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Social Security Snafus: 3 Common And Frightening Social Security Insurance Issues

Have your social security payments ceased? This can happen very abruptly and leave you in a lurch, but there are usually a few common reasons behind it. Often, it has to do with either missing or not noticing specific correspondence from the social security department. One note: do keep in mind that social security insurance is different from social security disability, even though both will pay out for disability claims. The type of insurance that you are using can be found on your forms.

1. You May Have Turned 18

Many social security insurance benefits will cease when you turn 18 unless you file an appeal -- and you need to file the appeal within 15 days of the payments being cut off if you don't want any disruption to your payments. You can appeal this decision, but it's important that you appeal it as soon as possible. Whether or not you'll be able to successfully appeal will depend on your situation and whether you still need the benefits: you will need to bring in any applicable medical paperwork and statements from your doctors.

2. You May Be Making Too Much Money

Social security payments are determined based on the amount of money that you're making. If you have had a drastic increase in income (or even if there was some mistake in reporting your income), you may see your social security payments vanish before your eyes. It's essential that you get together your income documents and appeal this immediately -- but if you really are making substantially more money, it's not likely that the payments will continue. 

3. You May Have Been Paid Too Much

It may seem ridiculous, but occasionally SSI will send you too much money and will ask for it back immediately -- even if you didn't realize that you were overpaid. This can really complicate a person's budget, especially if things were tight already. In this situation, you can usually call the SSI department back and ask them to put you on a repayment plan rather than having to pay it all back at once. The amounts that you owe for the over payment can then be deducted in small amounts from your payments as scheduled.

If you're having any of the above problems, you may want to connect with a social security attorney. Social security attorneys are skilled in social security issues and will be able to resolve the problems faster than you could alone. There are low cost legal clinics in most areas that may be able to help you figure out why your social security insurance has been denied.