Anyone can become temporarily or permanently disabled. In fact, many experts believe that Americans in their 20s today accept virtually a xxx% adventure of experiencing a disabling status severe enough to cause at least three months of missed work before they retire. Yet despite the significant take chances of inability, most Americans have neither curt-term nor long-term disability insurance.

If you sustain an illness or injury that leaves you lot unable to work, what can you practise? One choice is to utilize for monthly disability benefits through the Social Security Assistants, which likewise provides retirement benefits to seniors. However, qualifying for Social Security inability benefits can be complicated, and the bar for qualifying is set fairly high.

If you lot call up y'all may come up to rely on Social Security disability benefits -- or if you simply desire to find out how they work -- this complete guide will provide the answers you need.

Disabled woman in wheelchair being pushed by caregiver

Image source: Getty Images.

What are Social Security disability benefits?

Social Security disability benefits are monthly payments that assistance back up people who become too disabled to work. At that place are ii different programs through which the SSA pays disability benefits. Those programs are:

  • Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
  • Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

Although both programs apply the same basic definition of "disabled," and at that place's some overlap between the programs, in that location are also major fundamental differences. SSI and SSDI are intended for 2 different groups of disabled workers; the benefits and qualifying requirements differ; and the funding sources are different.

What is Social Security Disability Insurance?

Social Security Disability Insurance is a rubber cyberspace program that essentially insures workers in the case they become sick or injured and can't work as a consequence. However, with SSDI, you don't pay premiums to an insurance company. Instead, you pay Social Security taxes out of each paycheck, and a portion of this revenue enhancement money goes to fund the SSDI programme.

If you have a qualifying disability, you lot tin can utilize for SSDI benefits. These benefits can be paid to you the unabridged fourth dimension you're disabled until you reach retirement historic period and transition to retirement benefits.

How much income does SSDI provide?

If you lot qualify for SSDI, the amount of income you receive is determined past your piece of work history and the wages you lot earned over your career. A similar approach is used to summate Social Security retirement benefits. As with retirement benefits, the SSA calculates your average wages over your working life and plugs that number into a formula, and the result is the corporeality of your monthly check.

However, with retirement benefits, the SSA looks at your average wages over the 35 years when y'all earned the nigh -- but you lot may not have a 35-year work history if you've get disabled. To determine how many years of wages to consider in calculating SSDI benefits, the SSA:

  • Subtracts 22 from your current age. So, if you were l, y'all'd decrease 50-22 = 28
  • Takes one-5th of that number and rounds downward to the nearest whole number. So, you'd accept 1/5 of 28 in our instance, which equals 5.six and which rounds down to five.
  • Subtracts the 2d number from the kickoff. If the second number is less than 2, so SSA subtracts ii instead. If it's more than v, the SSA subtracts five. In our example, the SSA would take 28-5, so it would consider 23 years of work history.

The SSA looks at your earnings over this designated number of piece of work years (23 in our example), adjusts your wages for inflation, and calculates your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). Once the SSA determines your AIME over the appropriate number of years, yous'll receive benefits equal to:

  1. 90% of the start $895 in AIME
  2. 32% of AIME between $895 and $5,397
  3. fifteen% of AIME above $5,397

This is the formula every bit of 2018. You can also sign into your Social Security account (or create a new one) to detect out how much you'd receive in SSDI benefits if y'all became disabled.

Every bit of 2018, the maximum SSDI benefit is $two,788 monthly, while the average benefit is $1,197 per month.

How practise you lot authorize for SSDI?

To qualify for SSDI, you need to meet some basic requirements.

  • Yous must have earned a sufficient number of piece of work credits.

Piece of work credits are basically points you lot accumulate by earning, and paying Social Security taxes on, a certain amount of money. In 2018, you earn 1 work credit for every $i,320 in wages or self-employment income. You can earn 4 credits per twelvemonth, so once yous've earned $v,280 in taxable income in a year, you tin't earn whatever more credits until the adjacent year.

The specific number of work credits you need to qualify for SSDI will vary depending how quondam you are when you get disabled. Every bit a full general rule, you tin potentially qualify if you've earned at least 20 credits in the x years prior to becoming disabledand if y'all've earned a full of 40 credits or more.

