There are many drawbacks when you are disabled. Depending on your disability, there are a lot of things that you can’t do now. This can leave you unable to perform the manual and mental work that you once used to perform.

More than losing some of your abilities, you may also end up needing additional money for your medicines or any additional service you might need to survive.

You don’t always have people to look out for you or help you with those above-mentioned needs. During these times, it’s probably only the government that you can turn to for help. The government realizes this and that is why it came up with additional social security benefits that aim to help people with disabilities.

Supplemental Security Income—or SSI is a program of the United States government that extends assistance to individuals with a low income. Such potential SSI beneficiaries can be the elderly, blind, or disabled.

The idea of this new measure is for the government to be able to reach out and help as many disabled American citizens as possible. This effectively replaces the federal-state adult assistance programs of the past.

It could be remembered that former President Richard Nixon was passionate about bringing reform to the nation’s welfare programs. While there had been legislations aiming to help the blind, the permanently and totally disabled, and the elderly, he believed that this should be federalized and run by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

While having the same purpose with the older legislations, the newer measure has been restructured and now aims for the standardizations of the level of benefits, as well as eligibility. This incorporation to the Social Security Act is perfect not only for people of old age, but also for those who have been suffering from different kinds of disabilities.

Now, disabled people are getting their desperately needed monetary assistance to help them get by with their daily lives. For these people, receiving this kind of assistance lets them pay their bills, take care of their health, and sustain their daily needs.

Through this new system, people who need the caring of the government the most receives their end of the taxes which the citizenry has paid for.

If you are from the Los Angeles and are suffering from a disability, are blind, or too old to still perform manual work, you don’t have to worry for the government has your back.

Accordingly, a Los Angeles SSI lawyer can be of great help when making claims for SSI. He will give you that much-needed legal advice on how you can ask for SSI benefits and help you with the entire process. Just submit your application and the corresponding requirements and you may soon receive your claims.

If you have been long disabled or you got incapacitated lately and you fear for your future, you should worry no more. You can now fend for yourself and survive through your disability for your government will take care of you.

There is a simplified difference between Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). First, SSDI is for people who were disabled permanently and cannot work in accordance to the definition provided under the Social Security Act. This meant that the person is not able to engage in any substantial gainful activity (SGA) because of a medically identifiable physical or mental impairment that in the end could lead to the death of the person.


It is also vital that the ailment is expected to last for not less than 12 months. Moreover, he or she must be able to collect sufficient work credits to have an ample amount of money to pay the insurance beforehand.


On the other hand, SSI is provided to poor people. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has a set standard to determine if the person is really living below the social norms of the society. He or she must be more than 65 years old, and may be disabled or blind.

 
Making Appeals

In 2009, the SSA had announced that applications for the disability benefits rose close to 17 percent in the whole United States, which is at about 3 million. Moreover, the agency further stated that they expect the number to rise up to 10 percent in 2010 and that meant 3.3 million new applications. 


Taking this logically, it is clear that not all of the claims would be approved by the SSA. Some of them could be rejected.



Giving the benefit of the doubt, those handling the SSA had permitted applicants with rejected benefits claims to file an appeal. An appeal must be done within 60 days based on the date written in the denial letter. An appeal actually has four levels, but this article will focus on the initial application only:

·         Request for Reconsideration (RFR)

This is the primary step in making an appeal. An RFR is a document filed by the applicant and through it, he or she is telling the SSA office that someone other than the previous agent who handled the case should investigate if there really is a disability. The new agent will then review the available documents to see if the claimant is eligible for the social security disability benefits. No hearing will be conducted; nonetheless, if the SSA states that the applicant no longer has a disability, then that person will be required to appear before and explain to the agent.