Social Security and Heart Disease

Heart-related illnesses fall under the category of “cardiovascular system”, which includes such conditions as chronic heart failure, cardiomyopathy, ischemic heart disease, etc.

Despite modern medicine and efforts to educate people about cardiovascular and other heart-related diseases and conditions, risk factors, and preventive lifestyle changes, heart disease is still the number one killer in the United States. 

Unfortunately, some people with heart disease are unable to accomplish the simplest daily tasks. This interferes with their quality of life and sometimes leaves the heart patients unable to work.

Many who find themselves unable to work seek financial relief from the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the form of Social Security Disability Insurance, also referred to as SSD or SSDI.

Rachel Karns Kerrison  
Attorney at Law
Member RI & MA Bars

Karns Law Group

Can My Social Security Benefits be Garnished from My Bank Account?

In May of 2011 a new treasury rule was passed to provide more protection to recipients of federal benefits including social security from garnishment from their bank accounts.

If a creditor sues you and gets a judgment against you, there are several ways that they can collect on that judgment.  One tool allows the creditor to garnish (grab the money) in your bank account.  This normally includes wages from an employer but what about social security benefits?  There are limits to garnishment.  Certain funds are exempt and may not be garnished by creditors.  Funds that cannot be garnished include some types of federal benefits such as Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, veterans benefits, and a few others.

Although these types of funds cannot be seized by creditors by law, in practice, that is not always what happens.  When banks got a garnishment order in the past, they often froze all funds in the account (up to the amount of the debt), without regard to whether the funds were protected from garnishment.  The banks were not required to check if the funds were social security benefits or regular wages that are not exempt.  The accountholder could object to the garnishment of the protected funds to prevent the bank from turning them over to the judgment creditor.  But many people were unable to complete the paperwork and procedure to do so, and so lost funds that never should have been seized.

The new rule now puts the pressure on the Banks to prevent this from happening.  Banks receiving garnishment orders must now determine if the bank account has protected federal benefits that have been electronically deposited into the account within the previous two months. If the bank discovers that there are protected funds, it cannot include those funds in the account freeze.

Joshua Karns
Attorney at Law 
Member RI, MA & OR Bars

Karns Law Group 

How do I know if I have a Severe Disability?

Do I suffer from a severe disability?

 

In order to get social security disability you must have a severe disability.  Under Social Security regulations, a disability is severe if it prevents you from working for at least 12 months.  Therefore you can apply for social security disability if you are unable to or anticipate being unable to perform your past work as well as any work that exists in the national economy for at least 12 months.

How to prove a severe disability

 

How severe a condition is can be proven through evidence that consists of medical records, academic records, letters from physicians, and special examinations that have been scheduled for a claimant by the social security administration. For this reason, one of the most important things a claimant can do is to always supply a detailed list of treatment sources when filing a claim for disability.

Rachel Karns Kerrison  
Attorney at Law
Member RI & MA Bars

Karns Law Group