How does receiving Disability affect my Social Security benefits later in life?

Question from: Suzjoy

I started getting Disability in my 50s, and am now 61. I receive just Disability (not SSI), and am wondering what happens at age 65? Do I start receiving regular SS, and does it end earlier than if I hadnever gotten Disability?? Thanks.

Answer from : Little78


If you are receiving Social Security disability benefits when you reach full retirement age, those benefits will be converted to retirement benefits.
Source(s):
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10035...


To add to the above answer, there is no "ending" to Social Security. You get it as long as you live.

Source: Yahoo Answers

What steps does it take to qualify for disability from the state because of anxiety and depression?

Question from: Mel

I'm on my second leave of absence in the past year....I've worked maybe 3 months in the past year. The disability payments from work will only last so long and I'm not sure if I can go back to work at all after that....everytime I think about it...I get sick (nausea, vomiting, pounding heart, and crying). I know that my employers think that I'm lying which of course makes it worse and I think actually led me wind up going on sick leave the second time. I'm frustrated because I am used to taking care of myself and my kids, but now I feel helpless. All this worrying is not good for me and I know it, but as we all know money makes the world go round and without it we're lost. I feel like I'm turning into a recluse and that's very scary, especially since I have kids...the youngest of which, has no relationship with her father...so of course he's no help at all. I have suffered from anxiety my entire life, but it's gotten progressively worse over the past 10 years.

I'm not looking for a hand-out...I'm looking for help. If I can't out of bed to go to work...what am I supposed to do. Perhaps you think suicide would be a better option...wouldn't want to be a problem for you or society.

Of course I've tried doctors and medication...eventually they stop working and when they do work it's not perfect, otherwise I would be at work.

Your very ignorant to think I want a hand out...I'd rather be working...making a real check like I always have in the past. Yeah I'm real happy since I can't work...ooo hoo free time to sit at home and be miserable, with no one who understands. I sit at home every day...I'm not out partying, meeting with friends or having any fun at all....I'm sick, not lazy. People always invite me out, but they don't get it....my anxiety has me like a prisoner in my own body. I wonder when it will end or just be as bad it was before...at least I could still function.
You can judge me if you like, but I just wanted some help

Answer from: Zen

Please don't give up! Are you on antidepressents? If you are, theyr'e not the right ones for you! I waited till I was in my late forties to even go see a doctor, only then because my days had become so dark, I literally wanted to die rather than live this way. I was so anxious at times, I wanted to drink and just stay in the house with the blinds closed. I had to work, but just the drive had me fighting panic attacks the whole way there. I became so neurotic that I started counting things,.OCD. I lost weight, wanted to sleep all day, couldn't stay asleep at night. I trid meditation, self-help books and tapes, herbal vitamins, shots of Nyquil, u-name-it! I could tell you stories...like getting paranoid at bank & stores, leaving a full grocery cart behind. I had an attack years ago in an intersection in left lane, sooooo..I avoided most ALL left hand turns. I cried, got mad, withdrew, didn't find pleasure in ANYTHING!!!!!.....Then, there came a little med called Paxil. I tried two or three other ones, but they didn't work as well. 6 months later, I have NO panic attacks, my depressed moments are just normal moments. I don't count everything in sight...and I hated math!!!! I rarely cry and haven't thrown a dish across the room in months. You may need a little xanax until the meds "kick in", which takes a couple weeks...But, you'll be so glad you did!!!!!!!!!!ps..u can always e mail me! Hugs to you! oooooooooo oh, And I also considered looking into dissability as the last resort!

Last note from: Mel

Thanks so much for the support. I'm feeling a little better today. I'll see my doc on Tuesday, hopefully we can figure something else out. By the way, I been through most of the things you've been through. It's funny we always feel alone and so many of us are going through the same things.

Source: Yahoo Answers

Looking for toilets

The search for a model disabled-friendly rest room yielded some interesting results.

I was involved in an unusual assignment a week ago. Together with another gentleman in a wheelchair, accompanied by a team of experts from the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ), our montley crew went out as “roving investigator” in Petaling Jaya.

We went to look at, of all things, toilet. And we were only interested in loos that were user-friendly for disabled and elderly individuals.

The purpose of our trip was a well-known hotel. We oozed and aahed at most of the outfit’s disabled-friendly designs. The most impressive was the entry/exit door of the loo, which was an electronic one.

All a patron in a wheelchair needed to do was press a button with one finger and presto: it would open for him. Once inside he has only to push another button. The door closes, offering him all the privacy he needs.

If only all other hotels in the country would follow the good example of the hotel we visited and provide electronics doors as well, it would make the lives of disabled and elderly persons much easier when they visit such outfits.

Even though posh hotels may have disabled-friendly loos little attention is given to he doors. The doors are often so heavy that we have a hard time trying to open them.

Not everything was smooth sailing during our assignment. Together with the good came the not-so-good.

We had a lesson on how important it was to train everyone to handle an emergency.

When we tried to get into the loo for the first time it suddenly got locked and refused to open untill 20 minutes later. None of the staff knew how to open the door.

They claimed the person in charge was not around. Fortunately, this was not real emergency. We dreaded to think of what could happened if disabled person had fallen inside the loo and needed help.

