Missourians who are injured, ill or have a condition and find themselves unable to work will want to think about applying for Social Security disability benefits. If there are concerns about whether the application will be approved or not, it is imperative to understand the various rules that dictate a claim and whether the person meets the federal requirements for qualifying SSD benefits for injury. One of the foundational areas of SSD benefits is the earnings requirement for disability benefits. It is vital to meet the basic criteria before anything else.
To receive disability benefits, there are two earnings tests that the SSD applicant must meet. This includes undergoing a recent work test based on the person’s age when he or she became disabled; and a duration of work test, which is used to prove that the person worked for sufficient time. With the recent work test, the year is divided into quarters and it is linked to the worker’s age. Quarter one is from January through March; quarter two is from April through June; quarter three is from July through September and quarter four is from October through December.
With age, if the person is disabled in the quarter prior to turning 24, he or she needs to have worked for 1.5 years in the three-year period before the disability started. For age 24 to the quarter before turning 31, he or she must have worked for half the time from the quarter of turning 21 and ending when the disability came about. For the quarter the person turned 31, there must have been five years of work out of the 10 years ending at the time of disability. Examples of how much work people of a certain age need are: age 28, 1.5 years of work; age 30, two years of work; age 34, three years of work and so on.
It is completely understandable if a person who is trying to grasp this information is confused and thinks about abandoning the attempt to get SSD benefits even if there is a clear disability and a likelihood of approval. Having legal assistance from a law firm that specializes in helping people who are seeking Social Security disability can explain all these factors and any other matter related to the case.
