Something many people don’t know is that the work requirements for Social Security Disability are different than those for Social Security Retirement benefits. For both of them, you need to have worked for ten years in your life.
For disability, five of those years have to have been worked within the ten years before you apply for it. So if you’ve been getting by on savings and family help for more than five years before you give up and apply for assistance, you won’t get it.
If you are deciding to leave the work force to care for children or elderly parents, consider ahead of time what that might do to your eligibility if you were to become disabled.
Marie Brack is the author of Frugal Living for the 21st Century: Adventures in Using Your Money Wisely. It’s available on Amazon.com in both Kindle and paperback versions.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=marie+brack
Adventures in Frugal Living 