If you or someone you love lives with a disability, you know well the challenges involved, including financial. Finding out the qualifications for disability benefits and accessing these to fund support can ease the burden, and mean someone can live more independently once they reach adulthood.
What are disability benefits and what do they cover?
Disability benefits can provide funding for caregivers or services like in-home assistive technology and Remote Supports, or simply cover basic needs. If you have worked long enough, and recently enough, paid Social Security taxes, and you fit other criteria for disability, you and some family members can access monthly benefits from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program also pays monthly benefits to people who are disabled or blind, and fit other criteria, to cover basic needs.
People can also access Medicaid for disabled adults, via their Home and Community-Based Waiver (HCBS) program, which provides home health care services, including funding our SafeinHome Remote Support services, allowing people in need of long-term support to stay in their own homes, and participate in the community of their choice.
Am I eligible?
Find out if you’re eligible for SSDI or SSI benefits by using the Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool. To be eligible, you’ll need to fit certain criteria, including your disability or illness, and have income and assets under specific limits. Under the SSI program, parents of children who are blind or disabled and who also have a limited income can apply on behalf of their children.
Access to the HCBS program varies by state, and HCBS programs are often funded by state waivers. Waivers are part of a state’s Medicaid program, but they provide a special group of services to certain populations in the Mandatory Eligibility Groups. This category includes people with disabilities.
SafeinHome’s Remote Supports Services are included as part of eligible support services. It qualifies as a direct benefit to people by addressing the needs related to their disability and increasing their independence.
SafeinHome empowers people with disabilities to live independently, and with dignity, privacy, and autonomy, by providing 24/7 off-site support care, and on-site technology like sensors and assistive devices.
The application process
To access SSDI or SSI, apply to the Social Security Administration online, by phone, or in person), and your application will be reviewed, processed, and a decision made by your state’s Disability Determination Services office. To apply for HCBS benefits, contact your state’s Medicaid agency to find out what HCBS benefits are available and submit an application.