Social Security Disability
Unlike state L&I benefits, Social Security disability tends to be an all-or-nothing proposition. The disability must be permanent, and it must be severe enough to prevent the individual from engaging in any gainful employment -- there are neither temporary nor partial benefits.
To base a Social Security disability claim on a hearing loss, the "bright-line" test for disability is a loss in both ears such that the average threshhold is 90 db or greater, measured by the method explained in the "How Bad Is My Hearing?" section. If your loss is less severe, you will have to demonstrate that its impact on you is equally serious -- essentially, that you are functionally totally deaf.
Even if you demonstrate disability under those tests, you will still not receive benefits if you are actually working and earning more than $980 per month.
As a general philosophical matter, we don't encourage filing Social Security disability claims based solely on hearing loss. We regard hearing loss as an inconvenience that can be overcome with proper accommodations, so our first approach is to look for ways that the affected individual can remain or become employed.
In those instances where continued employment is simply not possible, such as where an employer is too small to be covered by state and federal laws protecting those of us with physical challenges and where the affected invdividual is so close to retirement age that retraining isn't feasible, then we will assist in obtaining Social Security disability benefits.
Like most attorneys, we will handle such cases on a contingency basis, where our fee is based on a portion of the recovered benefits. Under federal law, the fee can only be based on the amount of accrued but unpaid benefits recovered -- it cannot be based on the value of future benefits. Fees are limited to 25% of the back benefits -- it's a federal crime to charge more.
