Hi Everyone-

I was hoping someone could help explain this to me. It's probably pretty basic, but seriously my meds make my cognitive processing a little slow.
So I last worked on 3/29/13...that would be my last insured day. I didn't apply for SSDI until 4/2013....is this too long of a gap? I think I'm just obsessing over this because I'm nearly at the end of being approved.
On Wednesday of last week I received a letter saying that I was found medically disabled and now they are checking my non medical qualifications. I know I've worked enough, so the work credits won't be a problem, but then I started obsessing that maybe it had been too long since I had worked or something crazy.
I need someone to HELP.....
Thanks ahead of time.
Canswicky

Sorry I messed up my post. I meant that I last worked on 3/29/13 and I applied 4/14...so it's just a little over a year in gap. How long of a gap can there be in between filing and last day insured?

thanks ahead of time and sorry for confusion on my post.

Depends on how old you are and how much you made when you were working and how many zero years you have in the recent past.

If you are over 31 and have worked continuously in the last 10 years and earned 4 credits every year from paying FICA taxes, then date last insured (DLI) would be about five years after you stopped working.

Filing date and DLI and onset date all work together to determine eligibility.

Probably should talk to your local office who can look at your earnings record.

Or read this:

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/P...a/insured.html

I HAVE A CONCERN MY CASE WAS SENT BACK TO THE ALJ IN JULY 2014. MY DLI WILL END DEC 2014, IM SO AFRAID THAT IF THE ALJ DOES NOT HEAR MY CASE BEFORE THat DATE THAT I MAY NOT HAVE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT MY CASE. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IF THAT SITUATION HAPPENS IN MY CASE? WHAT CAN I DO TO GET MY CASE SPEED UP. I HAVE AN ATTORNEY HE SHOULD KNOW WHAT MY OPTIONS ARE>

Welcome marlon66.

The decision about whether or not you are disabled does not have to be made before your date last insured. The decision could be made in 11/14, 3/15 or 8/17. What has to be established is that your DATE OF ONSET, the date you became disabled, has to be established based on medical evidence that existed before your date last insured. So the medical evidence has to prove that your condition was severe before 12/31/14.

However, if the ALJ doesn't make the written decision before your date last insured, and the decision is unfavorable, and you file a new claim instead of following up the appeal ladder, then you would be out of luck on a new claim since the period before the ALJ decision would not be reopened or looked at again. So, at that point, the only thing you could do would be to return to work and earn enough over enough months to extend your DLI. But if you haven't worked in 5 years, it would take another 5 years to become insured again.

And there is very little your attorney can do to speed up the process.

Your DLI is tied to the Alleged Onset Date. This means that if the ALJ denies you, or the Appeal's Council does, you can continue to pursue a claim and be insured based upon the Alleged Onset Date all the way through to Federal Court. It's especially important to file appeals in a timely fashion after your DLI expires--as in walk them through and get a date stamped receipt as a paper trail.

Sometimes at an ALJ hearing the judge (or your attorney) will offer to award you benefits in exchange for you modifying your Alleged Onset Date, which results in less backpay but guarantees you monthly benefits going forward--if that happens and you choose to accept, just make sure you keep that DLI in mind, as well as verify if your monthly benefit would be effected. BTW, if you have much stronger evidence documenting your case at a later date than your original AOD, you might want to consider voluntarily amending the AOD at or even prior to the ALJ hearing.

The most important thing is to make sure you have SOLID medical evidence prior to your DLI. so you have that option to amend your AOD. Make sure you have gone through Functional Capacity Testing and have your doc/s fill out Residual Functional Capacity forms for you, etc. Also, if you don't have an attorney or non-attorney representative, you might want to consider hiring one.

If you are facing serious financial obstacles like eviction or foreclosure you can request an earlier hearing date, by going through your local Senator or Congress person's office.

And finally, depending on your resources, you might be able to qualify for SSI even if you need to reapply in the future once your DLI is past. When you factor some states SSI supplement and Medicaid supplements there isn't always a huge difference between benefits for some anyway--but that's just a worst case scenario to keep in mind.