Anyone tin become temporarily or permanently disabled. In fact, many experts believe that Americans in their 20s today accept well-nigh a 30% chance of experiencing a disabling condition severe enough to cause at least three months of missed work before they retire. However despite the significant risk of disability, nigh Americans have neither short-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 pick is to employ for monthly inability benefits through the Social Security Administration, which likewise provides retirement benefits to seniors. However, qualifying for Social Security disability benefits can be complicated, and the bar for qualifying is fix fairly high.

If yous remember you lot may come to rely on Social Security inability benefits -- or if you lot simply want to detect out how they work -- this complete guide will provide the answers y'all need.

Disabled woman in wheelchair being pushed by caregiver

Paradigm source: Getty Images.

What are Social Security disability benefits?

Social Security disability benefits are monthly payments that aid support people who become too disabled to work. There are two unlike programs through which the SSA pays disability benefits. Those programs are:

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

Although both programs use the same bones definition of "disabled," and in that location's some overlap betwixt the programs, there are too major central differences. SSI and SSDI are intended for 2 different groups of disabled workers; the benefits and qualifying requirements differ; and the funding sources are unlike.

What is Social Security Disability Insurance?

Social Security Inability Insurance is a condom cyberspace program that essentially insures workers in the instance they go sick or injured and tin can't work every bit a result. However, with SSDI, y'all don't pay premiums to an insurance visitor. Instead, yous pay Social Security taxes out of each paycheck, and a portion of this taxation coin goes to fund the SSDI program.

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

How much income does SSDI provide?

If yous qualify for SSDI, the amount of income y'all receive is determined past your work history and the wages y'all earned over your career. A similar arroyo is used to calculate Social Security retirement benefits. As with retirement benefits, the SSA calculates your boilerplate wages over your working life and plugs that number into a formula, and the result is the corporeality of your monthly check.

Even so, with retirement benefits, the SSA looks at your average wages over the 35 years when you earned the well-nigh -- but you lot may non have a 35-year work history if y'all've get disabled. To decide how many years of wages to consider in computing SSDI benefits, the SSA:

  • Subtracts 22 from your electric current age. So, if yous were fifty, you lot'd subtract 50-22 = 28
  • Takes one-fifth of that number and rounds downwardly to the nearest whole number. And then, you'd take one/v of 28 in our example, which equals five.vi and which rounds down to 5.
  • Subtracts the 2d number from the first. If the second number is less than two, and then SSA subtracts two instead. If information technology'southward more than than v, the SSA subtracts v. In our case, the SSA would accept 28-5, and so it would consider 23 years of work history.

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

  1. 90% of the first $895 in AIME
  2. 32% of AIME between $895 and $5,397
  3. 15% of AIME above $5,397

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

As of 2018, the maximum SSDI benefit is $2,788 monthly, while the average do good is $1,197 per calendar month.

How do you qualify for SSDI?

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

  • You must have earned a sufficient number of work credits.

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

The specific number of work credits you need to qualify for SSDI will vary depending how old you lot are when you lot get disabled. Every bit a general rule, you can potentially authorize if you've earned at to the lowest degree twenty credits in the 10 years prior to becoming disabledand if y'all've earned a total of 40 credits or more.

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

If you're between the ages of 24 and 31, you tin can authorize if you've earned work credits at least half the time between age 21 and the fourth dimension y'all develop your disability. If you lot're between the ages of 31 and 62, there'south a chart showing the number of credits you need.

  • You cannot be engaged in substantial gainful activity

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

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

  • You have to come across the definition of disabled

We'll talk almost this in greater detail afterward, but generally, this ways you demand to have a serious long-term medical condition that prevents you from working. The cause of your impairment doesn't matter -- it can be the event of an blow, an disease, or any other cause. The important thing is that you lot see the SSA's specific and narrow definition of what it means to be disabled.

  • Y'all must be unable to do any job yous're qualified for

You must be unable to do not only the chore you were doing when you became disabled, but as well whatsoever other job for which you lot're qualified. The SSA will look at your transferrable skills to find out whether you lot can do whatever piece of work despite your disabling condition.

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

What if you don't have plenty work credits?

