Will Going Back to School Affect Your Social Security Disability? (Remastered | Originally Published June 1, 2012)

0:19 To day. I am your host attorney, Anthony Reeves. So let's go ahead and get to your questions. Our question now is how going back to school affect my Social Security disability benefits. That's a great question and it comes off a lot. Let me explain to you how this typically works. Your daily activities, mean, what you do on a day to day basis is one of the things that Social Security looks at and trying to decide whether or not they think you are or not disabled. So if you're thinking about going back to school, let's say you're applying for disability benefits, or if you're receiving benefits already and you're wondering, how is me going back to school going to impact my ability to receive benefits? The

1:01 answer is it depends. And the reason why I say it depends is because it depends on the circumstances. A lot of times we focus solely on the end result when we need to think about the entire picture. Going to school by itself does not necessarily mean that's a problem, But you have to look at the circumstances. Well, what do you want to mean by circumstances? Well, are you going on a full time basis. Are you going on a part time basis? How many classes are you taking per week? How many hours are you spending preparing? Do you have any special accommodations that you need in order to complete your coursework? If you do, what type of accommodations you have do you need? Are you going in person for class? Are you doing an online program? If

1:45 you're doing a program either way, are both schools aware that you're having some difficulties? Have you had to repeat any courses? Have you had to repeat any grades? I mean, did you have to redo a semester? Did you have to drop out a semester because you are having problems? See all those different questions that I'm asking you, those are the things that you need to ask yourself because Social Security is not gonna just look into that and say, oh, you went back to school, but they're gonna want to note tell me the circumstances about running you going to school.

2:10 If you're saying that you have serious cognitive problems where you have memory issues, where you lose focus, well then you better be prepared to explain how you're going to school and how you're adjusting to that. Meaning let's say you're saying, oh, I have that memory, I can't memory with anything, and I do really poorly. Well, think about that.

2:30 You're saying you have that memory issues and you have a hard time concentrating. But you're in college and you're making a's and b's. See how those two could kind of by themselves look kind of weird. But you gotta explain more, because if the reason why you're making a's and b's because you have a tutor, because you're given additional time to take the exams. Maybe that you're in a course work where there are no exams, you can write it out and somebody can review it. You have a coach that's helping you out. See how important it is for you to be able to explain the very details of you going to school. So the simple answer is, well, going to school affect your ability to get disability benefits.

3:07 And my answer to you, if it depends on the circumstances, don't focus on going back to school. Focus on explaining the circumstances by which you are going back to school, and that can give the better indication of how that may impact your social security benefits. Again, I appreciate all those questions for those of you want to fill out for the free claim evaluation. I encourage you pay cold attention to the fact that I do respond. Naming res