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• Long term disability
• Posted: 2008-01-22 21:16:09 By Tracey W
• I have a question. Has anyone gotten long term disability from their employer? If so, how hard is it to get it? I've known that I have Usher's since I was 12 and now I am 44. I always thought that there would come a day that I might have to take disability but now it is hard for me to believe that it is getting close. My job requires alot of reading and numbers. My vision has been narrow for a long time but lately my eyes get so tired and I am starting to have headaches. I also feel like my glasses are dirty but they aren't - it is like a haze. Is that normal?
  
  Also, for SSDI, would I be able to get it for my kids, too?
  
  Thanks for any advice.
  
  Tracey

• Re: Long term disability
• Posted: 2008-01-22 22:21:10 By John A
• Hi Tracey:
  
  I never applied for long term dissability with a employer, but I have received Social Security Disability before and it never seem like enough money to get by. At the time I was getting the largest amount availible to a single person with out any children. If it wasn't for family letting me live with them at that time I'm not sure where I would have ended up. The first time I applied for SSDI I used it as a bridge inbetween jobs while i retrained. The second time was again while I found new employment.
  but the second time I had some savings to fall back on. What I am trying to say here is, if you can stay working as long as you are physically able. Now I'm not that familiar with Ushers, I have RP. But there is adaptive technology that is availible to help you continue to work affectively.. Such as CCTV's which basically is a electronic magnifier, or even speach output for your computer where you could scan the reading material into your computer and then let it read it to you.
  I use both of these tools to help me work everyday. Look down every avenue before SSdi,it should be your last resource to rely on.
  Good luck to you Tracey and keep fighting blindness.
  ja

• Re: Long term disability
• Posted: 2008-01-23 15:32:04 By Larry G
• Tracey,
  
  I have received long term disability from my employer and really all it took was my Retina specialist to fill out a form that states that I am unable to work. One of the stipulation of receiving disability from the insurance company is that I apply for SSDI which the insurance company hired a lawyer at the insurance company's expense. The lawyer immediately got me approved for SSDI. Maybe if your lucky your work insurance company will do the same for you.
  
  Good Luck,
  
  Larry

• Re: Long term disability
• Posted: 2008-01-23 22:46:42 By Darran Z
• One note to keep in mind is depending what your LTD states on pre-existing condition clause. That may cause problems. If you knew you were Usher since 12 then you'd likely run into pre-existing condition issues.
  
  As for getting SSDI for your kids, you'll likely be able to collect about half for your kids. It is not half per kid, but half overall. For example, if you were to collect $1400 in SSDI, then you could collect an additonal $700 or so no matter how many children you have. So it's not tied direclty individually, but collectively. This is effective until the child turns 18 and then you lose it, when the last child turns 18.
  
  Darran