After suffering from a devastating injury that has left you disabled, your life has been turned upside down. You went from having a steady, well-paying job to being worried about where you would get the money to pay your bills. Despite having paid off your house years ago, you now worry about how you will keep your home and continue to pay your property taxes. Retirement, once something you saved diligently for, now seems millions of miles away.
Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, or SSD benefits, may not get you back to where you were financially before your injury. You do know, however, that it can help you stay afloat and take care of yourself. You apply for benefits, knowing that it may help, but do you know what benefits you will be able to receive?
SSD Benefits: What You Receive, and What You Don’t
When your SSD claim is finally accepted, it can feel like a major victory. For many, the process takes several months, but when you are deemed eligible to receive benefits you may be reimbursed for the wait. You are also eligible to receive medical benefits after a certain period of time. Let’s take a look at what your SSD claim victory earns you:
- Monthly payments are what most people think of when asked about SSD benefits, and you will begin to receive recurrent payments until you are no longer disabled or until you are eligible to receive retirement benefits. The amount you receive is dependent on several things, including your average income prior to your disability, your work history, and your age. Typically, people receive between 25%-40% of their prior income.
- Back payments are also an important award, as it takes many people several months of appeals to make it through the SSD claim application process. You are eligible to receive a lump sum of your benefits from the date you first applied, and up to a full year prior to that if you became disabled at an earlier date.
- Health benefits are not immediately available, but SSD recipients will receive Medicare benefits just over two years after their date of disability onset. This date is calculated by adding five months (the standard SSD eligibility waiting period) to the date on which you became disabled. For many people, the SSD approval process takes well over one year, so many recipients are eligible for Medicare shortly after receiving their benefits.
- SNAP benefits are also available to SSD recipients. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program can help stretch your SSD monthly benefits further by offsetting some of the cost of food. These benefits are based on your income, however, so some SSD recipients will not be eligible.
If you have questions about your benefits under SSDI, or have encountered trouble while applying for SSD, my firm can assist you with the appeal process. Contact me today to discuss your case in a confidential, free consultation.
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