DISABILITY BENEFITS IN AN EMERGENCY
How Do I Apply for Emergency Disability Benefits in Michigan & Ohio?
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) provide vital financial relief when your health stops you from working, but Social Security doesn’t move quickly to approve applications for benefits.
In fact, it can take months or years. You probably want to know if you can ask them for a faster decision.
If you’re applying for disability benefits, after all, you need financial assistance now.
You can ask Social Security to speed up their decision if your situation is an emergency—but their idea of an emergency may be different from yours.
Losing the ability to work because of health problems is always a serious crisis, but Social Security will only issue a faster decision on disability benefits in the most extreme cases. Most people still have to wait.
But for a particularly aggressive disease, or an immediate risk of losing your home or going hungry, the Social Security Administration (SSA) does offer options to get benefits faster.
It can be tough to figure out which programs apply to your situation and how to make your needs clear to the government.
The Michigan and Ohio disability lawyers of the Levine Benjamin Law Firm can help.
We’ve been helping people with their disability claims for more than 60 years.
We’re the top disability firm based in Michigan measured by how much we win for our clients, as reported by Social Security.
Our disability attorneys can help you find the program that might secure your benefits as quickly as possible, including:
- A Compassionate Allowance for obviously disabling conditions
- A terminal illness, or “TERI,” case
- Extreme financial distress, called “dire need” cases
- SSI benefits for severe illness while your claim is pending—called “presumptive disability”
An initial consultation to discuss your options for emergency or expedited disability benefits is free, and we don’t charge an upfront fee for our assistance getting approved for benefits. You only pay an attorney’s fee if you win benefits.
From applying to appealing, we help you every step of the way.
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Which Conditions Qualify for Compassionate Allowances?
The SSA Compassionate Allowances program is for people who clearly have a health impairment that would prevent them from working.
Social Security keeps a list of specific diseases that qualify for Compassionate Allowances. The list includes many aggressive forms of cancer.
Listed impairments include:
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Alzheimer’s disease (early onset)
- Breast cancer (severe forms)
- Dementia (certain types)
- Epilepsy (certain, severe forms)
- Glioblastoma brain tumors
- Huntington disease
- Leukemia (acute)
- Lymphoma (mantle cell)
- Muscular dystrophy (certain forms)
- Pulmonary fibrosis (idiopathic)
You shouldn’t have to ask Social Security for a Compassionate Allowance. Their systems should flag your claim if you have one of the diseases on their list of eligible impairments.
Instead of waiting many months to get your claim evaluated, you could receive a decision in as little as two to three weeks.
The Compassionate Allowance program is an incredible help to people with serious diseases who need benefits as soon as possible.
What Is a Social Security Disability “TERI” Case?
When an applicant has a terminal illness, Social Security considers that a “TERI” case (short for “terminal illness”) and strives to process the application for disability benefits as quickly as possible.
There’s no specific timeline for when a TERI case is approved, but most are decided within several weeks. Examiners follow up on TERI cases every 10 days to make sure the claim is moving through the process as it should.
Similar to Compassionate Allowances, you don’t have to ask for a TERI case because the SSA should flag it automatically. But you need to include clear evidence in your disability claim that your condition is terminal.
That is, evidence like this:
- A diagnosis of ALS, AIDS or certain cancers
- Evidence that the claimant is receiving hospice or in-home palliative care
- Evidence that the claimant is dependent on a cardiopulmonary life-sustaining device
- Clinical notes from the treating physician and doctors who specialize in treating the claimant’s illness
- Blood work, lab tests or imaging results that document the illness and its spread
- Hospitalization records
The more medical documentation you include, the better the odds of Social Security flagging your application for disability benefits as a TERI case.
An experienced Social Security Disability lawyer can make sure your claim has the information it needs for Social Security to see that you need a faster decision.
What Is a Dire Needs Letter in Disability Claims?
A dire needs letter can help you get SSDI or SSI benefits faster no matter what kind of health condition you suffer from.
This is about a dire economic situation, not a dire medical one. You must show you are experiencing extreme financial stress, and you can’t wait for the normal process to play out.
Instead of waiting for months to hear from Social Security Disability, you could have your claim evaluated within 30 days.
The SSA can consider you in dire economic need if:
- You have reached a point where you can no longer afford food and other basics to sustain yourself.
- You no longer have safe shelter because you’re facing homelessness or your home is uninhabitable due to utility shutoffs.
- You cannot pay for vital medical care for your health conditions.
For a dire need case, you need to request help. Social Security doesn’t automatically flag cases of dire financial need like it does cases of the most severe illnesses.
You need to send Social Security a letter including details about your struggles, your urgent financial distress and evidence backing up your claim.
Foreclosure or eviction notices, overdue utility bills and bank statements can all help show Social Security that you should get consideration for a dire need designation.
You can send a dire needs letter during the disability application process or after you’ve been denied disability benefits and need to appeal.
The Levine Benjamin Michigan disability attorneys can help you write your letter and tell Social Security about your hardships.
Who Qualifies for Presumptive Disability Benefits for SSI?
Presumptive disability benefits are another way to get financial assistance sooner. This is only for SSI cases. SSI benefits are for people with work-stopping disabilities who also show limited economic means.
Under presumptive disability, you can get immediate SSI benefits while you’re waiting on a permanent decision on your SSI application.
You must have an observable disability that should easily meet the SSA’s standards for disability. Then you can start receiving SSI before your application is formally approved.
Some conditions that can qualify for presumptive disability include:
- Amputation of the leg at the hip
- Cerebral palsy
- End-stage renal disease
- Total hearing loss
- Blindness
- A terminal illness with a life expectancy of six months or less
Keep in mind that having one of these impairments doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be approved for presumptive disability.
When you apply for disability benefits in person at a local Social Security office or over the phone, you can ask about presumptive disability benefits and have proof of your impairment to back up your claim.
You could receive up to six months of SSI payments while you wait for your disability claim to get approved.
When you’re approved, you’ll keep receiving benefits. If your SSI claim isn’t successful, you can appeal just like any other applicant would.
You won’t need to worry about paying back any of the benefits you already received. Social Security doesn’t count presumptive disability benefits as overpayments.
There’s one more important thing to know. You can only try to win presumptive disability benefits during the application process.
If you’ve been denied SSI benefits and need to appeal, you can’t seek presumptive disability status.
With clearly debilitating or terminal illnesses, however, you could get a faster decision through a Compassionate Allowance or TERI designation.
Make sure your disability claim is updated with the latest information on the severity of your condition, or work with a disability lawyer who keeps your claim up to date.
Talk to Our Detroit Disability Lawyers
The rules for some of these programs can sound similar, and there’s even some overlap between them.
Some programs are only for certain benefits. Sometimes you need to ask for help and other times Social Security does things automatically.
It can make a difference whether you’re asking for some of these forms of help during the application phase or during appeals.
It gets confusing and makes this process even more stressful.
If you are in a situation where you need disability benefits right now to pay your bills and support yourself, talk to a Detroit disability lawyer at Levine Benjamin as soon as possible.
We’ve helped more than 100,000 people across Michigan, Ohio and Indiana secure benefits and get on a path of better financial stability.
The Levine Benjamin team can help you understand what types of benefits you could qualify for and what your options are for emergency or expedited claims.
It won’t cost you anything to talk to us about your claim. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation today.