 and pay him the difference ($310.00). In the end, he will end up receiving the full $760 a month, it's just convoluted in getting there.

 

[witzend]

SSI starts to pay much more quickly than SSDI. SSI is handled by your local SSA office, while SSDI is computed from a regional office - mine was in Chicago.

So, say they are paying him $450.00 month for SSI. Once SSDI gets their butt in gear and starts paying, SSI will stop (you'll get a letter about that), SSDI will pay the back pay (you'll get a letter or 3 about that), but the amount won't exceed the $760/mo. So, for the months he received SSI, they will subtract the $450 from the $760 and pay him the difference ($310.00). In the end, he will end up receiving the full $760 a month, it's just convoluted in getting there.

Geez that's confusing!

 

[flutterby]

It is interesting that SSI is going back a full year since he didn't apply that long ago. I was told that SSI will not go beyond the application date. Even though my SSDI found me disabled in 2007 (this determination was made in 2011), SSI started paying based on my application date of September, 2009. I got 2 larger payments, 2 months apart from SSI, plus the monthly SSI amount starting in October, 2011. Then when SSDI finally started paying in January, 2012, SSI stopped and SSDI deducted the difference between what they pay and what SSI had already paid when I got my retro pay in February, 2012. Confusing, but it's just math. If he's supposed to get $760 a month from SSDI, calculate $760 times however many months and you'll be able to roughly determine how much money he'll get in backpay. Keep in mind that SSDI doesn't pay for 5 or 6 months after the date the person was found to be disabled. So, if Travis was found to be disabled a year ago, SSDI won't pay for the first 5 months of that.

 

[flutterby]

You should also have him apply at Jobs and Family Services to 1) see if he also qualifies for medicaid, and/or 2) if they will cover the cost of medicare. Since his income is so low, I think they will at the very least cover his medicare expense which is $100 a month that would otherwise be deducted from his SSDI payment.

 

[flutterby]

Of course, everything with this process is "interesting". I was also told that SSDI would only go back one year prior to the application date and the judge took my disability date back to September, 2007, when I had to stop working, and I didn't apply until September, 2009. So, I guess those are more guidelines than hard and fast rules.

 

[Hound dog]

Thanks Heather. That helped.

It's a confusing process, and yeah, I think they do it that way on purpose. We were told he would be declared disabled from the date of filing, regardless that the majority of his issues qualified by age 14, when we last filed, if not prior to that. Social security is doing everything possible to avoid paying out any large sums of money. We had two or three CWs tell us that point blank, and in our area these people treat you like the next door neighbor, not like they do in larger cities, so when they say it......well, they mean it.

We've got food stamps and medicaid in the works.

 

[flutterby]

They have you apply for both because SSDI has that waiting period where they don't pay for 5 months after the date the person is found to be disabled. I don't know why they have that waiting period. It doesn't make sense - if you're disabled, you're disabled. In the event you were found disabled as soon as you applied, or your disability date wasn't back dated, SSI pays for the first 5 months then SSDI takes over.

The confusion comes in when they backdate the disability date prior to the date you filed. SSI doesn't go beyond the application date. So, in my case, even though I started getting SSI quickly, it was all deducted from my SSDI retro-pay. The letters were confusing as hell, but I didn't actually get both because SSI was essentially paid back by deducting it from my SSDI retro. SSDI found me disabled as of September 20, 2007, and SSDI benefits would have started March, 2008, so my retro pay went back almost 4 years by the time I received it. Since SSI doesn't go beyond the date of the application and only found me disabled as of the date I applied in 2009, what I received from SSI was deducted from SSDI retro. What was nice, however, is that I started getting money sooner because of SSI so I had cash on hand until I got the SSDI monthly and retro pay. It's confusing and hard to explain. It needs a powerpoint presentation or something. LOL!

One other thing, I think you have to be on SSDI for 2 years before you can get medicare. Since my disability date went back so long, I didn't have a waiting period, but Travis may have a waiting period (a year if they only took him back a year) before he can get medicare. Medicaid covers much better anyway.

 

[Hound dog]

Actually, Heather, you explain it quite well. I understand it now and it makes sense. And that is something, lemme tell you. LOL

And yes, the CW said he was having Travis apply for both because our household income was zero, which obviously meant we needed money. Doesn't surprise me that medicaid is better coverage than medicare. I just need to get him on it cuz he needs to get to his docs asap. Stinks that for his hemotologist at least, I'm going to have to look in the dayton area. The ones in our area blow major wind and use labs notorious for their incompetence and inaccuracy. He's been having some symptoms of late that have us a bit worried, Not sure if it might be a vitamin deficiency or worst case a blood clot, but I wasn't able to talk him into the ER when it flared ugly the last time last week. I don't blame him over the ER in a way as neither lab is worth a crud 90 percent of the time and he couldn't see sitting there for heaven knows how long to have the lab mess it up and come back with a bogus blood count result. (we've just had it happen too many times)

 

[flutterby]

God, it looks like his income might be too high for medicaid. That is horrifying given what his income is going to be. Hopefully he qualifies for some deductions - and hopefully this income guideline is outdated.

http://jfs.ohio.gov/ohp/consumers/incGuide.stm

 

[Hound dog]

Good lord I hope so! Cuz it was the CW who told him to apply for them both. It does say that it might be adjusted due to expenses. And Travis IS helping here. He's paying the AEP and the water bill. Honestly, that might be enough to get him under that amt if it's something they'll use.

How in hades would anyone survive on that little monthly income?? I thought what they're giving him was outdated given the cost of living currently. But for him it's not so bad because he's here and there are HUD apartments with utilities paid he can move to when he doesn't want to be here anymore.

 

[DammitJanet]

Thats an ungodly low income limit for medicaid. It is normally at least the SSI amount. Here it just increased to 825 I think for single people but it was 800 when I first went on medicaid. It goes up slightly every year that we get a cost of living increase to keep those of us that need this help to stay on it. I get 789 and will never get a part time job because it would put me over the income limits and that would not even be worth the money I could possibly make.