How is my child disabled before the age 18, but not once they turn 18? My Child?s disability hasn?t changed! How can Social Security take my child?s benefits? Do you have concerns about how to protect your disabled child?s benefits upon the child reaching the age of 18? Social Security Disability?s Supplemental Security Income program (SSI) can be quite difficult to understand. Read on and it will hopefully become clearer to you.
Children who become eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) when they are young, must have their eligibility re- evaluated within a year of the individual reaching 18 years of age using the adult definition of ?disability?. The re-determination is considered a new application for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The standard for an adult is ?an inability to perform any substantial gainful activity (SGA) by reason of any medically determinable impairment that has lasted, or can be expected to last, a continuous period of at least 12 consecutive months or to result in death?.
So if your child is due for re-determination here are a few things to know. If your child is deemed not disabled under the adult standard, their benefits can be stopped. This is called a cessation of payments. They do have the right to appeal if they get denied. There is only a 60 day window in which to appeal any denial. The process steps will follow the same steps as when you originally applied for your child. After the initial denial, your child may request for the benefits to continue at the reconsideration and ALJ process steps but, there is only a 10 day window to make this type of request. It is also important to know that if your child does not keep Social Security up to date with their most current address and they are not able to be reached for the re-determination, a decision can be made which can affect the continuation of the child?s benefits.
So hopefully now it has become clearer as to how you can protect your child?s benefit once they become an adult and need to go through the re-determination process. Though their disability might not have changed, the standard your child must meet has changed. So keeping Social Security current with your child?s most recent address, is a good start at protecting their benefits. Then following the steps above should help your child steer through the re-determination process. Good luck in this endeavor.
