SSDI attorney Boston

July 31, 2019

SSDI Derivative Benefits for Exes, Spouses, Children

If you’re receiving Social Security Disability Insurance benefits (or plan to apply) and are also weighing a divorce or in the midst of one, you should know there may be an impact if you are to receive spousal support. Marriage, too, can have an impact.

No one gets married presuming they may get divorced, just as no one anticipates suffering an injury that will leave them unable to work. Yet 40 to 50 percent of U.S. marriages end in divorce, according to the American Psychological Association, and roughly 130 workers out of every 1,000 are injured on-the-job or become sick as the result of workplace conditions.

(Although workers’ compensation benefits require proof that an injury/illness occurred in the course and scope of employment, the same is not true of SSDI. As our Boston SSDI attorneys can explain, one needs to show they paid into the system for a period of time AND that their condition is disabling for a year or more or terminal.) Continue reading

February 24, 2018

Boston SSDI Lawyers: In Defense of Social Security Disability Benefits

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

“Do you really think Social Security Disability Insurance is part of what people think of when they think of Social Security? I don’t think so.” – Mick Mulvaney, the Office of Management and Budget’s director, May 2017
“Over half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Join the club. Who doesn’t get a little anxious for work every day and their back hurts?” -Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky), January 2015
“It’s hard to say what came first or caused the other, the population decline or increased (SSDI) usage. Or maybe economic stagnation caused both. Regardless, there seems to be at least at the county and regional level something like a disability tipping point.” -Sen. Tom Cotton, (R-AR), November 2015

These are the kinds of justifications made by politicians aiming to slash the SSDI program, painting it as a welfare program for people who are simply too lazy to work. Of course, as our SSDI lawyers in Massachusetts know well, this is a common misconception that ignores the reality of the situation. Specifically, it ignores the fact that a person has to have worked for least five of the last 10 years in order to be eligible for SSDI, and further that the average disability recipient has worked 22 years prior to getting benefits. Continue reading

April 8, 2016

Obama: Permanently Disabled Student Loan Forgiveness

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Those deemed permanently disabled by the Social Security Administration (SSA) are entitled to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, assuming they worked for a time prior to the onset of their disability.

They are also, unlike almost every other former student, entitled to student loan debt forgiveness. However, very few took advantage of this, despite the fact that many struggle to meet the basic needs of themselves and their families.

Now, the Obama administration is making a point to root out and identify those who have this been designated totally and permanently disabled and forgive their student loans – a total of $7.7 billion in federal student loans. Continue reading