Larry,
Want to give you a little background on myself. I'm 54 years old and went through losses of a business ,my home, my marriage, Children, which all kind of crumbled in 2012 and 2013. I tried to get a job back in the industry that I've been in for 36 years. I lost my left I'm back in my twenties and have always had a problem with attention deficit disorder,. I tried and interviewed for several jobs and was not getting hired so meanwhile I had to get into my 401k and depleted that in all my savings just trying to survive and lived because I wasn't eligible for Social Security being an independent business owner ultimately filed bankruptcy. Then sense I filed for Social Security disability because of my problems and was initially turned down and appealed and it's been going on three years and I have an attorney handling it. Meanwhile I was to the point to where I had nothing to survive on after help from friends and family I had to go back to work. I had done a lot of counseling and see a psychiatrist and was taking medications for anxiety depression and ADHD which had got worse as I've gotten older. Recently A friend had called me because someone had retired in the agency that he's president of in the same line of work that I've been doing for 36 years. He asked if I was ready to go back to work? I replied that I would try however with the issues that I'm having as I get stressed out everything starts to cause anxiety. Many of my problems with my marriage would do to my ADHD and my ex-wife enabled me in many ways from doing normal routine tasks and paperwork, which Autumn Lake cause problems in our marriage. I ultimately had to file bankruptcy and lost everything my business ,my home, my children, which put me into a down hill spiral. I've been working a couple months now although it's stressful and I'm very disorganized I'm coping with it the best I can my question is will Social Security Disability pay for my years that I was unable to work and should I continue to pursue it with my attorney? I'm hoping that I can continue to work further until my retirement years but nevertheless I'll see how it goes. I have noticed that Social Security was asking questions whether I would be capable of going back to work at any point in time. Does that mean that I have a chance and collecting on the rear losses when I wasn't working I had paid into it for probably 40 years being that I had been working since I was 15 years old. I never believed in people living off the system that are capable of working but in my case I really had some major problems and depression. Larry please let me know what your thoughts are. Thank You, Dennis

Hi Dennis,

I'm sorry to hear about all of the problems you've been having. The answer is yes, if your appeal ends up being approved Social Security would pay you any back pay to which you're entitled. Depending on the extent of your current work and the amount of your earnings, you could be approved for what's called a closed period of disability. That would mean that although you might not be entitled to ongoing benefits, you could be paid for the past period of time that you were disabled and not working.

You should probably discuss your present circumstances and options with the attorney who is representing you on your Social Security claim, and you'll want to be sure to notify Social Security that you've returned to work.

Best, Jerry