First to mods: this doesn’t involve any ongoing or contemplated legal action. Thus this can be considered a generic, general interest question.
Consider this hypotetical. A woman Kim, now 54 years old, due to a severe deteriorating medical condition, has huge medical bills. She now cannot work, and likely this won’t change. And even though her husband is a high paid US auto worker with medical insurance, medical bills for Kim still run about $1,000 a month in doctor bills and such.
I notice with SSI this is means tested, and:
“However, a spouse’s income could disqualify you from SSI or reduce your SSI benefits. SSI is not insurance like Social Security Disability Insurance; it is a welfare type program limited to people with very little income and resources. The government may reduce SSI benefits or end them if the beneficiary, the spouse, or anyone contributing to their support has significant income or resources. See the free booklet “Supplemental Security Income,” SSA Publication No. 05-11000.”
Husband earns about 50k a year. What is the ballpark for his expected contribution? And do the cash medical bills get credited to that contribution? IOW, if his expected contribution is $10,000 a year, this doesn’t even cover her cash medical expenses, that would leave her SSI income negative.
Also, what about straight Social Security disability, which has no means test. Kim clearly has enough years of employment she qualifies by her own employment enough to qualify for SS disability. Does her marriage screw up that elegibility to?
In any case it looks like she should apply NOW in any case. Even if she is currently ineligble for cash benefits now because of her husband, if her husband suddenly died she’d immediately be eligible to collect. Her husband a few years back had heart bypass surgery, and a sudden heart attack resulting in death wouldn’t be surprising. Not to mention a drunk driver, whatever could kill him, like any of us, possibly at any time. There really is no downside to ever applying, in that if denied worst case scenario is that you won’t be approved. As odds of being approved are zero if you don’t apply, only other possible scenarios can’t be worse.
The biggest problem is finding a bureaucrat really in the know. This isn’t the case with most SS bureaucrats. Now if a friend of a friend actually works processing disability apps, go for it with a gusto.