If you don't accept plenty work credits to qualify for SSDI, information technology's possible you may be able to qualify based on a spouse's or parent's piece of work record. For case:

  • Widows or widowers between the ages of 50 and 60 who become disabled may qualify for widow's disability benefits based on a spouse'due south work history.
  • If you become disabled earlier age 22, yous can exist classified every bit an adult kid and potentially become eligible for SSDI benefits based on a parent's work history.

The Social Security Assistants has more information on qualifying for benefits on a family fellow member's work history. If you can't qualify based on your own work record or a family fellow member's piece of work record, and so you will non be able to get SSDI benefits. However, y'all may however 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 can as well qualify for SSI benefits.

SSI benefits are funded through general revenue enhancement revenue, rather than through special taxes collected solely for the program. Yous can qualify for these benefits regardless of your work history, but you must take low income and few valuable assets.

How much can you receive in Supplemental Security Income?

The monthly income you'll receive from SSI is typically lower than the monthly do good y'all'd get from SSDI. Information technology's non based on past wages but is instead a fixed corporeality based on the federal benefit rate.

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

How do you qualify for SSI?

You can qualify for SSI if:

  • You're aged, bullheaded, or disabled

This would mean you're over 65, you're legally blind, or you lot run into the SSA'due south definition of disabled. The definition of disabled is the aforementioned for SSI and SSDI, and we'll embrace that in more detail subsequently.

  • You have express income

You lot can't get SSI benefits if you're engaged in substantial gainful activity. The definition of SGA for SSI is the same every bit it for SSDI, so you won't be eligible for benefits if y'all earn $one,180 per month or more, or $one,970 per month or more if yous're blind.

Considering SSI benefits are needs-based, there are other rules when it comes to income likewise. If y'all accept $750 per month or more in countable income, you tin't authorize for SSI. If yous take some countable income, your maximum $750 monthly benefit will exist reduced on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

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

Withal, SNAP benefits, income taxation refunds, certain other government benefits, loans, grants or scholarships for tuition, and the first $20 in income received in a month are non countable for the purpose of determining whether you lot can get SSI benefits.

  • You have few assets

There's also a limit on how much you can own before you get ineligible for SSI. Individuals with more than $two,000 in countable assets won't qualify for SSI, while couples are allowed upward to $3,000 in avails.

Assets or resources that are counted for the purpose of determining whether you striking this $2,000 or $3,000 threshold include cash, bank accounts, stocks, savings bonds, vehicles, land, personal holding, life insurance, and other things yous ain that y'all could catechumen into shelter or food. All the same, some of your assets -- such as the home you live in, one vehicle, and some personal property -- won't count when determining your resources.

If you give abroad your resource to fall below the asset limits, you could be disqualified from getting SSI benefits for up to 36 months.

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

To obtain disability payments from either SSI or SSDI, y'all must run across the Social Security Administration'southward definition of disabled. This is non every bit easy as it sounds. For the SSA to consider you disabled, your condition must:

  • Concluding a twelvemonth, be expected to last a year, or be expected to result in your death.
  • Significantly limit your ability to practice bones activities necessary to work, such every bit walking, sitting, continuing, or retaining and remembering information.
  • Be included in the SSA's "Listing of Impairments" (more on that soon) or exist medically equivalent to listed atmospheric condition. This List of Impairments is likewise called the "Blue Book."
  • Preclude you from doing whatever work for which you're qualified.

More than than half of all applicants for disability benefits are denied, frequently because their ailment does non encounter this very limited definition of what it means to exist disabled.

What is the Listing of Impairments?

The Listing of Impairments is a list of conditions or health issues the SSA has prepared that are unremarkably considered astringent plenty to allow you to qualify for benefits. Information technology'due south divided into Part A, which lists adult conditions, and Part B, which lists children's conditions.

Within each office, there are specific categories of medical ailments that deal with dissimilar 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
  • Built Disorders that Affect 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 problems that the SSA believes may allow you to qualify for benefits. However, having a listed conditionyet isn't enough. The SSA also lists specific symptoms you must showroom or criteria y'all must meet to qualify for benefits based on that condition.

