Can I Receive Social Security Disability and Unemployment Compensation at the Same Time?

You are an honest hard working Hoosier.  Unfortunately you have to travel today, and the roads are icy.  You are either in a wreck with a drunk driver, in a tractor-trailer crash, a highway accident, a truck crash, a large truck crash, or any kind of traffic accident, or you are in a construction accident.   Your injuries are severe, you might have had a limb amputated, or have a spinal injury resulting in paralysis, either paraplegia or quadriplegia, a back injury, a brain injury, or burns.  You go through the medical treatment and you get a little better, and try to get back to work.  You work a couple weeks, maybe a couple months, and then boom, out of nowhere, you are laid off.  The boss doesn’t tell you why, he mumbles something about costs, but doesn’t look you in the eye.  You start to look for work in the next week and you apply for and receive unemployment compensation.  You receive your 26 weeks of compensation, but no one will hire you.  Throughout the process of looking for a job, your body hurts, and you find that you cannot do what you used to be able to do, but you soldier on.  You tell each potential employer about your accident, and your injury, and the minute you do, they shut you down, and you do not get the job.  Eventually you get discouraged and apply for Social Security Disability.  After you apply, get turned down, appeal, and get turned down again, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), who conducts the hearing on your appeal tells you , in the hearing,  we will find you disabled, but we can only find you eligible for disability benefits after the date you last received unemployment benefits.  Now, is the ALJ correct, and if so, why is she correct?

Every qualified accident lawyer and accident attorney knows the Administrative Law Judge is correct.  You cannot receive Social Security Disability and unemployment compensation at the same time.  Why not?  The reason is quite simple.  In order to be eligible for unemployment compensation, you must swear that you are fit for work, and that you are actively seeking a job.  Then you have to show the unemployment office evidence that you are actually seeking a job.  The exact opposite is true when you apply for Social Security Title II disability benefits.  In that application you must swear that you are not fit for work and that your disability is likely to last more than 12 months. Now just because you can’t get both at the same time does not mean you can’t apply for both.  The two organizations will delay your social security disability benefits until the date you last received unemployment benefits.

John P. Young has been representing claimants before the Social Security Administration for more than 20 years.  John handles all his cases personally.  If you call John, he will either answer the phone or call you back when he is available.  John will sit down with you personally to discuss your case.  John will go to you to the hearing.  You will not have to work through an inexperienced paralegal.  Your benefits are too important to risk because your lawyer won’t talk to you.  Call John today.