Money sucks but you can find some decent jobs if you look hard enough.

Just a thought.

sells they consider her working.

One other tip: Try to make sure that you stick with one doctor who understands your case and considers you disabled. I makes the whole process easier.

Lots of GED/ESL pre-GED struggle with writing and English grammar. It doesn't pay anything, but it's kinda fun.

Many clubs and local organizations appreciate and need writers.

Sign up to be an on-line tutor. Can't remember which ones, but there are several legitimate ones that pay $10/hr. Also, for extra money that you can earn on your schedule look at Amazon Mechanical Turk. I learned how to make $30 - $40 week that goes into an Amazon account. It's not much, but it buys necessities and you work on your schedule.

if you use an attorney.

If the attorney makes the money off the claim, and the "pay off" is the back money owed from the effective filing date...isn't it in the lawyer's interest to delay as much as possible so the back pay will be a larger amount?

It may take you years to get SSDI, depending on how well your claim meets certain "cannot work" criteria and how much support you have from YOUR doctor, and hopefully YOUR lawyer (do not use Social Security's doctors, they will just test your motion range and put you on the appeal list until you get to a judge THREE YEARS later...).

Meanwhile you are in a TRAP because getting disability is about proving you CANNOT work.

So the world expects you to be living with your family or living in limbo all that time.

What people generally do is go on to welfare, but welfare is not enough money to cover realistic rent. Where I live welfare only goes toward rent ($336/month) - which means NO MONEY FOR BASIC NECESSITIES the whole THREE YEARS you are waiting for SSI/SSDI! If you attempt to earn that money it comes out of your rent! (click my sig to see how this works!). This $336/month is a loan, and you're already asking landlords in an area where normal rent is around $900/month for a ROOM to *wait* for you to get SSI/SSDI. Then you make excuses for month after month and try to find programs that will get your basic needs met. You will come across shockers like how all govt. programs to pay bills are "discounts" whereas you are receiving NO INCOME to make up the portion you are supposed to pay on your heat bill, phone bill, etc.

So, anyway, you are in a trap. Make sure any work you do is for cash only. Don't take a check - that will ultimately be reported to the government by the other person's taxes even if you run it through a bank account. Anything you do to try to help yourself will screw you up. IT IS A TRAP. Just try to get CASH any way you can and hold out for as long as you can until you get SSDI.

And get a lawyer so you will get SSDI faster.

I do have a lawyer and both she and my doctors said very limited work is okay. I hate being in this position. Stress worsens symptoms.

Anything you do by accident could screw your case. At least you do have a lawyer to advise you. Whew!

I find that bizarre as well.

Good luck. I'm a similar position. I'm waiting until 50--it's much more difficult before 50 to "prove" disability because the threshold of expectation is so high, especially when you're highly educated and experienced. I think you can work 10 hrs a week or something, but definitely not full-time (not that I've been able to for years).

That's why I have about a dozen doctors and a lawyer.

That's exactly the sort of work Social Security might argue that you can still do! It's much easier to establish your case if you did manual labor and have a disability that inhibits mechanical skills.

Another trap relates to mental illness. Let's say you have social anxiety disorder. You need to see a therapist to prove you sought treatment. But the fact you sought therapy is reaching out socially. Catch-22. At least that's what it looks like to me. A lot of "mental" disorders might fall under this category, and how you fare would depend on the mood the Social Security analyst happens to be in that day when they analyze your case.

A copy and do that a few million times for real money

* Community: www.createspace.com/en/community/index.jspa
* Resources: www.createspace.com/resources

Which will come back to you. Social Security knows all.

Seriously, talk to your lawyer about every move you make here. Proving you can do soft skill work could totally screw you.

There's a great freedom in that understanding, and so far this awareness seems have prevented it.

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

I 'm disabled myself but I can not collect SS. I wish you all the best and don't let them bring you down

money and I did not apply when I first got hurt because I thought I would get back on my feet after having back surgery. When I realized I could not work or get retrained my credits had run out. This was back in 1991, I was 26 years old. There's more to the story but I don't want to hijack this person's thread.

since 1982.

I can't think of a better life. I left the career track in the Fortune 500 to go out on my own and never looked back.

I'm now 63 years old and still writing. I've supported my family and my time is my own. My ambition is to keep working until they shovel dirt in my face.

Go for it.

Check your local library for books on freelancing. The best I've found recently is "The Wealthy Freelancer" by Steve Slaunwhite.

They do work wonders.

Second, make sure in your reports you fill out about your functioning that you are brutally honest. Don't hold onto the pride that probably makes you diminish your condition to others. The more embarrassing it is to admit, the more SSDI needs to hear it. If you can do something, but things limit you or make it where you can't do them routinely, say what limits your ability to do it. If you can't bathe because scrubbing out the tub hurts too much and you have pets that get in it, admit that and say how long the pain lets you stand in the shower. If you find yourself not keeping up with laundry, explain that you can't keep your clothes clean because you can't get your laundry done under the area of getting dressed. If you have any mental illnesses that may exacerbate your condition, get treatment for them and explain how they limit you as well. Don't be proud here. Be brutally honest.

I don't know what state you are in, but besides the ACA/Medicad Expansion, when I applied there was very little help for me. You can apply for food stamps, but in that instance would need to provide an affidavit that you do not share food with the household, or that the family is feeding you but it's a huge burden on them and they need to stop or they can't pay their bills.

There is remote call center support that is a little more steady than stuff like Elance, but most of them want a commitment of time and have you on a schedule. There's web analysis work through Leapfoce, Lionbridge, and other companies, but they want a minimum amount of time dedicated each month. If you have a car, there is mystery shopping, which helped me at least pay for food for awhile. You test drive cars, stuff like that.

I do have a lawyer and a large retinue of doctors and records. I also don't intend to hold much back from SSDI. They need to know I need the help, no matter how much I don't want to admit it. Me being in my early thirties is going to result in having to fight tooth and nail with them, though.

I am covered under the Medicaid expansion and have access to essentially free healthcare. That is the one and only plus out of this mess.