TWO KINDS OF DISABILITY BENEFITS WHICH WILL WORK BEST FOR YOU?
When you’re applying for disability benefits, the process unfortunately becomes complicated before you even start your application. That’s because there are actually two separate disability programs underneath the Social Security umbrella. The first program is called Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Your eligibility for the program is based on all of your contributions and FICA taxes taken out of your paychecks over the years. It acts just like an insurance policy, albeit one that you need to pay into for 10 years before you can qualify to receive benefits. One important caveat to remember about this program is that if you stop paying your premium, meaning you stop working and paying for SSDI out of your paycheck, eventually your coverage will run out. The second program is called Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI is not inherently tied to any contribution you make to the program. Instead, it’s based on your answer to the following questions:
It’s also important to note that you can only file for SSDI online. If you want to file an SSI claim, you have to do it through the mail or by phone.
It’s impossible to know any of that before you begin. If you’re eligible for both programs and you only apply for SSDI, you have to deal with an enormous, unwieldy bureaucracy that won’t necessarily follow up with you about your case. They also probably won’t let you know that you should file a separate application for SSI or that you can’t file that claim online. That’s the level of needless complication that you can expect from this process. None of this information is necessarily hidden; it’s just really hard to find and not easy to process. It’s yet another reason why it’s best to approach this process with an experienced disability attorney who can help you submit the right applications. Call Hartwig Law Firm today at (508) 732-8989 to learn more about how we can help you apply for disability benefits!
1. Are you without income and assets? 2. Do your impairments prevent you from working on a full-time basis?
POOR SAFETY MEETS MOLTEN ENAMEL NOTHING COLD ABOUT THESE REFRIGERATORS
If you don’t know what enamel is, you’ve probably seen it around: It’s the colorful, protective coating that covers tiles and all kinds of fancy cookware. But how does it get on to things? For that, you need heat — enough to melt
he operated it at close distance — at the instruction of his foreman who was overseeing the operation.
It’s a miracle that Adams wasn’t killed, although he lived in severe pain for the rest of his life. His employer attempted to dodge all responsibility, and Adams was forced into the courts to get some kind of justice. As you can imagine, the judicial system took note of the incident and, after examining everything in detail, came to some groundbreaking conclusions, at least for the day. The chief one was that Adams’ injury could not have been foreseen by an average person, because although he had experience, he lacked understanding of the materials he was working with — an understanding that his employer had not provided. Molten enamel has similar properties to lava, and an exploding tank full of the stuff is not a hazard anyone should have to deal with in the workplace. The shockwaves of Adams’ near-fatal injury have reverberated for over a century now and provide valuable precedence when it comes to the duty employers have to their employees, whether that person has experience or not, which is why even today, when we attend ongoing, yearly safety training, we benefit from the hard lessons learned in Adams v. Grand Rapids Refrigerator.
enamel into a workable, molten-hot liquid. It’s dangerous stuff to work with, which means facilities need to provide extensive training, personal protective equipment, and proper maintenance. The Grand Rapids Refrigerator Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, had not met its duty in any of those three areas when Harry Adams, an employee, was working for them in the early 1900s. The company used enamel to line the inside of its refrigerators in a process that involved introducing molten enamel to water, a hardening reaction that had a high potential for disaster.
And disaster struck in November 1906 when, in the course of Adams’ normal duties, the holding tank full of molten enamel exploded while
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