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Going to school and Social Security benefits

You have been out of work for a while. You know for sure you will not be able to return because of your disability. Now you are thinking… “If I go to school and learn something new, maybe I could go back to work?”

Although we would never want to discourage anyone from trying to better themselves, a judge will find several problems with you going to school, yes, even online school.

The point of the Social Security system is to provide financial assistance to those that can not do any kind of work. Social Security does not provide assistance to those that can not maintain the same level of income as they used to. In other words, if you were making $75,000.00 but lost the ability to use one arm and job requires both arms you are only disabled from your current work. You could go find a job that only requires the use of one arm, even though your income would decrease to $34,000.00 a year.

Therefore, if you are applying for Social Security benefits because you can not work at any job but you are able to sit in a desk for an hour at a time, listen and follow the direction of the professor, complete your assignments and meet the deadlines of your assignments, you have just met the guidelines for a secretarial job. The same would apply to online classes. You may not have to sit as long as in the classroom, but you would still have to apply knowledge to your assignments, meet deadlines and be capable of using a computer. Now you have met the guidelines for a data entry position.

The bottom line is, going to school is a job, you just don’t get a paycheck for it.