Your Questions About Factors Affecting your Social Security Benefits

10/08/08

Q: I have a business under my name but my spouse runs it. Would I still be eligible to receive Social Security benefits?

A: As defined by the Social Security Administration, disability is the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity." What is considered "substantial gainful activity" comes from the National Wage Index, which averages monthly wages across the board. 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: If I pass away while I am in the Social Security Disability application process, where does my claim go?

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.

Lump Sum Death Payment of social security benefits is available only to particular surviving family members. When making the claim, the family will need to provide information and records about the deceased's social security benefits eligibility and application (if there was one). They will also request evidence of the deceased's disability beginning at 14 months before the date of death.

Q: If I am receiving social security benefits and I die, what happens to them?

A: When you are receiving social security benefits, and have paid social security taxes, some family members may be eligible to receive survivor's benefits upon your death. In general, for family members to receive survivor's 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 widow or widower, who will receive full benefits at retirement age, and reduced benefits starting at 60 • A disabled widow or widower, starting at age 50 • Unmarried children under 18 (or up to 19 if attending high school) • Currently disabled children who were disabled at less than 22 years of age • Dependent parents over 62 years of age.

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