Over 50? Indianapolis Social Security Disability

Special Rules for Disability after 50

When Social Security evaluates applications for disability benefits, it puts people in different age groups:

• “Younger Person” (18-49): Your problems must make it impossible for you to work in any job at all.
• “Closely Approaching Advanced Age” (50-54): To get disability benefits, you must be unable to maintain just your most recent job.
• “Person of Advanced Age” (55 and up): Social Security becomes more lenient in deciding whether you can still work.

The key to applying for disability over 50 is that Social Security considers you less likely to switch to new lines of work at this age. That means Social Security is more likely to decide you can’t work at all—and approve your benefits.

Social Security reaches this decision using what it calls the “grid rules,” plotting your age against your education level, skill level and overall ability to function day to day.

The measure of your daily abilities is called your “residual functional capacity.” Social Security calculates residual functional capacity using medical evidence to decide how well you can perform basic physical movements, like walking, reaching and lifting. Then it plugs the result into the grid rules.

When weakened health is already limiting your energy level, getting through this process can seem like a full-time job on its own.

An experienced disability advocate can take over your disability application and take the pressure off you.

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Does My Health Problem Qualify for Social Security Disability Over 50?

Another part of applying for disability after 50 is the possibility that you may have more health conditions at a more senior age.

For Social Security Disability, you must have a qualifying medical impairment.

If you don’t have a diagnosis officially recognized by Social Security, you can also qualify based on individual severe symptoms that limit your residual functional capacity.

And you can qualify when you have multiple medical conditions that may combine to leave you unable to work. Complicating illnesses can include:

• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Mental health disorders
• Muscle mass diseases
• Rheumatoid arthritis

Qualifying for disability over 50 means showing how the demands of your job mix with each of your health limitations and your age to make working impossible—and make you eligible for life-changing financial relief.

You worked hard for a long time.

When bad health interferes, you deserve Social Security Disability benefits because you deserve dignity and independence.

Let’s get started on your claim.