HOW TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY BENEFITS

A guide to getting the most out of Social Security’s disability benefits.

At the start of this guide, Sloan emphasizes that, unlike the authors of many other books on Social Security benefits, he isn’t just reading and simplifying written regulations—he’s offering advice from his own experience of applying for and receiving disability benefits, so that his readers can “outlast the unforeseen waits and frustrating turndowns…and come out whole and alive on the other side.” In these attractively designed pages, Sloan walks readers through every step of what can be a strange, Byzantine process, beginning with determining what qualifies as a disability in the eyes of the Social Security Administration. The book asserts that regulations are nowhere more impenetrable than when money is moving from the government to the individual, and this includes Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. Sloan clearly states what he posits as an uncomfortable fact: that the SSA often seems grudging in paying out benefits, despite the fact that taxpayers have often long paid into it: “As long as you can struggle into work and collect a day’s wage,” he writes, “the SSA will assume that you must be okay and not really qualified to draw down on the disability pot of money to which you have contributed all these years.” Sloan straightforwardly threads his readers through the labyrinth of SSA regulations, offering simple, affably phrased practical advice for every step, from defining and extensively documenting their disability to gauging the necessity of legal representation and the nitty-gritty of how to handle oneself during disability interviews. The e-book of Sloan’s book includes links to a vast amount of helpful information, but his work’s best feature is its hard-won fighting spirit—especially considering the fact that the bureaucracy that Sloan describes is likely to provoke anger. Readers facing this daunting process will be grateful for such a knowing guide.

A clear and refreshingly tough-minded disability-benefit plan.