Types

• There are two different types of Social Security funds that can be paid to a person with a disability. The first type of payment is made from the Social Security Disability Insurance fund and the claimant must have worked a certain amount of time in order to be eligible to receive these benefits. The other type of payment comes from the Supplement Security Income fund. This is for a person who has a financial need due to the fact that he can not work, but he has not worked long enough to pay into the regular Social Security Disability Insurance fund.
  
  

Function

• The Social Security Administration does not pay anything for partial disability. A person must be 100% disabled in order to be considered for payment. The Administration determines whether or not an applicant can do the work that he has done previously or whether he can be trained to do work in that or another field. If he cannot do this work or trained for other work and if his disability has continued for at least one year or will last for at least one year then he may be eligible to receive benefits through one of their programs.
  
  

Features

• If a person feels that he may be eligible to meet the requirements and criteria to receive benefits from the Social Security Disability Insurance program then he can complete an application online. There is also an online report which is called an Adult Disability Report which must be completed at the time the benefits application is completed. The Adult Disability Report asks questions that go further into detail and it also asks for the applicant to give his express permission for the Social Security Administration to contact his physician to retrieve medical records.
  
  

Benefits

• The Social Security Administration will also consider paying benefits to certain members of an applicant's family. An adult child who is disabled may apply for benefits under a parent's work record if that child became disabled before the age of 22. Certain senior citizens over 65 may be eligible for Supplemental Security Income even though they do not have a disability, but they have a financial need. The payment that is received from the Disability Social Security Insurance is made on a monthly basis and depends on the amount that person has earned on average over his lifetime.
  
  

Considerations

• A claimant's primary physician is not the person who decides whether or not the claimant is disabled. The medical records which have been kept by a claimant's primary doctor and any specialists will be reviewed by the Disability Determination Office in the applicant's state. This office will look at all of the medical records and tests in question and make the disability decision after carefully reviewing these records and corresponding with physicians who have treated the applicant. Claimants who have been denied initially have the right to go through an appeals process.