Your Questions About Social Security Benefits
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by: albert.tobega
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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." They determine substantial gainful activity according to the National Average Wage Index, which gives a dollar amount per month. The SSA considers an applicant to be working or employed at any time the that person "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."
The money your business makes may have an effect on your social security disability. 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. This means that, if you were to die in the process of applying for social security benefits, your survivors may make a case for the social security benefits you may have earned after the waiting period. To do this, surviving family members need to prove that their deceased relative did or could have qualified for social security benefits in the month that they died.
Only certain close family members are eligible for these survivors social security benefits. When making the claim, the family will need to provide information and records about the deceaseds social security benefits eligibility and application (if there was one). The SSA will also want to see information about the deceaseds overall disability, starting at fourteen months before death.
Q: What will happen to my social security benefits, once I am already on them, and I die?
A: A person who has worked and paid social security taxes may be eligible for survivors benefits upon their death. In general, for family members to receive survivors social security benefits, ten or so years of work will be needed (though this does vary). Survivors social security benefits can be paid to:
• A spouse, with full benefits when they reach retirement, or some benefits beginning at age 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 over 62 years of age.
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