Can You Apply For Disability Benefits When You Lose Your Job?

How to prove you are disabled
and win disability benefits

Even if you apply for disability, Social Security may find that your medical or mental conditions do not meet the severity level needed to qualify for disability. However, claimants who are denied on a disability application should not be put off by this. Most claims are initially denied and many of these individuals are successful at later getting approved at a disability hearing in which their representative presents their claim to an administrative law judge.

As to employment, just because an individual loses their job, it does not mean that they are entitled to disability benefits with Social Security. Social Security disability is not an unemployment program. You have to have a medically determinable medical or mental condition that has prevented you from working at SGA (a monthly earnings amount that Social Security considers to be substantial gainful activity); or that you expect will prevent you from working for twelve months; or that you expect will result in death.

Having said that, if you lost your job and have not been able to find work because you have medical or mental conditions that affect your ability to find employment, you should consider filing for disability.

There are some individuals who have worked with an employer for years and are then laid off from their job. Often, employers are aware of an individual’s health problems; however, they still allow the individual to maintain their employment. This is because there are instances in which employers give an employee special considerations that enable the employee to continue working.

Special considerations or subsidies might include longer breaks, less production, or even more time off. A new employer is unlikely to provide the special considerations needed for the employee to continue working. And this is why a person who has been laid off from a job who has a disabling physical impairment or mental impairment might find themselves suddenly unemployable and in the position of applying for SSD benefits.

Individuals with significant health problems jobs should consider filing for Social Security disability if they have lose their job and are totally unable to perform substantial work activity. Of course, all individuals who apply for Social Security disability should remember that it is a total disability program not a partial disability or a short term disability program.

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SSD and SSI are Federal Programs

The title II Social Security Disability and title 16 SSI Disability programs operate under federal guidelines and, therefore, the program requirements--medical and non-medical--apply to all states:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Recent approval and denial statistics for various states can be viewed here:

Social Security Disability, SSI Approval and Denial Statistics by state

Special Section: Disability Lawyers and unnecessary claim denials