If you have been diagnosed with a mental illness that is so severe you can’t work, you may be able to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Disability benefits can help pay for living expenses when you can’t work. You can be approved for Social Security disability benefits with a mental illness if you have worked in the past but can’t work now and you expect that you won’t be able to work for at least a year.
Applying for disability benefits can be a challenging experience. The Social Security Administration (SSA), which is the federal agency administering the assessment and distribution of benefits, has exacting criteria for eligibility.
The whole process of applying for disability benefits can take at least six months. If your application is denied initially and you are forced to appeal, the process can take much longer.
If you were denied disability benefits but you cannot work, you may still be able to get disability benefits. You can file an appeal if your claim was denied. The denial letter will explain why your claim was denied, so you can provide additional documentation and supporting evidence for your claim. Your denial letter will also specify the deadline for filing an appeal, which is also known as a request for reconsideration.
November 11th is Veterans Day. In recognition of that important annual milestone, here is some information about how veterans can qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Some veterans may wrongly think that they are only able to obtain VA disability benefits, but this is not correct.
Veterans who are severely disabled may qualify for social security disability benefits from the SSA whether their disability happened while on active service or not. SSDI or SSI payments made available through the SSA are independent of VA benefits but must be applied for separately.
It can be a challenging experience to apply for SSDI or SSI, but for some people it can be more challenging than usual. This may be because the applicant has a disability that is harder to prove that is severe enough to qualify for disability benefits.
