You can get Social Security retirement benefits and work at the same time. However, if you are younger than your full retirement age and make more than the yearly earnings limit, the SSA will reduce your benefit. However, starting with the month you reach your full retirement age, the SSA will not reduce your benefits no matter how much you earn.

• The SSA uses the following earnings limits to reduce your benefits: If you are under full retirement age for the entire year, the SSA deducts $1 from your benefit payments for every $2 you earn above the annual limit.

For 2016 that limit is $15,720.

• In the year you reach full retirement age, the SSA deducts $1 in benefits for every $3 you earn above a different limit, but they only count earnings before the month you reach your full retirement age.

If you will reach full retirement age in 2016, the limit on your earnings for the months before full retirement age is $41,880.
Starting with the month you reach full retirement age, you can get your benefits with no limit on your earnings.
Use the SSA's Retirement Age Calculator to find your full retirement age based on your date of birth.

What counts as earnings:
When the SSA figures out how much to deduct from your benefits, they count only the wages you make from your job or your net earnings if you're self-employed. They include bonuses, commissions and vacation pay. They don't count pensions, annuities, investment income, interest, veterans benefits or other government or military retirement benefits.  

In order to qualify for Social Security Disability benefits due to a visual impairment, you will need to provide evidence that shows you meet the criteria of the visual listings. The visual listings for blindness include people who have been blind since birth in addition to those that have experienced severe vision loss due to conditions like glaucoma, retinopathy, and traumatic injury, among others. In fact, the blind can qualify for disability and still continue to work while receiving monthly benefits, provided they meet all requirements. The SSA considers the following factors in reviewing a disability claim for blindness.

• Loss of central visual acuity (2.02) – this listing covers loss in your central field of vision and requires you see no better than 20/200 in your better eye. 
• Contraction of the visual field in the better eye (2.03) – you can qualify under this listing if you have a shrinking field of vision. Your doctor must measure your vision with specific tests and must record what you’re able to see when you’re focusing on a fixed point. This listing requires reports of your visual field, which is the distance in all directions from the fixed point on which you’re focused. That diameter must be no greater than 20 to 30 degrees. In others words, your visual field must be very narrow. 
• Loss of visual efficiency, or visual impairment (2.04) – this listing covers issues that cause blurry or unfocused vision or an absence of vision (total blindness). To qualify, you must have vision in your better eye that is no greater than 20/200 when wearing corrective lenses.

The visual listings can be very difficult to understand.  In fact, you may call the SSA and tell them you are disabled because you are blind and they may say you are not qualified to apply because you do not have sufficient work credits to be covered for disability payments.  This response from the SSA may not be true, because the SSA calculates coverage differently for those who have certain visual impairments. If you are blind or have a severe visual impairment, do not be deterred in filing a claim for benefits simply because you are told over the phone that you do not qualify.  Many SSA workers do not understand that the rules are different for those with a visual impairment.  If you cannot work due to a visual impairment, apply for benefits and get an eye examination in order to prove that you qualify for disability benefits.  If you have a visual impairment that prevents you from working, contact Cannon Disability Law, we can help you apply for and win disability benefits. You can trust our experience. Call us at 801-322-2121 or contact us through our website at www.cannondisability.com.

For the first time since 1985, SSA has issued revised listings for Neurological Disorders for adults and children (Listings 11.00 and 111.00), and made minor corresponding changes to the musculoskeletal system (adult and children) and mental disorders (adult only) listings. The new version of the listings can be found at 81 Fed. Reg. 43048 (July 1, 2016). These listings are effective for cases filed or pending on or after September 29, 2016.  SSA believes the new changes reflect program experience and advances in
medical knowledge.

Some specific changes include SSA's removal of the IQ score from its neurological listings because advances in medical knowledge of cerebral palsy (for adults and children), epilepsy (for children), spinal cord insults (for children), and program experience indicate that an IQ score does not provide the best measure of limitations in cognitive functioning associated with these disorders. Therefore, it may not indicate listing-level severity under the neurological listings and would be more appropriately used to evaluate mental disorders under the mental disorders body system (listings 12.00 and 112.00).SSA also clarified in 11.00D2a that an inability to stand up from a seated position means that, once seated, a claimant is unable to stand and maintain an upright position without the risk of falling unless they have the assistance of another person or the use of an assistive device, such as a walker, two crutches, or two canes. The severity of such a limitation is set at a standard much higher than that applicable to a person who is able to do sedentary work and it thereby constitutes an inability to do any work in the national economy.
 
SSA will evaluate adherence to prescribed treatment for epilepsy patients under 11.00C, particularly for patients prescribed newer anti-epileptic drugs, by considering whether a claimant has taken medications or followed other treatment procedures as prescribed by a physician for three consecutive months. The SSA has always evaluated whether the claimant adheres to prescribed physician treatment. However, when the SSA last revised these listings in 1985, blood drug levels were strong indicators for prescribed treatment compliance because therapeutic ranges had been established for anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) and the ranges were often noted on laboratory results. However, many newer AEDs do not have established therapeutic levels, making lab results difficult for adjudicators to interpret. Removal of the requirement for obtaining blood drug levels addresses this  issue and simplifies evaluation of seizures that satisfy the listing criteria. However, SSA will continue to consider blood drug levels available in the evidence in the context of all evidence in the case record. 

The majority of this information was published in the NOSSCR 2016 July Forum, where the reader can obtain the entire article. The SSA will still evaluate the severity of epilepsy based upon the number of breakthrough or uncontrolled seizures that the claimant has on a weekly and monthly basis. For further information with regard to neurological disorders and wether you qualify for benefits, please contact our office at 1-800-732-2323 for a free consultation.