My father died 5 years ago and I was denied his benefits. I am a mentally handicapped male who was denied because I made to much money on my only near full time job way back in 1995.Since then, I have only had seasonal or part time jobs, and because of surgeries over the years, am no longer able to do much physical labor at all, and I am only fifty one years old. I have led a fairly poor life and would love to get his benefits to actually live and enjoy whatever time I have left on earth. Is there anything I can do to reverse their policies?

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. Social Security won't reverse their policies, but you can reapply for disabled adult child (DAC) benefits. Other than getting approved for DAC benefits, there's no other way that you could collect benefits based on your father's Social Security record.

To qualify for DAC benefits, you must have become disabled prior to age 22. If you performed work activity after age 22 that Social Security would define as substantial gainful activity (SGA), then they will likely not approve your claim. However, you could then pursue an appeal, in which case you could eventually make your arguments to an administrative law judge (ALJ). You may want to review the following section of Social Security's operations manual to determine if there is any way you could convince Social Security or an ALJ that the work you performed was not in fact SGA: https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0410505010.

Best, Jerry