What happened this week @ Berkley Law

Social Security attempts to simplify their terms by creating acronyms.  The two acronyms I think are vital in determining whether or not someone is disabled and meets the rules according to Social Security are the following:

1. Alleged Onset Date of Disability (AOD) : this is the date that you the claimant tell Social Security that you became disabled and from this point forward, you have not worked.

2. Date Last Insured (DLI): this term refers to the date in the future when your disability credits that you have earned in the past expire.  This one is a bit more confusing, so bare with me while I try to simplify.

Lets assume that you could prepay auto insurance 5 years in to the future.  So, if you purchased a car on Jan 1, 2005 and purchased car insurance for a 5 year term, it would expire on Jan 1, 2010.

As we work, we earn insurance credits through Social Security.  These credits extend in to the future much like the example I outlined above.  When you become disabled, hopefully you have worked long enough so that you have insurance credits that extend in to the future.

Please refer to the chart for visual clarity:

The above individual told Social Security that they became disabled on Jan 1, 2007.  Luckily for them, they have a Date Last Insured (DLI) that is in the future of when they first became disabled.  The important point to note, as long as you are found disabled prior to your DLI, you will be able to receive Disability benefits as long as your are disabled.

However, sometimes the following happens:

In this example, the claimant filed after their DLI and therefore under the qualifications of Social Security Disability, Title II, they do not qualify.  Unfortunately regardless how disabled they are, if they are applying for SSD benefits, technically they do not qualify.