However, if y'all're younger when you become disabled, the piece of work credit requirement is reduced based on age. For case, if you're nether 24 when yous become disabled, you can go eligible for SSDI if yous've earned at to the lowest degree six piece of work credits in the three yr period before your disability occurs.

If you're between the ages of 24 and 31, yous can authorize if yous've earned piece of work credits at to the lowest degree half the time between historic period 21 and the time you lot develop your disability. If you lot're between the ages of 31 and 62, in that location's a nautical chart showing the number of credits y'all demand.

  • You cannot be engaged in substantial gainful activity

"Substantial gainful activity" (SGA) is basically defined as earning at least a sure amount of income from work (earnings from other sources don't count in determining SGA). The SGA level changes periodically. In 2018, if you earn at least $1,180 per month from working -- or $i,970 per month if you're bullheaded -- you lot won't be allowed to receive SSDI, benefits because the SSA volition deem you to have engaged in substantial gainful activity.

This restriction exists considering the SSA wants to make sure your inability is in fact preventing yous from working. If you earn a regular paycheck, then by definition you are not too disabled to work.

  • Yous have to meet the definition of disabled

We'll talk near this in greater detail afterwards, only generally, this ways you need to have a serious long-term medical condition that prevents you from working. The crusade of your harm doesn't thing -- information technology can be the event of an accident, an illness, or whatever other cause. The of import affair is that you meet the SSA'due south specific and narrow definition of what it means to exist disabled.

  • You must be unable to do whatsoever job you're qualified for

Y'all must be unable to do not merely the job you were doing when you became disabled, simply also whatever other task for which yous're qualified. The SSA volition look at your transferrable skills to find out whether you can do whatever work despite your disabling condition.

In general, the younger y'all are, the more likely it is that the SSA will decide you have transferrable skills and can find some type of work despite your disability.

What if you don't have plenty piece of work credits?

If you don't have plenty work credits to qualify for SSDI, information technology's possible you may exist able to qualify based on a spouse'south or parent'south work record. For instance:

  • Widows or widowers between the ages of l and sixty who become disabled may qualify for widow'due south disability benefits based on a spouse's work history.
  • If y'all become disabled before age 22, you can be classified as an adult kid and potentially become eligible for SSDI benefits based on a parent'due south work history.

The Social Security Administration has more information on qualifying for benefits on a family member'due south work history. If you can't qualify based on your ain work record or a family member's work record, then you lot will not be able to become SSDI benefits. Withal, you may still be eligible for disability benefits through the Supplemental Security Income program.

What is Supplemental Security Income?

Supplemental Security Income benefits are awarded to with a disabling condition, a low income, and limited resources. Seniors over 65 tin can also qualify for SSI benefits.

SSI benefits are funded through general taxation revenue, rather than through special taxes collected solely for the program. You can qualify for these benefits regardless of your work history, just yous must have low income and few valuable avails.

How much tin yous receive in Supplemental Security Income?

The monthly income you'll receive from SSI is typically lower than the monthly benefit you'd get from SSDI. It's not based on past wages only is instead a fixed amount based on the federal do good rate.

As of 2018, the monthly maximum SSI do good is $750 for eligible individuals and $1,125 for couples.

How do yous authorize for SSI?

You tin can qualify for SSI if:

  • You're aged, blind, or disabled

This would mean you're over 65, you're legally bullheaded, or y'all meet the SSA's definition of disabled. The definition of disabled is the same for SSI and SSDI, and we'll cover that in more detail later on.

  • You have limited income

Y'all tin't become SSI benefits if you're engaged in substantial gainful activity. The definition of SGA for SSI is the same as it for SSDI, and so you won't exist eligible for benefits if you earn $one,180 per month or more, or $one,970 per month or more if you're blind.

Because SSI benefits are needs-based, at that place are other rules when information technology comes to income too. If yous take $750 per calendar month or more in countable income, you can't authorize for SSI. If you lot take some countable income, your maximum $750 monthly do good will exist reduced on a dollar-for-dollar footing.

The SSI counts just certain types income in determining whether you volition receive reduced benefits or become ineligible. This includes income earned from working, workers' bounty or unemployment benefits, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, other Social Security benefits, or family or friends. If you're provided with free nutrient or shelter, this also counts as income.

