How to Get Long Term Disability Benefits

Do you want to learn about how to get long term disability benefits?  Perhaps you are looking to get benefits yourself after an injury that harms your ability to work.  Disability disability benefits may be available to as many as three out of ten workers, which is the amount of workers who, before retirement, statistically sustain a disability that prevents them from working.

What are Long Term Disability Benefits?

Long term disability benefits are available from private insurance, if your employer has a disability policy. Long term disability benefits may also be available from Worker's Compensation Insurance if you are covered and your injury is a work injury. In addition, Social Security will step in and pay long term disability benefits through g government program, but you have to take the proper steps first.

How to Qualify For Long Term Disability Benefits?

Now that you know more about disability income, you can take the next steps to getting the income yourself.  To start, you will need to take two tests that determine if you quality.  First, you need to meet the test called a “recent work test,” which will give Social Security information about whether or not you have worked and how old you were at the time you became disabled.  Next, you will need to take a test that is called a “duration of work test,” and this shows how long you worked under Social Security, proving that you worked long enough to be eligible for benefits.

If you have sufficient work experience, your disability will have to be sufficiently serious such that it prevents you from working at the job you were doing and/or prevents you from retraining for another comparable job. The SSA has a Blue Book of covered disabilities, but if your particular illness or injury is not found in the Blue Book, you can still collect benefits if you prove your disability is sufficiently severe so as to interfere with your daily life.

How to Get Long Term Disability Benefits After Qualifying

It can take a long time from the start of your application to actually receiving the funds that you deserve; sometimes, up to five months.  You should complete the application online at Social Security.gov, or you can print it out and mail the completed forms to the Social Security office in your area.  You need to make sure you have included all required information, including your personal identification information (including social security number and birth certificate), the names and addresses of your doctors, caseworkers, and hospitals that treated your disability, the a copy of your most recent W-2 form, information of all your medical records and medicines you are taking, lab reports, and a summary of your work.

Getting Help

You should consult with an experienced disability rights attorney early in the process to help you determine if you qualify and to help you complete your application.