Social Security Benefits Concerns
View PDF | Print View
by: albert.tobega
Total views: 43
Word Count: 517
Q: I own a business, but do not run it myself. Can I have still apply for social security benefits?
A: As defined by the Social Security Administration, disability is the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity." What is considered "substantial gainful activity" comes from the National Wage Index, which averages monthly wages across the board. They consider a person to be working any day that he or she "is the owner or part owner of a trade or business even if he or she does not actually work in the trade or business or receive any income from it."
Your business income may affect your social security benefits. If that income goes over the predetermined substantial gainful activity (SGA) level, the SSA may consider it a substantial income. The SSA determines this SGA level by doing a comparison of the income of your business to the income you received before you became disabled, as well as to the income of a healthy individual doing the same business.
Q: What will happen to my claim if I die while in the process of applying for benefits?
A: The SSA states that when an individual who was or could have been eligible to receive social security benefits becomes deceased, surviving family member can request a Lump Sum Death Payment. What does this mean? If you die in the while your claim for social security benefits is pending, your family may be able to get some of the benefits you would have been eligible to receive after the waiting period. In order to receive the lump sum payment, your survivors must prove that you would have qualified for social security disability in the month of death.
Lump Sum Death Payment of social security benefits is available only to particular surviving family members. As part of the application process, the SSA will request information about the deceaseds Social Security record and application (if they applied for social security benefits). They will also request evidence of the deceaseds disability beginning at 14 months before the date of death.
Q: If I am receiving social security benefits and I die, what happens to them?
A: When you are receiving social security benefits, and have paid social security taxes, some family members may be eligible to receive survivors benefits upon your death. For ones family to be eligible for survivors benefits, up to 10 years of work is needed, depending on ones age. The following relatives may be eligible for survivors social security benefits:
• A widow or widower, who will receive full benefits at retirement age, and reduced benefits starting at 60 • A disabled spouse aged 50 or over • Children less than 18 years of age (or as old as 19 if they still attend secondary school) • Children of any age disabled before the age of 22 • Dependent parents who are 62 years old or older.
About the Author
More topics related to social security benefits, visit .
Rating: Not yet rated