My husband had a spinal cord injury and is totally disabled but SS denied his claim because I(his wife) makes too much money. I make $62,000 a year and we have a child in college. Does this denial make sense? He made about $25,000 per year before the injury. We have gone bankrupt and risk losing the house.
Ms. B
Jonathan Ginsberg responds: Ms. B, if the denial was based on your household income, it would appear that your husband is not insured for Title II SSDI. If you husband has an earnings record, then your income would not impact his right to collect benefits. If he does not have enough earnings credits to qualify for SSDI, he would only be eligible for SSI. SSI is a welfare program for indigent claimants who do not have enough credits to qualify for SSDI and an SSI claimant’s benefits would be subject to offset based on household income.
I discussed the earnings credit issue on a special page of this blog. There are also several posts on this blog that discuss SSI and the offset rules. If you will go to the search box and type in "ssi offset" you will see several posts that discuss SSI.
[tags] SSI offset, SSDI earnings record, making too much money for SSI [/tags]