While many Americans know that Social Security is a vital source of retirement income for countless people, the program offers some lesser known but still potentially beneficial services. An AARP article, 8 Things You Didn’t Know Social Security Could Do for You, has some excellent insights, the first of which is expedited disability claims. Contact our Wausau WI Retirement Team today to learn more.
Expedited disability claims
In 2024, the average processing time for a Social Security disability claim was eight months for just the initial application. It can take several more months, perhaps even years, to appeal a claim that’s been denied. Clearly, this kind of wait time can be burdensome for those with severe or worsening medical conditions.
But the Social Security Administration’s Compassionate Allowances program has a list of nearly 300 serious medical conditions that meet the threshold for disability. Applications for Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income that include conditions from that list are automatically fast tracked and can sometimes be approved in just days.
Beneficiary representative payee
Next, the program has a representative payee program designed for those who can’t manage their own Social Security payment, such as those with cognitive disorders, developmental disability, or who are young children. In these cases, the Social Security Administration can appoint someone to serve as a beneficiary representative payee.
As of late 2022, about 4.8 million people — or 7.2% of all Social Security recipients — had a representative payee. Serving as a representative payee requires constant diligence because the Social Security Administration holds that person responsible for how the funds are used and they’re forbidden from using any proceeds for their own use.
The Extra Help program
Next, Social Security may also be able to help you with Medicare drug costs. Extra Help is a joint program run by the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, that’s designed to cut prescription drug costs for low-income Medicare recipients by up to thousands of dollars a year.
The program is open to all Social Security recipients and the 2025 income limit is $22,590 for individuals and $30,660 for married couples. Those incomes are based on the federal poverty level.
Translation and interpretation services
And speaking of vital, the Social Security Administration also provides translation and interpretation services for recipients who speak little or no English. Interpreter services are free of charge to anyone who requests them or shows a need for that assistance.
The Social Security Administration has translation services available in more than a dozen languages. To request an interpreter, call (800) 772-1213. Social Security-related materials are also provided in numerous languages on the administration’s website, sss.gov backslash multilanguage.
International agreements
Next up is International Social Security agreements. A lot of Americans work in foreign countries just as many people from other countries work here in the United States. People in either situation may be facing dual payroll taxes, which in this case simply means paying into two different countries’ retirement systems out of the same salary pool.
To provide relief, the Social Security Administration has hammered out formal agreements with 30 countries that have similar programs. These agreements typically allow workers to pay their payroll taxes to just one country’s retirement system at a time.
Additionally, they allow workers who are covered by this agreement to pool the credits they’ve earned in more than one nation to better ensure they qualify for benefits in the country where they intend to claim them.