For case, to qualify for disability benefits based on chronic heart failure, you 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 result in: persistent symptoms of centre failure that interfere with daily living; three or more separate episodes of astute congestive heart failure over a consecutive 12-calendar month period; or an inability to perform an exercise tolerance exam for specified reasons, such equally breast discomfort.

For many listed conditions, there areall-encompassing details about what symptoms you lot accept to experience -- and with what frequency. If your condition isn't listed, you'll need documented proof it causes symptoms as severe as those exhibited by patients with ailments on the Listing of Impairments.

How do you use for inability benefits?

If you believe y'all meet the qualifying criteria to apply for disability benefits, you tin can:

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

What you need to apply for benefits

When y'all utilize for benefits, you lot'll need to provide some bones demographic data, including details about:

  • Your work history
  • Your electric current earnings
  • Your household income and household assets
  • Your bank or financial institution
  • Your current and past employers
  • Up to 5 jobs you've held over the past 15 years
  • Other benefits you may exist receiving
  • Your citizenship status
  • Discharge from the military (if applicable)

You lot will demand to provide certain documents, including pay stubs, proof of citizenship, and West-2s. Most chiefly, you volition also demand to provide information about your disabling status, including detailed medical records.

Providing information about your medical status

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

The SSA wants to receive information about your status from your treating dr.. This is the doctor who sees yous on a regular ground. The SSA but accepts medical information from licensed physicians and prefers to have records provided by experts in the field of medicine related to your disability. If you're applying because you have cancer, the SSA would expect to see medical records from your oncologist.

It'south imperative that your doctor fully document your symptoms and whatever treatments you undergo; this volition give y'all the best chance of obtaining SSDI or SSI benefits. The Social Security Administration may also ask you to undergo an test or evaluation with i of its doctors at some point during the application or appeals process.

How does the application process work?

When yous provide details well-nigh your medical condition to the SSA, your local Social Security office reviews your basic data to see if you could potentially qualify based on income and piece of 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 brand a decision on your case, and y'all'll be notified via mail whether your claim has been approved or denied. It usually takes around a calendar month to 90 days to receive the decision on your application.

What if your awarding is denied?

The denial rate for Social Security Disability benefits is very high, so there's a pregnant chance your application won't be approved. If your claim is denied, there are multiple stages of appeal, including:

  • Request for afterthought, which means a new disability claims examiner reviews your claim once again
  • A hearing earlier an authoritative law approximate (ALJ)
  • A review by the Social Security Assistants's internal appeals board
  • Appeal to a federal court

The decision not to award y'all benefits could exist reversed at whatsoever stage of the appeals process. For example, your request for afterthought could result in your benefits being canonical and you wouldn't need to motility on to boosted appeals. Notwithstanding, you must go through each phase if your merits continues to be denied and you want to keep fighting.

If you lot must appeal a benefits denial, the process of getting benefits can take a very long fourth dimension. In fact, depending where y'all live, it may have around a year for a hearing to exist scheduled. You may be able to nourish your hearing via video if you're unable to attend in person.

All of these stages of appeal have place within the Social Security'south administrative process until y'all get to the federal court entreatment. The ALJ works for the Social Security Administration but is nevertheless supposed to impartially weigh the prove to make up one's mind whether your claim was handled properly.

If y'all don't already have an attorney and your benefits claim is denied, it's frequently best to get legal representation so a knowledgeable advocate can guide you through the appeals process.

Empathetic assart conditions

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

This is possible if yous accept a Compassionate Allowance Condition, or a condition on the SSA'due south Compassionate Allowance Listing. Listed conditions include metastatic cancers, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Lewy Body Dementia, some genetic conditions, and a number of other serious ailments.

When you specify that you have a medical condition included on the Compassionate Allowance List, your application will be fast-tracked, and you may get a decision in as little as 10 days from the time yous apply for benefits. Yous may as well need to provide simply a small amount of objective medical data, rather than having to run across all-encompassing requirements for documenting your ailment, as about other applicants must provide.

Applying for inability benefits could provide the income you demand

When you're physically or mentally disabled due to an disease or injury, the final thing yous need is to worry about your finances. Social Security inability benefits provide a secure source of income and then you can provide for yourself and your loved ones. You should employ for benefits as before long every bit possible if you're eligible so yous will have the money you need to be financially secure and maintain the highest quality of life yous can.