How do you live?

[AaroninOregon]

A diagnosis of ME/CFS neither qualifies you or disqualifies you for Social Security Disability...what is required is that you can demonstrate that your condition and symptoms prevent you from working.

Having said that, you're going to need a supportive doctor in the process, and the nature of CFS pretty well dictates that that doctor will need to be a CFS "specialist", or at least a doctor who recognizes CFS as a serious and disabling condition...many don't. A lawyer who has previously handled CFS cases for Social Security Disability may be able to help you in regards to a supportive doctor as well. It costs you nothing to talk to a lawyer who handles these cases, and everything said between them and you is confidential and can go no further...so don't hesitate to see one.

What you don't want to do is engage Social Security on your own, and make a mistake that haunts you through the entire process, which I'm sad to tell you can take years.

I've been mulling over making an appointment with Dr. Kaufman in San Jose, and based on the lack of ME/CFS specialists in Oregon, it might be time to make that trip.

I'll start calling attorneys on Monday. Thanks again.

 

[AaroninOregon]

You have to prove you can't work due to illness, you don't have to have a specific dx. You will need a doctor or two to certify that you are indeed too sick to work. The more regular you see dr. the better.

Thanks @beaker.

 

[Aerose91]

Did you check with an attorney? I believe the disability office purposely misleads people into thinking they cannot file.

An earned income of above SGA would disqualify you, but an unearned income should not. You would want an attorney to help document that your $860 is passive unearned income.

Also, SGA keeps increasing because of inflation or other reasons. In 2015, is $1090 a month, so you are under the SGA amounts, so even if it was earned income, it is possible to get approved. It is harder to prove a claim when the person is working, so some attorneys won't take someone earning over about $800 a month. But that is for earned income which you don't have.

Edit: This is if you are still covered under SSDI, if you paid into it enough in the past 10 years. SSI has different rules and earned and unearned won't matter, you can't get it.

I haven't gone to an attorney but I will now to see what I'm looking at.
I'm unfamiliar with unearned income, what kind of income qualifies for that without being considered a job or charity?

 

[SickOfSickness]

I haven't gone to an attorney but I will now to see what I'm looking at.
I'm unfamiliar with unearned income, what kind of income qualifies for that without being considered a job or charity?

Unearned would be money you didn't actively work for. Passive income where you do nothing or very little. Like family giving you money, or interest you earn on an investment account.

 

[geraldt52]

I'm unfamiliar with unearned income, what kind of income qualifies for that without being considered a job or charity?

From Social Security regulations:

• Private pensions and annuities;
  

• Periodic public payments such as Social Security benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits, Department of Veterans Affairs pension and compensation payments, civil service annuities, workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, and payments based on need involving Federal funds;
  

• Life insurance proceeds and other death benefits, to the extent that the total amount is more than the expenses of the deceased person's last illness and burial paid by the individual;
  

• Gifts and inheritances;
  

• Support and alimony payments in cash or in-kind;
  

• Prizes and awards;
  

• Dividends and interest;
  

• Rents and royalties (except those royalties defined as earned income); and
  

• Certain payments not considered wages for Social Security purposes:
  
  1. In-kind payments to certain agricultural workers;
     
  2. Tips under $20 per month;
     
  3. Jury fees;
     
  4. Money paid to individuals who are residents, but not employees, of institutions.
     

You can probably see, Aerose91, your situation doesn't fit neatly in to any of these categories, at least not as I can tell. I don't think that what you are receiving can be considered earned income, but you really need an attorney to tell you how it should be handled, before getting involved with Social Security. It may even be that the agreement between you and your former partner can be restructured, if it currently presents a problem.