Even so, SNAP benefits, income tax refunds, certain other authorities benefits, loans, grants or scholarships for tuition, and the first $20 in income received in a month are not countable for the purpose of determining whether you can go SSI benefits.

  • You accept few avails

At that place'south likewise a limit on how much y'all can own earlier you lot go ineligible for SSI. Individuals with more $2,000 in countable assets won't qualify for SSI, while couples are allowed up to $3,000 in assets.

Assets or resources that are counted for the purpose of determining whether you lot hitting this $ii,000 or $3,000 threshold include cash, bank accounts, stocks, savings bonds, vehicles, land, personal belongings, life insurance, and other things yous ain that you could convert into shelter or food. However, some of your assets -- such as the dwelling you live in, ane vehicle, and some personal holding -- won't count when determining your resources.

If you lot give away your resources to fall beneath the asset limits, you could exist butterfingers from getting SSI benefits for upward to 36 months.

What is the Social Security Administration's definition of "disabled"?

To obtain disability payments from either SSI or SSDI, yous must encounter the Social Security Administration'southward definition of disabled. This is not as piece of cake equally information technology sounds. For the SSA to consider y'all disabled, your condition must:

  • Terminal a twelvemonth, be expected to last a year, or be expected to result in your death.
  • Significantly limit your ability to do basic activities necessary to work, such as walking, sitting, continuing, or retaining and remembering data.
  • Be included in the SSA'due south "Listing of Impairments" (more on that shortly) or be medically equivalent to listed weather. This Listing of Impairments is also called the "Blue Volume."
  • Prevent y'all from doing whatever work for which you lot're qualified.

More than half of all applicants for disability benefits are denied, oft because their ailment does not run into this very limited definition of what information technology means to be disabled.

What is the List of Impairments?

The List of Impairments is a list of conditions or health issues the SSA has prepared that are unremarkably considered severe enough to let you to qualify for benefits. Information technology's divided into Function A, which lists adult conditions, and Part B, which lists children'south atmospheric condition.

Within each function, there are specific categories of medical ailments that deal with different parts of the body, including:

  • The Musculoskeletal System
  • Special Senses and Speech
  • Respiratory Disorders
  • The Cardiovascular System
  • The Digestive System
  • Genitourinary Disorders
  • Hematological Disorders
  • Skin Disorders
  • Endocrine Disorders
  • Congenital Disorders that Bear on Multiple Body Systems
  • Neurological Disorders
  • Mental Disorders
  • Cancer (Malignant Neoplastic Diseases)
  • Immune System Disorders

In each of these individual subsections are diseases, disorders, and medical bug that the SSA believes may let you to qualify for benefits. However, having a listed statusstill isn't enough. The SSA likewise lists specific symptoms you lot must exhibit or criteria you lot must come across to qualify for benefits based on that condition.

For example, to qualify for disability benefits based on chronic heart failure, y'all must be undergoing treatment and still have medically documented proof of systolic or diastolic failure. The SSA even defines exactly what it considers to be systolic or diastolic failure.

The chronic heart failure also must outcome in: persistent symptoms of heart failure that interfere with daily living; three or more separate episodes of acute congestive heart failure over a consecutive 12-month menstruum; or an inability to perform an exercise tolerance examination for specified reasons, such as chest discomfort.

For many listed conditions, in that location areall-encompassing details nearly what symptoms you lot have to feel -- and with what frequency. If your status isn't listed, you'll need documented proof information technology causes symptoms as severe as those exhibited past patients with ailments on the Listing of Impairments.

How practise you employ for inability benefits?

If you believe you come across the qualifying criteria to apply for disability benefits, you tin can:

  • Apply online:You tin utilise for SSDI benefits online if yous're over 18, do not currently receive benefits, and have not been denied benefits in the past 60 days. That said, only certain people applying for SSI benefits can apply online. You must be between historic period 18 and 65, and you cannot utilize online if you lot've been married, if you're blind, or if you've applied for or received SSI benefits before. Yous also must be applying for SSDI benefits at the same time.
  • Apply at your local Social Security office.You can call 800-772-1213 or contact your local Social Security office to schedule an engagement to submit an application for benefits.

