Why Disabled People Between 62 and Full Retirement Should Consider SSD in Winchester, TN?

October 30th, 2018 by Attorney John Colvin

Winchester, TN Personal Injury Lawyer

Statistically speaking, the older you get, the more likely you are to have problems with your health beyond the normal aging process. Sometimes, those issues can even force you to seriously consider an early retirement decision.

However, before you decide to take your retirement at 62 rather than at 65 or older because of health issues that are preventing you from working, you might want to apply for social security disability (SSD) instead. After all, SSD can actually save you hardship in the long run by protecting your social security funds.

You May Not Have to Retire Early After All

How does this work? Let’s say that you are diagnosed with a form of bone cancer at 61 after years of being employed. Although you can take retirement at 62, you could end up hurting yourself financially. Why? Social security penalizes those who take early retirement, lowering your monthly checks to 75 percent of what you would expect to get if you waited to collect for four years.

To give you an idea of how different your check could be, consider that you receive 100 percent of benefits if you start retirement at 66. Therefore, if you take early retirement and counted on receiving full retirement checks of $2,000, you would only get $1,500. That adds up to $6,000 per year, which is a significant amount.

But what if you can’t hold out for four years? To be sure, you will need money to cover your medical costs, missed wages, and other expenses right away. The answer could be to turn to SSD.

Many forms of cancer are covered under SSD, which means you could receive an SSD check instead of tapping into your retirement monies. Your SSD check would cover you until you get to full retirement age, allowing you to retain all your retirement benefits. Plus, if you are accepted for SSD, you will be able to receive funds for up to 12 months prior to your acceptance date, depending upon the onset of your disabling condition.

How to Take Advantage of SSD

Of course, you can’t expect SSD to come to you or to educate you about the advantages of applying for SSD in lieu of retirement. You have to take the first step.

If you’re not sure where to start or are concerned about applying for SSD without someone to help, you can always contact a knowledgeable SSD attorney in Tennessee, such as John R. Colvin. He can advise you on the documents you need to ensure that you have everything that Social Security needs to make a decision on your behalf.

Plus, if your first claim is denied, you can always work with him to initiate an appeal. Plenty of SSD claims are denied initially, and then are later approved.

Remember: You should always check out your options before agreeing to go into early retirement. A decision made without all the facts could potentially reduce how much one receives in retirement, so it’s best to do it wisely. Understanding all the paths ahead will help ensure your journey to retirement is as smooth as possible.

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