Self-employed individuals can deduct business expenses as well as any expenses they need to have because of their disability. These expenses may include prescriptions, medical care, medical equipment, and any special tools, equipment, or software you need to get the job done. For example, the cost of documents written in Braille or special voice-activated programs so that you can send messages and prepare documents. If you are not considered blind under the law, you must provide additional documents to the SSA. In particular, the SSA requires: Persons who are legally blind include persons who have been blind since birth, in addition to those who have suffered severe vision loss due to medical conditions. These conditions, which may qualify for disability benefits due to vision loss, include glaucoma, retinopathy and traumatic injuries, among others. During this time, you won`t have to reapply for disability benefits and you won`t have to wait for your health check to reinstate your benefits. If you are blind and receiving disability benefits, but are considering returning to the workforce and want to take advantage of your 9-month trial period, you should contact a disability lawyer or a lawyer who handles such cases in your area. While some organizations provide dogs for free to blind people, these groups have limited resources and budgets. This means that blind workers can wait months or years for a guide animal unless they can afford to pay for their own training. For people who lose their sight later in life, the cost of blindness includes not only adjustment costs like those mentioned above, but also astronomical medical bills.
The Social Security disability application requires all the information that will give insight into your life and how your illness affects you. This includes your Social Security number, addresses, references, medical documents, and even your tax information and employment history. What do you mean by special regulations for the blind? If you do not meet a listed disability, the SSA will verify your age, education, employment history, and health status. If you are unable to work because of all these factors, you will receive benefits under an occupational medical allowance. BWE items don`t need to be related to your blindness. When we calculate the amount of your SSI payment, we treat BWE items differently from IRWE. We do this because it always results in a higher SSI payment amount for you. The table below shows how BWE would affect your monthly payment compared to IRWE.
If you are blind, disabled and over 55 years of age, the survey rules used by the SSA are not the same as those used for non-blind people. During the trial period, you must declare your income, professional activity and expenses to the SSA. During this period, your disability benefits are not at risk. Those who are not blind can, in most cases, work no more than 45 hours per month for their business and receive disability benefits. A blind person can work more and invest more hours in their business while receiving disability benefits as long as their net profit is equal to the SGA average or less. For example, you can work 80 hours a month while you are blind, but if your net benefit does not exceed $2,040 per month, you will continue to receive disability benefits. If a blind person is receiving disability benefits and is self-employed, the time they spend in their business is not assessed in the same way as for those who do not have vision loss. Those who receive disability benefits for vision loss have different financial limits than those who receive benefits for other reasons.
Blind claimants can earn more than disabled workers who are not blind and keep their disability benefits. The SSA controls blindness or severe vision loss according to strict medical clearance rules. To prove that you are disabled without making an entry, you must show that your reduced vision or blindness prevents you from working in any job. If a person is blind and working, but their income has decreased due to their visual impairment, Social Security can exclude or “freeze” low-income years, resulting in a higher benefit payment. In addition, when determining the earned income of a blind person, not all expenses incurred by a blind person to earn that income are included in the calculation. These expenses are called blind labor costs (BWE) and do not need to be related to blindness. We decide whether the professional activity of blind self-employed persons is SGA solely on the basis of their income. We do not consider the time spent in the company or the services provided as we do with non-blind freelancers.