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- Areas We Serve
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If you have an injury or health problem that prevents you from working, a Morgantown Social Security Disability lawyer with Berger and Green can help you secure benefits to help with your monthly expenses. Our lawyers serving West Virginia can put 40 years of case experience behind filing your claim and fighting against a denied payment.
Individuals with disabilities can seek benefits from two programs the Social Security Administration (SSA) oversees:
Monthly SSDI benefits depend on your earned work credits, with more credits generally leading to higher payments. You can estimate your claim using the SSA’s online Benefits Calculator. The monthly SSI rate changes annually and depends on the Consumer Price Index and other economic factors. The 2023 rate is $914 per person. West Virginia does not provide a state supplement.
Other benefits and sources of income you have will also affect your program eligibility and benefit amount, including:
If you suffered an injury or have a debilitating condition, SSD can help you make ends meet. Our Morgantown, WV, Social Security Disability lawyers can fight for your benefits and protect your financial future. We can file your initial claim, appeal denied benefits, or appeal if you think there is an error concerning your monthly payment amount.
You do not use the same application to apply for SSDI and SSI. You must file separate claims for each program. However, you can qualify for both concurrently. You can and should begin the claims process as soon as you have a condition that prevents you from working and know that you will be unable to work for 12 months or longer.
You must supply medical evidence, financial documents, and personal information to the SSA along with your initial claim, which may include:
The SSA maintains a list of medical conditions in the Blue Book that it considers severe enough to be disabling. Each condition also has specific criteria for evaluating how it interferes with your ability to work. If your injury or illness is in the book, proving you are medically qualified for SSDI or SSI will likely be easier. Listed health problems include but are not limited to, the following:
If you do not have a listed condition, you can still seek SSD benefits. However, you may need to give the SSA more medical information proving your injury or illness is severe and debilitating and interferes with your work capabilities to the same extent as ailments included in the Blue Book.
The SSA does not consider you disabled unless your condition interferes with basic work-related activities (like sitting, standing, remembering, or staying on task) for a minimum of 12 months. It evaluates your ability to do work using the substantial gainful activity limit (SGA).
SGA for 2023 is set at an average of $1,470 per month. The SSA will deny your claim if it believes you can earn this amount or more doing your current job or another kind of work.
Reports from the Social Security Office of Retirement and Disability Policy state that nearly 70 percent of initial disability claims get denied. Common reasons for denial include:
Our Morgantown Social Security Disability lawyers can appeal unfavorable initial determinations, but we must act quickly. You have only 60 days from receiving notice of the SSA’s decision to begin the process. You then have 60 days between each appeal stage to move your claim forward. The four stages are:
Our lawyers can do the following for you:
The SSD lawyers at Berger and Green can assist with your claim at no upfront or out-of-pocket cost. We work on contingency, which means we only collect attorney’s fees if you receive benefits. Contact us for a free consultation today.