Social Security Disability Insurance Requirements and an Attorneys Worth
by Rainier Policarpio
In the United States, any California disabled person is eligible to apply for Social
Security Disability Insurance or SSDI. This federal program aims to provide
financial support to those California workers who can no longer perform their jobs and
sustain their daily necessities.
Requirements
In applying for disability insurance with the Social Security Administration,
the California applicants are required to bring the following documents to their initial
interviews:
• Social Security Number
• Original copy of birth certificate or any valid document that will prove the
applicant’s age
• Names, addresses and contact information of healthcare professionals,
hospitals and clinics that rendered their medical services to the applicant, as
well as the dates the treatment or rehabilitation took place
• List of jobs and companies done in the past
• Latest copy of the applicant’s W-2 form or federal tax returns if the
applicant happen to be self-employed
Note: The SSA is willing to help the applicants to obtain these documents to
complete the needed information
Aside form these documents, an California applicant must have also met the required number
of work credits to qualify for SSDI benefits. The required credits will depend
on the age when he began working. Further information regarding this may be seen
on the SSA’s website at www.ssa.gov.
How does the SSA Determines Disability
After the applicants submitted their SSDI applications, an evaluation team from
the State’s Disability Determination Services (DDS) office will assess their
cases. This group of individuals is consisted of a health care specialist and an
expert disability evaluator.
The following conditions will be used in determining an applicant’s disability:
• A person’s disability must hinder him from exercising “substantial gainful
activities.”
• Impairments included on the approved list of illnesses will be processed
directly. Those that are not will still have to be determined based on its
severity.
• The applicant’s disability must affect his capability to perform similar California jobs
that he or she had for the last fifteen years.
• An applicant who receives a monthly income of $500 or above is more likely be
denied.
