I saw this question in the comments on Jonathan Ginsberg’s site, Social Security Disability Blog:
I would like to know if a convicted felon, who is not incarcerated, can receive Title 16 SSI disability?
This is a great wrinkle on our current discussion on the effect of incarceration on Social Security disability benefits, including SSI. I encourage anyone interested in this topic to bookmark this link and check back as I will be adding articles to the subject in the days and weeks to come.
As a Social Security lawyer in Colorado, I have worked with a number of individuals with felonies and helped them get their Social Security benefits including Title 16 SSI benefits.
I am not aware of any circumstance where the fact of a prior felony prevents someone from receiving Social Security disability benefits as a result of the charge being a felony rather than a misdemeanor.
It does matter during incarceration whether the conviction is for a felony (you cannot get benefits) or misdemeanor (according to SSA you may still be able to get benefits).
There may be some set of circumstances which would change this, but I cannot think of one. So, “yes,” you can get SSI benefits even if you have been convicted of a felony. However, you still have to qualify for SSI and there has to be no other problem that might keep you from getting benefits.
Unfortunately, “hire-ability” is not considered by Social Security in
determining whether an individual is eligible for disability.
In other words, Social Security only looks at whether a person is
physically and mentally capable of doing a job, not whether the person
will get hired for a job.
In every case that I have seen, a prison record is a hireability
issue, not a disability issue.
I am a two way radio technician. I keep loosing my job, due to a past felony record. The companies do a back ground check, after they hire, and then-when it comes back “fail”, they let me go. Since my conviction, I cannot keep a job long. Five years, I kept one, it was the longest.
A prison record, when you work as a two way radio technician, when you do service work on the IL State Police repeater sites, and mobile radios, is not good. So-my question is, Does having a felony conviction, and a prison record, which limits you on your job, give you the eligibility for SSI?
Unfortunately, “hire-ability” is not considered by Social Security in
determining whether an individual is eligible for disability.
In other words, Social Security only looks at whether a person is
physically and mentally capable of doing a job, not whether the person
will get hired for a job.
In every case that I have seen, a prison record is a hireability
issue, not a disability issue.
I am a two way radio technician. I keep loosing my job, due to a past felony record. The companies do a back ground check, after they hire, and then-when it comes back “fail”, they let me go. Since my conviction, I cannot keep a job long. Five years, I kept one, it was the longest.
A prison record, when you work as a two way radio technician, when you do service work on the IL State Police repeater sites, and mobile radios, is not good. So-my question is, Does having a felony conviction, and a prison record, which limits you on your job, give you the eligibility for SSI?