How Social Security Disability Sees Financial Hardship
Your financial situation spirals fast when you have to stop working and making money as you struggle with major health problems and medical expenses.
You’d hope you can get financial assistance fast, too. But our country’s plan for people who can’t work for medical reasons, Social Security Disability, is slow.
It takes several months and often longer to get a decision. It seems impossible to hang on that long. You may have heard that you can ask for a faster “dire need” decision when you’re facing great hardship.
It’s true. Social Security recognizes “dire need” and can speed up benefits and get faster relief to people who qualify.
But few people qualify. It’s hard to overstate how extreme your economic distress must be to get a dire need decision.
Almost everyone seeking disability benefits is experiencing financial crisis because they can’t work and their incomes have stopped. To get a quicker decision for dire need, you may need to be homeless, or nearly so.
Definitely talk to the Chicago disability lawyers at Nash Disability Law to learn about your options. You can discuss this with us for free.
WE’VE HELPED MORE PEOPLE IN THE CHICAGO AREA WIN BENEFITS THAN ANY OTHER LAW FIRM.
What Does It Take to Qualify for a Dire Need Decision from Social Security Disability?
The Social Security Administration (SSA) spells out the situations that it considers to be economic dire needs that warrant faster disability benefits:
- You’re homeless.
- Your home is uninhabitable because utilities are shut off.
- You’re soon to be homeless because of eviction, foreclosure, or end of a shelter stay—and you have no other housing options.
- You don’t have food and can’t get food.
- You don’t have access to medicine or medical care and can’t get it.
Social Security will consider these situations because they’re an immediate threat to your health and safety.
But say you’re able to stay with family and friends, or get access to food assistance programs, low-cost medical clinics or other resources to help you get by. Then you’ll likely be denied for a speedy dire need approval even though you’re certainly still in a very difficult place.
Getting a disability attorney to help with your application doesn’t cost you anything up front. You don’t pay an attorney fee until you win benefits.
And in a harsh time such as this, a Chicago Social Security Disability lawyer from Nash can be a source of support and caring on your path to a better situation.
Are There Other Ways I Can Speed Up My Disability Claim?
Social Security Disability does recognize other circumstances, besides dire need financial hardship, that justify setting aside their usual steps and approving your benefits more quickly.
Social Security refers to all of these as “critical” cases:
- Having a terminal illness
- Being a military veteran with a 100% disability rating from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
- Qualifying for the military Wounded Warrior program because of an active duty injury or illness
- Compassionate Allowances—a program for people with severe medical conditions that clearly meet Social Security’s definition of a disability without further need for proof
- Risk of violence—when there’s a chance someone could harm themselves or others if they don’t get financial assistance
All of these situations require presenting the right information to Social Security to confirm your status.
And taking advantage of special considerations by Social Security requires knowing what’s available and what you may qualify for.
This is another reason to have an experienced Social Security Disability lawyer look at your claim. Your lawyer will know what you can and should pursue—and what is unlikely to work for you.
The disability attorneys at Nash Disability Law have helped thousands of people.
Let us help you achieve a more secure, stable life.
