Each year the Social Security Administration receives millions of disability applications. Some applicants choose to work with a Social Security Disability attorney while others choose not to. If you are considering applying for disability benefits you may be wondering whether or not you really need a disability attorney in order to apply for the benefits you need.

More often than not you will be told it can take a year or more for disability benefits to be awarded. Why does it take so long for the Social Security Administration to approve most of the disability claims it receives, and why are some people approved for benefits more quickly than others?

Many disability applicants send their applications to the Social Security Administration expecting the process to be short and to be approved in just three to four months. Sometimes that happens. Most frequently, however, it does not.

Some people wait more than a year to receive their day in court and to be scheduled for a Social Security Disability hearing. While two-thirds of appeals are won at the hearing stage of the disability claim process, you need to make sure you do everything you can to help turn the tables in your favor.

If you are going through the disability appeals process and want to ensure the best chances of winning your appeal, make sure that you take the following advice into consideration when you arrive at the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review.

Millions of people apply for Social Security Disability benefits each year. Out of those millions of applications received by the Social Security Administration, only thirty percent are approved at the initial level of the disability claim process. Why are so many Social Security Disability claims denied?

Having a disability may prevent you from working and may impose other limits on your social interactions. It doesn’t have to mean you lose all contact with the outside world or that you stop doing things that are important to you. You can continue your involvement in certain volunteer activities.

It is important to understand however that the amount of volunteer time you commit can affect disability benefit eligibility. The types of volunteer activities in which you participate can affect eligibility as well.

Volunteer Work Evaluations

The disability application and review processes are time consuming. If you’ve been denied benefits and can't work then the wait can be even longer, as you will need to file an appeal. Making ends meet while you wait for a decision can be challenging. Here are some tips to help you get through.

Tip #1: Work While Waiting

X-linked lymphoproliferative disorder is a rare immune disorder caused by genetic mutations on the X chromosome. The disorder, which only affects males, results in uncontrolled production of lymphocytes, or white blood cells. Symptoms usually begin at six months to 10 years old.

If you are interested in applying for Social Security Disability benefits, it is likely that you are not capable of working and therefore are living off of limited income. In circumstances such as these, it can be difficult to find the money each month to pay for things like rent, heat, electricity, water, and—in some cases—student loans.

In a recent blog post we discussed the ways in which SSDI benefits could potentially be affected by divorce. Today we thought we would discuss the ways in which SSI benefits can be affected by divorce.

This question was sent to us on Twitter. Feel free to leave your disability benefit questions in the comment section below and we may answer them in a future blog post. Today’s question is:

As we discussed in our previous blog post, eligibility for disability benefits is based around a person’s ability work. But what does that really mean? In today’s blog post, we’ll be answering a question that was sent to us on Twitter. It touches upon being able to work, hire-ability, and disability benefits. As always, if you have a question that you’d like us to answer in a future blog post, leave it in the comment section below.