If you can't work because of your health, you're a candidate for Social Security Disability. But being a candidate and getting approved are two very different things. Use this expert insight to make sure you qualify.

You come home from work exhausted, your body wracked with pain, and you collapse into a recliner. You just aren't able to pull your weight around the office anymore. You know it; your boss knows it; and everybody around you does, too. So what's your next move?

You've thought about applying for disability, but you've heard the horror stories. Getting benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA), a bureaucratic behemoth, is a daunting process. And you don't want to give up your paycheck, your health benefits and your work pals until you're forced to. Anyway, is it even worth the effort to try?

Brenda Crabbs will tell you it is. After 30 years of working with pain and discomfort from rheumatoid arthritis, at 50 years old she realized she couldn't do it anymore. 

Fortunately, her application for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) was approved on the first try, and within six months she received the first of the monthly disability checks that have helped support her for the last seven years. The Easton, Md., resident receives about $12,000 a year in SSDI payments, and is also able to earn another $9,000 a year as a marketing consultant, working with some of her longtime clients. 

Though Crabbs' modest income and benefits don't enable her to afford some of the prescription medications and physical therapy treatments she needs, the Medicare coverage that comes along with SSDI has covered several costly joint replacement and bone fusion surgeries, as well as weekly methotrexate injections that lessen the painful inflammation of her joints. 

"It's not a lavish lifestyle, what Social Security provides, but it does allow me to take care of my health and still be somewhat productive," she says. "Arthritis can take your life away, inch by quarter inch, but this is helping me to fight it."

Of course, not every one has it so easy with the SSA. In fact, 65 percent of those who apply for Social Security disability are denied initially. But those who press on through the appeal process often have much better luck. More than half of all applicants for Social Security disability eventually win an award, though it can take several years to make the case.

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