Disability Lump Sum Payment. Anybody been there done that?

DDD

Well-Known Member
Much to my surprise it actually appears that difficult child#1 "may" be approved on his Disability appeal. I did not encourage him to pursue it but he hired a law firm and maybe it is going to be "a go". I'm not sure how much the check will be IF he gets it but it will be sizable. Likely twenty grand plus or minus.

Seems like some of you shared a few years ago that there are stipulations on spending the money. He is ADHD with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) so there's no telling how much I can influence his choices. GFGmom will be looking to get back "all she's spent on him"...no doubt.

I know he will want a newer car as his is junky. husband and I were thinking that he should try to buy a home so he wouldn't have to move around renting. Yeah I know that sometimes a financial guardian is named and one of the experts added to his report "difficult child would not be capable of handling his finances." difficult child will absolutely fight to the death to "handle HIS money".

Any input? DDD
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
If they are adding he wont be able to handle his finances, who are they going to put on their as representative payee? I would fight to the death not to have it be GFGmom. While the payee is "supposed to" keep records of what they spend the money on, I have never been called in to prove a darned thing. They did send yearly statement and ask me what I did with Cory's money but I just had to list it. So much for housing and utilities, so much for clothing and food, so much for entertainment, any left in savings. Sign the form. No place to send in receipts. Never had to keep receipts.

What I would want is to have an independent payee such as someone from Social Services. I believe APS does this. He can get them to handle his money. Now his back pay can go to someone like you and then you can set it up with APS. You could help him find a very low cost condo he could afford the payments on after a large down payment. Or even a small trailer that he could pay cash for. Then he could get car with the rest. Say he got $25K and found a trailer for 15K but only had to pay the lot rent each month. Then he could get a car for 7K. That would give him a little bit for fun and furnishings. He is gonna want to have some fun like going to the beach or going out to eat. He just is. He will want to buy a large screen TV for his place plus a computer. Some nicer furniture.

I would look for trying to get him first a place to live and then a vehicle. He cant go wrong with having a place to stay.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Thanks, Janet. He firmly believes he will be given access. Like you I would do most anything to keep GFGmom away but she's done me in before and I really am focusing on stress reduction. Fingers crossed.

PS: Look on HealthBoards.com about your gastro problems. I don't know anything about them but when I went to the message board there were alot of posts and a whole lot of different opinions. Hugs DDD
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well maybe he will be given access and you can just guide him well. I am off of Cory's case finally and I threw a party...lol.

Your grandson may just surprise you if you can convince him that putting that money down on place to stay so he doesnt have to pay rent the rest of his life might just get through to him.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
He won't get 20k. The cap is only like maybe 5k now, if that much. I was told that when Alex got his.........AND again when Travis got his. Disability no longer does the big payouts for back pay.

This is the reason Travis is drawing SSI right now while waiting for the rest of the paperwork to go through. It prevents back pay from mounting up to a huge sum. Instead of back paying 700.00 some odd per month since he filed, they'll only have to back pay 300 per mo until disability goes completely through and all the paperwork is in it's proper places. Three hundred a month adds up much less than almost 800 does.

This was backed up by a letter we received in the mail from them explaining it all.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Oh, and they refused to back date his claim from the age of 14 when we first filed for him. He's "officially" disabled since July of this year, although they know that is not the case. Or rather his disability incurred in July.......I forget how they word it but I don't know how it makes any sense at all to them in a case such as his.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
You can still get large back pays but it depends on which program. You just have to think about it. He is drawing SSI based on certain things. However, they simply didnt find him disabled back to 14 based on income from that time period probably. Also it could have a time limit on the appeals process. There are many reasons for that.

However, disability will back pay to the time when a person applies and they are found disabled. That is a simple fact. No matter how long that takes the money builds and they have to pay it out. Now sometimes they want to split it into two types...SSI and SSDI and get the person to take the SSI first while they figure out the SSDI claim out and then the person has to pay back the SSI. I refused that. I applied for medicaid the second I learned I was eligible for SSDI and what amount I was eligible. I knew that I was going to be eligible for medicaid. That kept me from having to get SSI. I beat Social Security to the punch. I knew I was over income for SSI so I told them not to bother with the SSI application. I got my lump sum about 6 weeks after my hearing date. My monthly checks started about 8 weeks later. I know other people who have just received SSDI within the last year and they have received lump sums twice as much as I got...if not more than that. So lump sums are still there.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Janet, this is a recent policy change. So I dunno. I know my mouth dropped open when I was told because I was like wth?

Travis does not have to pay his back, I made certain and it says so in the letter.

All I know is what they told me. And that there is a monetary cap, regardless of how long it takes to get approved, what you're trying to get, whatever, and it's now like 5k or so. In my mind I was thinking and what about the poor so and so who has bills mounting up and about to lose a home ect.......but that is supposed to be why SSI steps in.

I don't claim to understand it in the least. But they were firm, no matter what, no more big payouts from disability, period.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
If it's SSI, it won't come in one chunk. It will be split up over a period of time. When I applied for disability, I applied for both SSI and SSDI because SSDI doesn't start paying for 6 months after the date you are found to be disabled, while SSI pays from the date you are found disabled. So, say you apply in January and are declared disabled the same day you apply (not a real scenario, of course, but easier to explain). SSDI wouldn't start paying until July, while SSI starts to pay in January.

Once my disability was approved, I started to get SSI payments within 2 weeks, while it took almost 4 months for SSDI to caluclate my retro pay (which is different from back pay). They deducted what SSI had paid me from my retro pay so I had nothing to pay back.

This might help:

https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0502101020
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Thank you flutter. I think you explained it better than I did. I think I understand it better the way you explained it. :) And yes, they made Travis apply for both since there was no family income.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Believe it or not the Attorney for difficult child told him that two weeks ago she represented a client at the Appeals Court Hearing and the Judge approved disability. Are you sitting down?? LOL! She told difficult child that a SS representative CUT the check on the spot and the claimant walked out with a check for multiple thousands of dollars. How's that for a shocker. DDD
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
DDD...not too much of a shocker because I actually got my hearing moved up because I was in financial distress and they told me after my hearing that I had won. I got a letter about two weeks later with the amount of my monthly payment and when they should start. I had already heard in the hearing that my disability start date would be back to March 2003. Now because I wasnt applying for SSI, that meant I didnt get any money for those first 6 months but I was eligible for medicaid but I had already been on it. I was more worried about getting them to backdate medicaid to 1/2005 and forward because I had a ton of medical bills that needed paying.
 
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