Mistakes people make in applying for disability

1. Waiting too long

I have seen it happen to people. Multiple “go fund me” efforts over several years. Each time needing help to pay bills because of disability makes them lose their jobs.

There are several reasons for this:

Not wanting to admit you are disabled.

“It will get better.”
Maybe it will, but it doesn’t hurt to apply if this keeps happening, You can always drop your application if things change. It is hard to accept being disabled, but repeatedly setting up “go fund me” accounts or asking friends, family, or strangers to help you fund your life is a pattern you eventually have to accept.

The process is too difficult.

You never know until you try. The initial application is online. Go to https://www.ssa.gov/applyfordisability/index.htm . The site says, “Social Security offers an online disability application you can complete at your convenience. Apply from the comfort of your home or any location at a time most convenient for you. You do not need to drive to your local Social Security office or wait for an appointment with a Social Security representative.”
Here is a checklist for what you need to apply online. https://www.ssa.gov/hlp/radr/10/ovw001-checklist.pdf The process gives you the ability to save it and add to it as you gather more info.

I don’t know if I am disabled ENOUGH.

Let them decide. Just start now. You never know until you apply. There are only a few conditions that get automatic approval. Most are a process. If you can’t work enough to achieve Substantial Gainful Activity then you are disabled. In court it my disability was decided by the judge because I had not been able to physically work enough to achieve Substantial Gainful Activity. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/sga.html

“To be eligible for disability benefits, a person must be unable to engage in substantial gainful activity (SGA). A person who is earning more than a certain monthly amount (net of impairment-related work expenses) is ordinarily considered to be engaging in SGA.”
“Amounts for 2026
The monthly SGA amount for statutorily blind individuals for 2026 is $2830. For non-blind individuals, the monthly SGA amount for 2026 is $1690. SGA for the blind does not apply to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, while SGA for the non-blind disabled applies to Social Security and SSI benefits.”

2. Waiting for some company that is going to help you apply. And charge you lots of money for it!

You do not need this. It will delay the process. Just apply online and get started.I have seen people do this and find themselves waiting. If you need help, have a friend help you with your application. I personally would not waste my money!
One person was told she had to “choose” which disability she wanted to use to apply. This is NOT valid. It is about all your conditions combined and the ability to reach substantial gainful activity. If you have multiple conditions, the problem is not one issue in isolation. It is a combination of how all the issues affect your ability to work. The application process does not ask you to choose a condition.

Social Security will ask for all your providers and approximate dates and they send for your records directly. Diagnoses comes from this, but it is NOT about diagnoses. It is about functioning. And you (or someone you know) will still have to get the provider information together for submission.

3. Not appealing every denial!

You WILL be denied, repeatedly. If you don't appeal, you have to start the process over which changes your application date. This is important because when you get your settlement, the lump sum will go back to your initial application date. Do not loose this date once you have established it by applying!

Why it is important to apply NOW!

Time constraints for SSDI

First, if you are applying for SSDI (work history based) and not SSI (for those with extremely limited assets, you need to do this within a certain amount of time.

https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/disability/qualify.html

“Whatever your age, you must have earned the required number of work credits within a certain period ending with the time your disability begins. If you are eligible now, but you stop working under Social Security today, you may not continue to meet the disability work requirement in the future.”

If you wait to long, you may not be eligible for SSDI anymore. Then your only option is to run down your resources until you have almost nothing left and are eligible for needs based SSI.

The day you file your initial disability application is the day that you nail down your initial disability date. If you are eventually approved, this will be the date that your lump sum settlement starts.

Some differences between SSI and SSDI (list not exhaustive).

The application process is the same. When I went through it I had to go to the office and tell them I was not eligible for SSI because of a retirement policy. They again asked in court why I did not get SSI. They seem to want you to get SSI, I suspect because it is funded by taxpayers and is not part of the Social Security entitlement trust funded by people who actively work. Here is a good resource: https://www.ssa.gov/sf/FactSheets/aianssavsssifinalrev.pdf

Different funding:

SSDI is funded by the Social Security fund and what people paid into it, so it is limited. SSI is funded by taxpayer revenue.https://russellandhill.com/blog/difference-between-ssi-ssdi-benefits/

Different health benefits:

With SSDI you get Medicare. With SSI you get Medicaid.

The financial benefit is different:

https://specialneedsanswers.com/three-big-differences-between-ssi-and-ssdi-14866#
In 2025, the federal standard SSI benefit amount is $967 per month for an individual. For couples, the federal SSI payment standard is $1,450 per month.
The average SSDI payment in 2025 is an estimated $1,580 a month. This is an increase from $1,542 per month in 2024. Since SSDI is based on your earnings record, some SSDI recipients can receive much more than this. The maximum amount an SSDI recipient can get is $4,018 per month.

You can have assets with SSDI. With SSI, your assets are severely limited.

Don’t lie about this like I have seen people do, and then they struggle to hide money later.https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-resources-ussi.htm“The limit for countable resources is $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple.”
You may have one car, one house + the land it sits on, $1500 in life insurance, a burial plot, household goods.
So if you have a decent life insurance policy or a retirement policy, you won’t be eligible for SSI, only SSDI (based on work history).

What to expect in the process

(based on my experience and I applied on 12/21/2016 and got my award level on 11/5/2018)

First, apply online.

