How Much in Social Security Disability Benefits Can You Get?
How Much in Social Security Disability Benefits Can You Get?
The U.S. government has an assortment of benefits programs, including SSDI or Social Security Disability Insurance. As the government itself explains, the “Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability programs are the largest of several Federal programs that provide assistance to people with disabilities.”
Different in several ways, they are both overseen by the Social Security Administration and are available strictly to those who have a disability and who meet the organization’s medical criteria.
What Are Social Security Disability Benefits?
The Social Security Disability Insurance program will pay benefits to those individuals (as well as some members of their household) if they are insured. Insurance comes from having worked long enough and to have also paid Social Security taxes.
If you qualify, you receive a monthly sum that is based on the years in which you worked, and is not based on the severity of the disability.
How are Benefits Calculated?
The sum you receive is going to be based on your “average lifetime earnings before your disability began,” and is typically going to run from $800 to $1800 per month. For the year 2020, for example, the average SSDI recipient is going to earn $1258. The amount you receive, however, can be reduced if you have obtained disability payments from other sources.
The SSDI utilizes what they call a weighted formula that can award up to $3011 if that is what the formula determines is the accurate sum. The formula takes into consideration the sums paid into Social Security taxes, also known as your covered earnings.
The average of covered earnings is the AIME or Average Indexed Monthly Earnings and is what is used to figure out the base or Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). The SSA than assigns fixed percentages of income, known as bend points, that are adjusted each year.
As an example, you might get 90% of the first $850 of your AIME to add to the PIA. Yet, you might then get around 35% of your AIME for $851 to $5785 of your PIA, and so on. You may also receive a small cost of living adjustment or COLA to ensure that inflation doesn’t allow your benefits to become insufficient to your actual needs.
But, as we indicated, if you are receiving other disability benefits, such as those from a worker’s compensation claims or from a state disability program, it is likely that your SSDI benefits will be impacted.
Typically, you may not receive more than 80% of the average sum you earned before you were disabled through SSDI and other benefits.
What about Backpay?
You can be eligible for backpay. The SSA uses your initial application date and the date of onset of the disability. If you had previously applied for disability, it is possible that you may get back pay going back to the original application date. In fact, in most instances, past–due disability benefits are available once the process is complete.
The point of backpay is that an SSDI claim takes a lot of time, and can be quite complicated. If you find you are in need of help with your SSDI claim, contact Jorgensen Law for a consultation and expert guidance.
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