Has anybody retired early and applied for social security disability?

Hi @heltonlove. So sorry you have gone thru this too and hope this helps. At any point you can apply for SSDI and they reevaluate periodically depending on your level determined etc. Suggest keep daily log of your challenges preventing daily life activities to substantiate your claim and assure your medical records have diagnosis codes related to them. Hopefully your healthcare system has patient advocate who can assist you with that and if you have difficulty doing that as many of us do I strongly suggest seeking pro bono attorney or traditional one if the percentage of claim they take doesnt matter for their help and quicker processing🙃 Quickest healing journey to you🌈

I was part of a group that attended a meeting with Social Security about 4 years ago. Several doctors were questioned about when people with long covid could return to work and told Social Security they had not idea if the long covid folk ever would at that point. From my understanding, Social Security had several people on disability at that point and were concerned as there was no testing to tell when they could work.

Yes, I had to leave work almost immediately when I moved in to Long covid in March of 2024. Fortunately for me, I had a private insurance disability plan through work that provided short term disability the first several months. When it was time to go to long term disability my claims were denied due to "lack of evidence" and a presumption that my testing within normal range on things meant that I had no grounds to claim disability. They wanted proof even though they were fully aware of there being no long covid test or verified treatment and my Long Covid doctor sent in records and his notes of my disabilities. Since by that time I was eligible for Social Security and medicare, my job place fired me for not being able to predict a return to work and the private disability insurance wanted me to apply for Social Security disability. When I spoke with a SSDI rep they told me the process to apply for SS disability takes a long time, up to 2 years and once I was edible to be on my regular SS benefits, the disability would roll over to that anyway so no application was made and I signed up for my regular benefits and Medicare. Fortunately, I did not experience a major gap in coverages, just a few months to transition. What I learned is that you would likely do best to at least consult with an attorney for any private benefits despite that cost of it. I cannot speak to the process and pit falls of getting approved for SS disability. You would need a physician that does SS disability claims evaluations and I would definitely do research or legal consultation before getting started to make sure that you don't shoot yourself in the foot. Currently, there are some clinics for Long Covid that try to get some testing done to help support disability claims medically that were not available when my journey started. Most are private or concierge practices unfortunately but your local University Hospital may have resources. Here is a link to a general post about SSDI that may be helpful to you. Then search for yourself for more information:

Just a few thoughts here:

I retired from Social Security in 2004. At that time, attorney's received 1/4 of any retroactive check so it seemed that some attorneys simply did not act on requests for information as the longer it took to get an approval, the more their cut of the first check would be.

If you are old enough for SSA early retirement benefits, you can file for that and for disability benefits at the same time. You will receive the retirement benefits while your disability claim goes through the decision process. If the disability claim is approved, your benefit amounts will be adjusted upward so it is definitely worth filling for both.

I suggest you keep a log one day of how your day has gone, what adjustments you needed to make and what effect long covid had on your day. Submit this log with your disability application to be included in your file.

The initial stage of filing for disability benefits is pretty cut and dry. I don't see much help if having a lawyer process your claim. If you go into the SSA office, the Claims Representatives are quite good at completing your documents on your behalf. It's possible your application will be approved at the initial stage and you then would not need to pay a lawyer.

The next stage is the reconsideration stage and again, I don't see the benefit of having a lawyer fill out the forms for you.

However, if your claim is denied at the initial and reconsideration levels, I believe a lawyer experienced in SSA disability law could be helpful at the Appeals level. At that stage you and your attorney present your case before an administrative law judge and having legal assistance would likely be very helpful.

If you are approved for disability benefits, it is automatically converted to retirement benefits at your full retirement age.

There is a waiting period for eligibility for disability benefits. I believe it is 5 months. Some states have temporary disability benefits to help cover that period of time.

I hope this information is helpful. Don't get discouraged about the process. Just keep plugging away.

Donna