Fill everything out. I can’t remember this exactly, as it was a decade ago, and it has likely changed since then. There is a copy of the adult disability report here: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-3368-bk.pdf The process gives you the ability to save it and add to it as you gather more info. Again, here is a link to their checklist: https://www.ssa.gov/hlp/radr/10/ovw001-checklist.pdf

You will have to give a work history.

This is a part of the disability report linked in the previous section. They will send a bunch of forms by mail (or did then). It is hard for some of us to fill things out in handwriting, but that is part of what they are evaluating. They have a reason for everything they do, even if it doesn’t seem to make sense.

You will have to give a list of doctors you have seen.

You do not have to get your own records. Social security will send or them. I included many over my lifetime.
For the record, they will not all answer. In my case, lots of records were gone. Before electronic records, doctors did not keep records forever due to space constraints. Some of my issues were unable to be validated at all. I still was awarded disability in the end.
You will find out that the doctors give invalid information. I had one doctor say I never showed up for my appointment when I had records in my own files of the detailed six week physical therapy program I was going through and notes signed by that physical therapist. Expect this and don’t be discouraged.

You will have to fill out information on your daily activities and limitations.

Explain it all. It all matters. Just be honest and real. Some disabilities are invisible, but can severely impact functioning. Also, some disabilities are unpredictable and dynamic. But who would hire someone that can work some days without being able to predict when they can’t or when they suddenly can’t function for weeks, months, or years. Just tell your story and be honest! You wouldn’t be applying if you felt you had another alternative.

They will periodically send you forms in the mail that have to be filled out IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING.

At least that is the process that I went through. You can have someone help you if needed, but you will have to list that person as having helped you.

You likely will be denied, initially.

Expect it! That is how they weed people out of the system. YOU HAVE TO APPEAL. Your initial disability date starts the day you finalize your online application. If you don’t appeal and reapply later, this date starts over. If you are doing this based on work history, you may lose the ability to qualify for SSDI and then have no option but to use up ALL your resources and then apply later for SSI when you meet the “lack of resources” criteria.

Your appeal will also likely be denied.

Again, expect this! I don’t know anyone who did not have to go to the third step after application and appeal.

You will have to be evaluated for if you qualify for SSI instead of SSDI.

I had to go in person, but was immediately disqualified for SSI because of a retirement account.

Administrative Law Hearing.

This is where you go before a judge. I did not have a lawyer before this step, but did not want to represent myself in court as I had tried that in a Worker’s Comp hearing and the lawyers on the other side ripped my credibility apart. I do know one person who successfully represented themselves in court, but I wasn’t going to risk that.
In my hearing, there was only one real question: Why didn’t you get SSI? Easy… I have a retirement policy and I am ineligible.

Within five minutes, the judge awarded me disability. Not because of a specific condition. He looked at the work I had done in the two years since I applied, trying to make ends meet as my body allowed. He said right away, “That is not a sustainable income.”

The percent the lawyer gets is defined by law.

They cannot ask for more. In my case, my lawyer was lucky, as I didn’t even hire her until the hearing, so she got her cut just for the hearing and preparing for it.

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Notes from my personal situation

I was awarded disability. They actually dated it back to a work injury in 2009, although my hearing was in 2018. With the work injury, they kept telling me that it was temporary and it would heal. It never did. I developed more injuries over time. At that time I had my hearing, I did not have an official diagnosis of hEDS, only a collection of injuries and symptoms that had increased over time. Lots of MRIs of different body parts.

And this was despite a couple years of not having insurance and not being able to see a doctor. I did eventually find a charity clinic to keep my medical history up to date. And this is important. With every provider.

I would type of my issues before appointments and ask them to upload them to my record. I put that effort in because doctors do not have time to take a real history. Things get made up in records all the time. I see this because I ask for my records and I send corrections. And I get fired by doctors. But as a veterinarian who did research for a living, I know how important documentation is, and providing your own documentation to your providers to upload to your file might be the only way to get the whole picture in your medical record.

When I knew they would ask me for pain levels, I would give them a chart. Of each joint. Of the pain level and functioning of different activities. With joint braces and without. Some things I could do with bracing and not without. Some I couldn’t do at all, and pain could not explain the reality of the situation. Pain is always there, but when you can’t use nail clippers or cut your own food, that is a functioning issue, and that matters.

Also, if you are asked to do a Functional Capacity Evaluation, be careful. I was injured during my FCE during the workers’ comp fiasco. Thought I had to try my best and force my way through it. I could not lift my arm for two months after that evaluation. I never returned to baseline and I was already injured. So be careful, and know your body. If you know putting nuts on bolts over your head for 20 minutes might ruin your arm, don’t do it like I thought I had to. The effects of that evaluation may become your new baseline and might permanently lower your overall functioning level. It did that for me… but since I performed it and there was no follow-up ever, like there should be for those things, no one saw the aftermath. That I could no longer lift my arm from my side for months. So let that be a lesson.

Another thing I learned is that you can apply for disability while on Worker’s Compensation. I did not know that and did not apply until WC ran it’s course. I was asked why I didn’t apply sooner. I told them the truth. They told me the injuries were temporary and would heal, but they didn’t. I didn’t know you could apply for Social Security Disability while still getting Worker’s Compensation payments, but found out that wasn’t true. You can apply, but the benefits will be offset by the Worker’s Compensation amount. Had I known I was actually disabled and applied, I could have possibly gotten Medicare ahead of disability benefits and not had that gap in health history where I couldn’t afford insurance, before I found the charity clinic. All things I learned along the way.