Social Security Disability Insurance

And it was so fascinating to me because the stats were staggering and I'm not going to quote them correctly.

I didn't look them up, but At the time, I had looked them up, and it wasn't just my impression, although it matched it, which was that your first application for Social Security, SSDI, disability income, the vast majority of applicants are denied.

But if you are able to go through the appellate process, just the administrative, first level of administrative appeals process, Um, then the stats flipped and it was, you know, like 80% of those people would actually get, of those applicants would be accepted, uh, at the appellate level.

And so that initial paper review is predominantly denied.

Well, yes.

So I'm not an expert on SSDI.

That's not really part of my practice, but I know enough about it to be dangerous.

So there's two programs.

And that program is a disability-based program, but it's based on someone who has minimal financial resources, someone who hasn't paid into the system.

And therefore, the actual monthly payment is relatively low.

Then we have what's called SSDI.

That's typical disability for someone who has worked and paid into the system for at least 40 quarters or the equivalent of 10 years of work.

That would include people with full Medicaid benefits.

people in a Medicare savings program, and people who get SSDI, social security disability income.

For 2026, the general, so the income limits are pretty darn low.

For 2026, the general income limits were $23,940 for a one person household.

Your home even could disqualify you.

But usually your home, car, any kind of like burial arrangements you paid for or are made are left out.

usually so then if a husband and wife live together both their incomes and resources usually count even if just one of them is applying for help it doesn't matter if you personally worked or paid social security taxes there so yeah so you've got regular Social Security retirement money, which counts as income, but then your SSDI is needs-based, and that does not count as income.

I don't know if I was clear on that.

quite yet.

Just a little humor before we start talking about Social Security Disability Insurance.

I'm so glad to have you on the show.

We wanted to talk about, as I said in the intro, the fact that Social Security Disability Insurance was never that easy to get, but now under the Trump regime, it's gotten harder to So Katie, before we dive into it, you were an SSDI or Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiary yourself as a young adult.

Can you tell us a little more about that?

Yes, absolutely.

So we wanted to figure out how can we investigate this because we worried about what the impact would be on beneficiaries.

So that's how we came to our current research that we're discussing today.

I think just seeing your question here about what if I started somewhere? I've got limited resources.

I'm on SSDI.

Your daughter manages your money.

And after paying your bills, there's $300 left over, and you're saying, should I take $100 a month and invest that? And given what we just heard from Joanne, I think that was a perfect testimony for you.