I'M FILING FOR DISABILITY: SHOULD I TRY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS?

Unemployment benefits are exactly opposite to disability benefits. One can certainly interfere with the other. In Alabama, if you are not able to work you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. The state requires that you be able to work, available for work and looking for work in order to receive unemployment benefits.

Social Security disability is exactly the opposite. SSDI requires that you be unable to perform any type of full-time work because of a long-term disability. If you are able to work, you are not eligible for SSDI benefits.

The Social Security Administration receives a report of all your wages, including unemployment benefits. While there is no federal regulation that specifically denies SSDI benefits because you received unemployment, most judges and decision makers frown on it. I have known judges to ask claimants, "You told the state that you are able to work and available to work when you applied for your unemployment benefits. You now tell me that you were disabled and not able to hold a job. Which one is the truth?"

Most judges will refuse SSDI benefits for any month in which the claimant received unemployment benefits. They will usually amend the onset of disability date to exclude months during which unemployment benefits were paid.

The short of it is: UNEMPLOYMENT IS FOR WORKERS WHO ARE SEEKING JOBS. SSDI IS FOR DISABLED INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE NO LONGER ABLE TO WORK.

I represent claimants regularly who have received unemployment benefits and many of them get approved for SSDI. However, they rarely collect for months during which they received unemployment benefit checks.