Originally Posted by Janke

What you think is obvious, what I think is obvious has zero to do with what SSA considers obvious, which is pretty much nothing is obvious and everything has to be proved. If you haven't seen a doctor in 10 years, you are self-diagnosing and that never works during a Continuing Disability Review. You have been lucky that a CDR was not done. That luck may not last forever.

I thought you said you had just started receiving benefits but perhaps I misunderstood because you talk about reviews in the last 10 years. Were you getting SSI only and then SSA discovered that you should have been getting SSDI? So it could be that SSA figured out that you were insured for SSDI and only recently took the SSDI application and only recently entitled you and then used then adopted the disability decision on the SSI claim and not have had to again prove disability. That is also called a legal term collateral estoppel (may have spelled that wrong).

I was referring to reporting the income that your wife already receives since it could affect your SSI benefits. It is also possible that she doesn't make enough from her jobs or whatever she uses to support herself.

If she wants to file a claim for spousal benefits on SSDI and you want to file for the ten children the two of you have and , she needs to make an appointment and bring everyone's birth certificates, proof of who has custody and the marriage certificate. If these are stepchildren to you, you have to prove that you supported them in the past. You may not be able to prove that. Also, not all SSDI cases result in a family maximum that is over the amount paid to you. Sometimes children and spouses get zero. In those stacks of letters you have received, perhaps there is a denial letter for spousal or children benefits.

SSDI is not a welfare program so there are no provisions for what you need or want to support your 12 person family. If there is not enough income from the parents, then the choice is other welfare benefits like TANF.

If you have been to the SSA office scores of times, the likelihood is that everything has been sorted out correctly but you don't like the results or don't understand them.