A Social Security Benefits Q and A

Q: I own a business, but do not run it myself. Would I still be eligible to receive Social Security benefits?
A: As defined by the Social Security Administration, disability is the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity." What is considered "substantial gainful activity" comes from the National Wage Index, which averages monthly wages across the board. They consider a person to be working any day that he or she "is the owner or part owner of a trade or business even if he or she does not actually work in the trade or business or receive any income from it."
The money your business makes may have an effect on your social security disability. If that income goes over the predetermined substantial gainful activity (SGA) level, the SSA may consider it a substantial income. This level is determined by comparing your business earnings to your pre disability earnings, and the earnings of a non disabled person engaged in the same business.
Q: What will happen to my claim if I die while in the process of applying for benefits?
A: The SSA states that when an individual who was or could have been eligible to receive social security benefits becomes deceased, surviving family member can request a Lump Sum Death Payment. This means that, if you were to die in the process of applying for social security benefits, your survivors may make a case for the social security benefits you may have earned after the waiting period. To do this, surviving family members need to prove that their deceased relative did or could have qualified for social security benefits in the month that they died.
Lump Sum Death Payment of social security benefits is available only to particular surviving family members. When making the claim, the family will need to provide information and records about the deceaseds social security benefits eligibility and application (if there was one). The SSA will also want to see information about the deceaseds overall disability, starting at fourteen months before death.
Q: What will happen to my social security benefits, once I am already on them, and I die?
A: A person who has worked and paid social security taxes may be eligible for survivors benefits upon their death. In general, for family members to receive survivors social security benefits, ten or so years of work will be needed (though this does vary). The following relatives may be eligible for survivors social security benefits:
• A spouse, with full benefits when they reach retirement, or some benefits beginning at age 60 • A disabled spouse aged 50 or over • Children less than 18 years of age (or as old as 19 if they still attend secondary school) • Currently disabled children who were disabled at less than 22 years of age • Dependent parents who are 62 years old or older.