SSDI Dire Need Cases
Dire Need Social Security Disability Cases in Michigan
Social Security Disability benefits can save you from financial ruin when you have to stop working because health problems have derailed your life.
Monthly checks from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) help you keep paying for essential needs.
But by far, most people who apply for disability benefits get denied and have to appeal their disability decision.
And it takes months, sometimes longer, to appeal for disability benefits, finally get approved, and be able to rest easier.
In 2022, for example, it was taking on average over nine months to get to a hearing with a disability appeals judge in Michigan. In Ohio, it was 11 months.
What if you’ll completely run out of money and fall into a dangerous crisis before then?
If your economic stress is extreme, you’ve been denied disability benefits, and you’re waiting for a hearing, you can seek to speed up your disability appeal by asking for a dire need SSDI decision.
A disability lawyer from Levine Benjamin Law Firm can help you do this, including guiding you on how to write a dire need letter for SSDI to explain your situation.
Since 1964, we’ve helped more than 80,000 people win Social Security Disability in Detroit, Toledo, Flint, Lansing, Grand Rapids and across Michigan and Ohio.
From applying to appealing, we help you every step of the way.
What Gives You an SSDI Dire Need Case?
Of course, everyone who qualifies for Social Security Disability benefits is experiencing financial stress. They’re all unable to work and anxiously watching the bills pile up.
Social Security is only going to speed up a case for dire economic need when it’s an urgent emergency.
These are the conditions Social Security recognizes for a dire need SSDI request during your disability appeal:
- You’ve reached the point where you can’t get food.
- You can’t pay for or get medical care for your health conditions, including vitally important prescription medications.
- You don’t have safe shelter—because your home is uninhabitable due to utility shutoffs, or you’re facing homelessness.
Social Security will look at whether you’re facing eviction from your home, or foreclosure.
Some people may have savings they can live on while they wait for their disability hearings. Some have a spouse who works and brings in income.
But if your medical impairments have forced you to lose your income, you’ve been denied disability benefits, you have no other resources, and you’re at risk of outright homelessness, you could get Social Security hardship help.
Talk to the disability attorneys at Levine Benjamin. We won’t charge you anything for a conversation about how you can ask for Social Security dire need payment.
We want to help you.
How to Write a Dire Need Letter for SSDI
It’s time to explain your difficult, urgent situation, so you can get a dire need Social Security decision to speed up your disability benefits appeal—and get closer to winning lifesaving benefits.
Here are tips from our disability lawyers on what to put in the dire need letter you need to send to Social Security:
- Describe your struggles in full detail. Don’t hold back on your financial problems. You need your letter to get the attention of Social Security officials.
- Make sure it’s in your own words. You can get help from others as you write it, but you want your letter to be from your heart.
- Give a specific picture of your dire financial situation. This includes exact amounts that you’re behind on bills and descriptions of how crucial services, like medical treatment, have turned you away.
- Send backup documents. Such as copies of overdue bills, electric, gas or water shutoffs, car repossessions, eviction notices, foreclosure notices and bank account statements.
A Social Security Disability lawyer from Levine Benjamin can give you guidance to help you do this letter—and guidance with the whole Social Security Disability process.
You may still have to wait some amount of time to get a decision on disability benefits even if your request to speed up your case is accepted, but a dire need Social Security decision can cut time off your wait—and every day counts.
More than anything, our disability lawyers want to see you reach a better, more stable, more peaceful place, where you don’t have to worry about money for basic survival, because you’re getting assistance from Social Security Disability.
Please reach out to us.