ohhhhh..... YES I have payed into both SS and medical sence I started working at age 16. I get that statement thing every year around my birthday that says I have payed enough and have enough credits to get disobility.

So did you start your online disability report today?

Was your TBI a result of a work incident? If so, most states have a fund for coverage of work injuries when the employer is not enrolled. This is a link to the CA law: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/claims.html

One of the horrible things about SSI qualification rules is that they consider your ability to access credit the same as actual "cash-on-hand".

A person that I know was getting SSI for several months (he got about $800/month for 4 months), and when Social Security determined that he could get a home equity loan (HELOC), he was forced to pay all of it back.

Social Security considers a Home Equity Line of Credit the same as having real money.

In other words, until you tap-out (and probably default on all available loan possibilities), you will not qualify.

I sure hope that Social Security just made a mistake and should not have included a home equity line of credit as actual assets. After all, it is a loan against your home,..., a loan.

If this is wrong, please let me know so that I can pass the word since the Social Security Department has not helped him.

-Vic

I don't totally understand--did he already have a loan, or did they stop his benefits and tell him to go get a loan? That makes all the difference--I don't know if I am misunderstanding your post.

I tried to find a better, verified source.. but this is all I could find that states that loans do not affect SSI:
http://www.ehow.com/way_5498968_loan...-benefits.html

EHow is not really a credible source, and is not the final word--the SSA would obviously be the final word.

It does say this though:

"However, it is important to make sure that any funds you borrow are spent in the same month that you enter the loan agreement. If the funds are not spent, they will count toward the SSI resource limit of $2,000 (or $3,000 if you are a married couple), and that difference will be deducted from the following month's benefit payment."

So, if he already had a loan and it was more than $2000, they rightfully took away his benefits because even though a loan is "borrowed money", it is still money. They apparently do the same thing if you loan a friend or family member money, though I was never asked about that when I applied and was accepted for SSI.

If I am reading your post incorrectly, and they stopped them for no reason and told him to take out a loan, that doesn't seem right.. or legal.

He had an existing Home Equity Line of Credit available to him but since he would not be able to pay the monthly charges, he did not use it (as the bank would take his house if he did not repay the loan).

The SS Dept. told him that since he had the line of credit (no different than a credit card) he had to exhaust all of that before he could be considered for further SSI.

It just makes no sense.

-Vic

WRONG

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0501120220

Read B.1 first bullet

However, if he converted the line of credit to actual cash and put the cash in the bank or in his pocket and didn't spend it, it would be a resource the first of the next month. Second bullet.

He was not required to borrow the money but if he did actually borrow it and didn't spend it, it became a resource. The same as selling a house or selling a car - converts from excludable to countable the month following the sale (with some exceptions).

This is great news!

I will let him know as soon as I see him.

My guess is that there was a simple error and that is why he had to pay it all back.

Thanks for the info!

-Vic