You do not need to hire a disability lawyer to apply for Social Security disability benefits. In the United States, any litigant can choose to represent themselves. However, we recommend hiring an attorney to represent you during the entire Social Security disability application process. Should I Get a Lawyer Before…

Although the terms “Title II Benefits” and “Title XVI” benefits are not as commonly used, they correspond directly to what we refer to more frequently as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, respectively. The terms “Title II” and “Title XVI” come from the parts of…

If you applied for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits and were denied, now is not the time to give up. Only about thirty percent of applicants are approved initially with just their application, and approximately half of the people who appeal the denial decision are ultimately approved for benefits.…

Whether you have applied for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, you will have questions throughout the process. More often than not, you’ll be wondering what the status of your claim is. Fortunately, there are a variety of ways that you can keep tabs on…

We recently discussed Social Security Administration’s Compassionate Allowance program that allows certain applicants to be fast-tracked for benefits on the diagnosis of a specific condition alone. For applicants who have been diagnosed with a terminal disease, Social Security also allows for an expedited review process called the TERI (terminal illness)…

Great news! It took months after you submitted your disability application to have your hearing scheduled, and the date is finally approaching. Is it possible that after all that time, you’re hearing might be postponed? Unfortunately, yes. But it may be because of circumstances outside your control, and you might…

Once your Social Security disability hearing is over, you’ll probably breathe a sigh of relief. After all, you scrambled to find every piece of paperwork that Social Security asked for when you applied for disability benefits, and you prepared diligently for the questions that the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) would…

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are two separate disability benefits programs that were designed to meet the needs of different groups of disabled Americans. But there are some situations in which disabled individuals can collect both SSDI and SSI benefits, called concurrent benefits. The simplest…

Although Social Security Disability (SSD) is what most people think of when it comes to disability benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a means-based disability program that can be a lifeline for disabled individuals who have either never worked because of their disability or cannot qualify for SSD because they…