ARE YOU INSURED FOR SSDI?

Basically, Social Security disability is an insurance program. SSDI stands for "Social Security Disability Insurance."

To file a claim, you must first be insured for SSDI. Disability insurance is provided by working and having FICA (the Social Security tax) withheld from your paychecks over a period of years. Most people over the age of 31, will need to have worked at least 5 years out of the most recent 10-year period to be insured.

The second requirement is to prove that you have a serious disability which

• has lasted for at least 12 straight months

• is expected to last for at least 12 straight months, OR

• to end in death

Disability work credits are not permanent. When you stop working your work credits began to expire. Generally, after you have not worked in about 5 years, you become uninsured for disability. Even if you suffer a genuine disability, you can't get a benefit if you have become uninsured.

Even if you worked and paid into Social Security for 30 years, it doesn't necessarily mean that you now insured. I use this example:

I pay my auto insurance policy for 30 years. Then, I stop paying for one reason or another. My auto insurance expires. I have a wreck a week later. I am no longer insured. I complain, "I paid you guys for 30 years! Now you tell me I have no coverage?" But, of course, you don't.

Social Security is the same way. You must be insured at the time your disability begins. It doesn't matter if you were insured years ago.

How to find out if you have insured status for disability: Call your Local Social Security field office and ask "WHEN IS MY DATE LAST INSURED OR DLI?" If they give you a date in the future, you are insured until that date. If they give you a date in the past, your disability insurance expired on that date.

Note: You are allowed to file ONE disability claim AFTER your insurance has expired. But only one. You must prove that your disability began before your SSDI coverage expired. Your atorney can explain the ins and outs of SSDI coverage.