Helping someone you love through a disability claim.
Nearly a third of the people who call our office are not the claimant at all. They are a parent, a spouse, or the person quietly managing everything. This section is built for you, starting with sixty seconds that point you at the right first step.
Who are you helping?
Tap one. No forms, nothing collected, just the right starting point.
One more: is a parent already collecting Social Security (retirement or disability), or has a parent passed away?
Your path likely runs through DAC benefits.
If your child’s disability began before age 22, they can draw a monthly benefit on a parent’s work record. It is called the Disabled Adult Child benefit, it requires no work history of their own, and almost no family has heard of it by name. Your child must be unmarried, and the before-22 evidence (school records, early medical files) usually decides the case.
Estimates at 50% and 75% of the parent’s benefit. A family maximum can reduce these when several people draw on one record, so treat this as the shape of the number, and let us confirm the real one.
Read the parent’s guide to SSI and DAC
Prefer to just talk it through? Call 720-515-9012. The consultation is free.
Start with SSI, the day they turn 18.
Before 18, your income counts against your child’s SSI. At 18, that stops, and your child is judged on their own finances, which for most disabled young adults are nearly zero. Families told “you make too much” years ago are often approvable the month after the 18th birthday, at up to $994 a month in 2026, usually with Medicaid attached. Every month of waiting after that birthday is a month that never gets paid.
Read the parent’s guide to SSI and DAC
Later, when a parent retires, a second benefit called DAC can take over. The guide covers both doors and the trap between them.
You already have the most valuable role. Here is how to use it.
Until consent is on file, Social Security talks only to your spouse, not to you. The work that wins cases, though, is yours right now: the records, the timeline, the symptom notes, and one form built precisely for you, the third-party function report, where your everyday observations become evidence.
Money worry underneath it all? Your income never touches an SSDI claim. It can affect SSI. The guide explains which is which.
That role has a name: representative payee.
A payee receives the benefit and spends it for the beneficiary, full stop. It is not guardianship, it is not power of attorney, and it comes with clear rules: a properly titled account, spending on current needs, records kept. The good news most families miss: spouses, and parents living with a disabled adult child, no longer file the annual accounting report at all.
Appointed by a letter you did not ask for? Bring it to a free consultation and we will decode it together.
Start with your situation
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A Parent’s Guide to SSI and DAC Benefits
Two doors open for a disabled adult child: SSI the day they turn 18, and the Disabled Adult Child benefit on a parent’s record. Most families only know about one, and the timing between them has traps.
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Filing for Your Spouse
What SSA lets a husband or wife do in a claim, what needs consent, and the third-party function report where your daily observations become the evidence that wins.
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Becoming a Representative Payee
Managing the money for someone who can’t: the SSA-11 process, the account and spending rules, and the annual report most family payees no longer have to file.
Go deeper
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Keeping Medicaid When DAC Starts
Colorado’s Section 1634 disregard protects a disabled adult child’s Medicaid when a parent’s retirement triggers DAC. Read it before the retirement date, not after.
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When the Diagnosis Is Schizophrenia
Serious mental illness often declares itself right at the age-22 line that decides DAC cases. How SSA evaluates schizophrenia, and why early records matter so much.
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SSDI vs. SSI, in Plain English
Half the families who call us use the two names interchangeably. Different money, different rules about savings, different health coverage. Which one is yours?
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What This Costs a Family
Nothing up front, nothing unless the claim wins, and the fee is capped by federal law. The full math, so money never becomes the reason you waited.
Call us together, or call us first.
You do not need the claimant’s permission to ask questions, and you are welcome on every call once they say yes. The first conversation is free, and we will tell you honestly whether the case has a path forward, including when the honest answer is not yet.