What you need to apply for benefits

When you apply for benefits, you'll need to provide some basic demographic information, including details near:

  • Your work history
  • Your current earnings
  • Your household income and household avails
  • Your bank or financial institution
  • Your current and by employers
  • Up to five jobs you've held over the past fifteen years
  • Other benefits yous may be receiving
  • Your citizenship status
  • Belch from the armed services (if applicable)

Y'all volition need to provide certain documents, including pay stubs, proof of citizenship, and W-2s. Most importantly, y'all volition too need to provide information about your disabling condition, including detailed medical records.

Providing information about your medical status

Providing proof of your disabling status is the virtually important office of applying for Social Security Disability. You will demand to provide whatever medical records you take in your possessionand requite the Social Security Assistants authority to access other medical records.

The SSA wants to receive information about your status from your treating doc. This is the md who sees you on a regular ground. The SSA but accepts medical information from licensed physicians and prefers to take records provided by experts in the field of medicine related to your inability. If you're applying considering y'all take cancer, the SSA would wait to see medical records from your oncologist.

It'south imperative that your dr. fully document your symptoms and any treatments you undergo; this will give you the best run a risk of obtaining SSDI or SSI benefits. The Social Security Administration may too ask you lot to undergo an examination or evaluation with ane of its doctors at some point during the application or appeals procedure.

How does the application process work?

When you lot provide details about your medical condition to the SSA, your local Social Security function reviews your bones information to see if you could potentially qualify based on income and work history.

Your file is then sent off to a disability claims examiner who will review all of your medical documentation. The claims examiner will make a conclusion on your instance, and you'll be notified via mail whether your claim has been approved or denied. It normally takes around a month to ninety days to receive the determination on your application.

What if your awarding is denied?

The denial charge per unit for Social Security Inability benefits is very high, and then there'southward a significant gamble your application won't exist approved. If your merits is denied, there are multiple stages of appeal, including:

  • Request for afterthought, which means a new disability claims examiner reviews your claim once more
  • A hearing before an administrative police judge (ALJ)
  • A review past the Social Security Administration'south internal appeals board
  • Appeal to a federal court

The conclusion not to award you benefits could be reversed at whatsoever stage of the appeals process. For instance, your request for reconsideration could result in your benefits being canonical and you lot wouldn't need to motion on to additional appeals. Nevertheless, you must go through each phase if your merits continues to be denied and you lot want to go along fighting.

If yous must entreatment a benefits denial, the procedure of getting benefits can take a very long time. In fact, depending where you live, it may take effectually a year for a hearing to be scheduled. Yous may exist able to attend your hearing via video if yous're unable to attend in person.

All of these stages of appeal take identify inside the Social Security's authoritative process until y'all get to the federal courtroom appeal. The ALJ works for the Social Security Administration but is nonetheless supposed to impartially weigh the evidence to determine whether your claim was handled properly.

If you don't already accept an attorney and your benefits claim is denied, information technology's often best to get legal representation so a knowledgeable advocate tin can guide you through the appeals procedure.

Compassionate allowance conditions

Although it generally takes a lot of time and endeavor to receive Social Security Disability benefits, some people who are very sick with a serious medical condition may exist able to get their claims approved through a streamlined process.

This is possible if y'all take a Empathetic Assart Status, or a condition on the SSA's Compassionate Assart List. Listed atmospheric condition include metastatic cancers, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Lewy Body Dementia, some genetic conditions, and a number of other serious ailments.

When you lot specify that y'all have a medical condition included on the Empathetic Assart List, your awarding will exist fast-tracked, and you may become a conclusion in as little as ten days from the fourth dimension you apply for benefits. Yous may too demand to provide merely a small corporeality of objective medical data, rather than having to encounter all-encompassing requirements for documenting your disquiet, as most other applicants must provide.

Applying for disability benefits could provide the income y'all need

When you're physically or mentally disabled due to an disease or injury, the last thing you need is to worry about your finances. Social Security disability benefits provide a secure source of income so y'all can provide for yourself and your loved ones. You lot should apply for benefits as soon as possible if you're eligible so yous will have the money yous demand to exist financially secure and maintain the highest quality of life you can.