Social Security Disability Insurance has many names. It is also known as
Title II benefits, SSD, SSDI, DIB, and just plain Social Security Disability benefits. To be eligible for these benefits the
individual must be "insured". To be insured, the individual must of worked long enough and paid Social Security
taxes so that they have enough credits. The amount of money one will get per month if they are found disabled is dependent
upon how much they paid into the system. It is also significant to know, the date that you are found to meet the definition
of disability under Social Security rules must be before your date of last insured. The date of last insured, sometimes just
called DLI, is usually five years from when the individual with a consistent work history stopped working. So as you
can see there is both a duration work test and a recent work test to determine if you are eligible. To
help you understand the durational and recent works test I have provided more information on the right side of this page.
Benefits are paid to the disabled person and to minor children. They can also sometimes be paid to disabled widows,
spouses and surviving divorced spouses which I will discuss later. Those who win their Social Security disability benefits
are entitled to Medicare in two years and six months from the date of onset. The date of onset is the date you are found to
meet the definition of disability.
Supplemental Security Income also has a few
names. These include SSI, and Title XVI benefits. To qualify for this program adults must be not only disabled but also have
limited income and resources. What does Social Security mean by limited income? Social Security will
consider the following things income: money earned from work, money received from other sources like unemployment benefits,
VA benefits, money from friends or relatives, Social Security benefits, workers compensation benefits, and free food and shelter.
What does Social Security mean by limited resources? Resources are things like cash, land, vehicles, personal
property, life insurance, bank accounts, stocks, US savings bonds and anything else that can be converted to cash and used
for food and shelter. SSI has limits on countable resources. For an individual it is $2000. For a couple it is $3000. To be eligible for SSI benefits you must also be a citizen or national of the United States or a non-citizen who meets the alien eligibility criteria.
Those who qualify for SSI will usually qualify for Medicaid as well. These benefits are paid out
of the general tax revenues and not the Social Security tax revenues.
Child's SSI
is a disability program under Title XVI for children under age 18, or under 22 and regularly attending school, and are
disabled and the household in which they live has limited income and resources. Social Security will look at the amount
income and resources of the parents living with the child to determine if the child is eligible for these benefits.
This is called deeming and is beyond the discussion of this page. The best way to find out if your child is eligible
is to contact SSA.
Childhood disability benefits, also called disabled adult
child benefits are under Title II. It is important not to confuse these benefits with child's SSI benefits as they are completely
different. To qualify for childhood disability benefits the person must have been disabled before age 22 and continue to be
disabled. They must also have a parent who is on Social Security disability, or retired and collecting Social Security
benefits, or a parent must have died and the parent was fully insured when they died. What this all means is that
the adult child if they meet the above criteria is entitled to benefits based on the parents work record. Because these are
title II benefits the adult child who is disabled is also entitled to Medicare. To be eligible the disabled individual
must also not be married or have been married.
Disabled widows benefits are also under Title II. A disabled widow can get benefits based on the deceased spouse's earnings record but
you must be 50 years or older and the onset of your disability must have been within seven years of your spouse's death.
How
Social Security determines if you are disabled is the same for all of these programs that apply to adults. A Social Security
uses a five step process for disability.
If your child under 18 than the process to determine if you are disabled is different. See my page on
child's SSI.
This page only provides a brief description of each of the disability programs available through Social
Security. To learn more about these programs it is important that you follow the links I've included which go into more detail.
I also encourage you to visit the Social Security Administration's website which has additional information on these programs.
My hope, is that this page gives you a good starting point to understanding what you may qualify for. If you have any questions
please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail.
Hopefully, you now know what program you may be eligible for. The next step is to research as much
as you can about how to win your disability benefits. You can visit my home page on my Social Security Disability Guide and see what other information you can learn to help you win. I hope you find the information in my website "Ultimatedisabilityguide"
useful and good luck.
