When you have serious heart problems that prevent you from being able to continue in your employment (i.e., keep working), you may be able to obtain disability benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
The SSA uses a set of criteria to determine whether your heart problems are serious enough to warrant you receiving disability benefits. If you cannot match these criteria sufficiently, but the SSA evaluates your situation using their grid rules and determines that your circumstances warrant disability benefits, you have the possibility of your case being granted disability benefits.
The SSA’s grid rules look at several factors, some of which include your age, education level, and work history. Once you are over 50, your age makes it easier for you to obtain a benefit.
Grid Rules and Qualifying for Disability Benefits with Heart Problems Over 50
For the most part, grid rules are used when your heart problem symptoms don’t exactly match any of the criteria in the SSA’s Blue Book. To determine whether you are still eligible for disability benefits, the SSA then applies its grid rules to your case in order to assess a range of factors that will help them determine whether you are still eligible to receive disability benefits. The factors assessed using grid rules include the following:
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• existing skills;
• education level;
• how old you are;
• how much physical work you can do;
• how transferrable any skills you have to another occupation;
If you are over 50, for example, you will find that it becomes easier to obtain a benefit. This is because the SSA takes into account the fact that you become less employable as you age. In other words, the older you get, the more likely it is for employers to overlook your job application because they think that you are too old.
Also, it is considered that any skills you have acquired are less transferrable to another occupation as you are less able to learn any new skills.
Medical Requirements for Heart Problems and Disability Benefits
One of the most important requirements for any disability benefits application is to be able to prove that the symptoms of your heart problems are severe enough to justify you receiving benefits. The SSA uses its own Blue Book listings to establish whether your symptoms match the criteria necessary to be recognized as a disability. Heart problems are quite varied and those recognized as disabilities are listed in the Blue Book’s listing: 4.00 Cardiovascular System – Adult.
How to Apply For Disability Benefits With Heart Problems Over 50
If you are over the age of 50, you tend to have a higher likelihood of qualifying for disability benefits with heart problems.
Most disability benefit applications are made through the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) assessment process. This SSDI assessment process is based on whether you have paid enough Social Security Insurance contributions throughout the period of time in which you were previously employed as well as work credits. Social Security Insurance contributions are normally paid as part of your payroll tax. In terms of work credits, the more you have worked, the more work credits you are likely to have. Most people accumulate 4 work credits for every year of work they have completed.
At age 50, you need a minimum of 28 work credits (7 years of work history) to qualify for SSDI.
In addition to work history, medical evidence supporting your heart problems and disability benefits claim must be made available to the SSA. This includes medical history, exactly how your heart problems have developed, results of tests and scans, hospital treatment(s) and surgery(s) records, and assessments conducted by medical professionals.
Your disability benefits application must also show that you cannot work for at least the next 12 months. A residual functional capacity (RFC) assessment can help you to establish this to the SSA. Additionally, an RFC can demonstrate what sort of work you are now capable of doing (if any) and what you are not capable of doing.
Get Help With Your Heart Problems Disability Benefits Claim
It can be challenging trying to obtain disability benefits even when you are over 50. You may have a better chance of obtaining benefits if you work with a disability attorney.
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