It was disappointing too that the five-star hotel had a steep ramp at its entrance which disabled guests were forced to use to access the building.

The reserved parking lot for disabled was located far from the entrance to the building.

The management promised to rectify the situation soonest possible.

Our journey also took us to Ikea and Ikano shopping centers in Mutiara Damansara.

No sooner had we arrived when we were greeted by smiling security guards at the generously-size parking lots for the disabled. These people are so serious about their car parks for the handicapped that they clamp any unauthorized cars and make them pay a fine for abusing the facilities.

The money collected is donated to a local charity for disabled.

I was shocked to hear about the reactions of some people who misuse the disabled parking bays. One or two of them even resorted to violence when their cars were clamped, I was told.

The majority, however, apologetic when they realized the errors of their ways.

As for the toilets, especially Ikea’s, I think they have close to the perfect one I’ve seen so far.

The toilet is spacious enough for a helper to accompany a disabled person. There’s an alarm bell (panic button) in case of emergency and a face mirror that leans slightly downwards from a strategic height to allow a wheelchair-user to view his upper body.

We were all touched by the willingness of these two shopping centers to improve on what they were providing for shoppers.

(Articles written by Anthony Thanasayan - athanasayan[at]yahoo.com)

She had her tubes tied so that she could care for disabled child

THE baby's brain is only 1mm wide.

DEVOTED: Madam Yang and Yurong. PICTURE: GUANG MING DAILY

But her mother's love for her is immeasurable.

Huang Yurong, a 6-month-old Malaysian baby, suffers from hydrocephalus, a condition where fluid accumulates in the cavities of the brain.

Because of this, her brain has shrunk, and her head has ballooned to the size of a football.

Guang Ming Daily reported that she was also born with spinal deformities and her nerves are exposed. The baby also can't move the lower part of her body.

When her mother, Madam Yang Shu Jun, 38, was five months pregnant, she was told that her baby would develop spinal deformities and would be disabled for life.

She was then asked if she wanted to abort the child.

Madam Yang calmly replied: 'I want to keep her. I must give birth to her. Who can abandon their own flesh and blood?'

'I understood what I have to face if I went ahead. But I couldn't give her up. I told myself that it was a trial from heaven which I must accept.'

After Yurong was born, Madam Yang and her husband approached all the private hospitals in Penang to treat Yurong.

But they turned her down.

Eventually a hospital said yes, and it has now become Yurong's second home.

Madam Yang said Yurong, her third child, had already gone through a brain operation, which reduced the size of her head. It was about two times bigger before the surgery.

Yurong frequently waves her little arms to attract her mother's attention. But because she has kidney problems, Madam Yang has to drop by the hospital five times a day to collect her urine through a catheter, often in the middle of the night.

When asked if she was tired from taking care of Yurong, Madam Yang said: 'She's lovely, she never throws any tantrums. She is my child, I have no reason and no right to complain.'

She remembered quarrelling with a doctor after giving birth to Yurong.

She had asked for her Fallopian tubes to be cut, a process called ligation.

'I told the doctor that I wanted the operation so that I couldn't have any more children. I wanted to give Yurong and my two other girls my complete love and care.'

The doctor refused, but eventually gave in.

'I realised my daughter was a fighter. She has a strong will to live and is no normal child. I think my decision to give birth to her was the right one.'

Source: Guang Ming Daily

Disabled worker fails in discrimination plea

A father-of-four did not face discrimination by bosses at a Bradford job centre because of his disability, an employment tribunal has ruled today.

David Lambert, who uses a wheelchair and is often in severe pain following an industrial accident in 1996, claimed his managers should have taken his disability into account before verbally warning him for missing too many days off work at JobCentre Plus in Bradford.

Mr Lambert, 34, of Walden Drive, Heaton, Bradford, also should have been allowed to work from home occasionally because of sickness caused by a daily dose of painkillers, he told the Leeds Tribunal today.

He said: “All I can do is my best to get into work on a daily basis and what I would expect, especially from a Government department like JobCentre Plus, is that it takes my medical condition into account.”

But giving evidence the centre’s customer operations manager, Tim Dibb, said managers were justified in disciplining Mr Lambert in March, 2008, after he took more than 28 days sick leave in a year.

Because of Mr Lambert’s unpredictable condition, he would often call up the same morning saying he could not come to work, leaving about ten colleagues to deal with 50 extra compulsory interview appointments to find jobs for benefits claimants, he said.

And, if there were already too few staff in the office, job-seekers would have their interviews cancelled and simply turn up to sign on. Mr Lambert had been allowed to start work late when he was feeling ill, had been given a higher desk for his wheelchair and had been found a back office job when he found it difficult to interview job-seekers, Mr Dibb said.

And he told the tribunal there would be a “serious security risk” should Mr Lambert be allowed to take home his work – sensitive documents containing job-seekers’ personal details.

Tribunal judge David Burton sympathised with Mr Lambert but ruled JobCentre Plus managers had taken reasonable steps to account for his disability.

He said: “While this tribunal has considerable admiration for the claimant (Mr Lambert) for the efforts he makes to keep in work, we do not think that his claim is well-grounded and it is as a consequence of that that it is dismissed.”

Source: Bradford Telegraph Argus