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1 1 (April 14, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govelhd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service grasswimaInformring th legisIlive debAm sinceo 1914 Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Overview Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is part of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, commonly known as Social Security. OASDI is a federal social insurance program that provides monthly cash benefits to insured workers and their eligible family members in the event of the worker's retirement, disability, or death. Workers obtain insurance protection by working for a sufficient period in jobs covered by Social Security. The program's SSDI component provides benefits to nonelderly insured workers who experience long-term, work-limiting disabilities and to their eligible spouses and children. As with Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI)-Social Security's retirement and survivors component-benefits are based on a worker's past earnings in covered employment or self-employment. The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers OASDI. Eligibility Requirements To qualify for SSDI, workers must (1) be below Social Security's full retirement age (FRA), (2) be insured in the event of disability, and (3) meet the statutory definition of disability. FRA is the age at which unreduced Social Security retired-worker benefits are first payable, which is 65-67, depending on year of birth. Workers who have attained their FRA are ineligible for SSDI. To be insured in the event of disability, workers must have worked in jobs covered by Social Security for about a quarter of their adult lives and for at least five of the 10 years prior to the onset of disability. However, younger workers may qualify with less work experience based on their age. In 2022, SSDI provided disability insurance protection to 159 million workers. That year, about 90% of covered workers aged 21-64 had sufficient work experience to qualify for SSDI in the event of disability. To meet the statutory definition of disability, a worker must be unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity (SGA) due to any medically determinable physical or mental impairment that (1) is expected to result in death or (2) has lasted, or is expected to last, for at least 12 consecutive months. SSA uses an earnings limit to determine if a person's work activity constitutes SGA, which for 2023 is $1,470 per month for most workers and $2,460 per month for blind workers. (These amounts are adjusted annually for average wage growth.) In general, workers must have severe impairments that prevent them from doing any kind of substantial work that exists in significant numbers in the national economy, taking into consideration their age, education, and work experience. The work need not exist in the immediate area in which the worker lives, nor must a specific job vacancy exist for the individual. Unlike workers' compensation (WC) or the Updated April 14, 2023 Department of Veterans Affairs programs, SSDI does not pay benefits for partial or short-term disabilities. Spouses of disabled workers qualify for SSDI benefits if they are (1) aged 62 or older or (2) any age and care for an eligible child who is under age 16 or disabled. Children of disabled workers qualify for SSDI benefits if they are unmarried and (1) under age 18, (2) aged 18-19 and a full- time student in grade 12 or below, or (3) aged 18 or older and became disabled before age 22. Cash and Medical Benefits In February 2023, Social Security provided $11.7 billion in benefits to about 8.8 million SSDI beneficiaries, including 7.5 million disabled workers, 89,000 spouses of disabled workers, and 1.1 million children of disabled workers (Table 1). The average monthly SSDI benefit was $1,483 for disabled workers, $406 for spouses of disabled workers, and $472 for children of disabled workers. Table 1. SSDI Beneficiaries, February 2023 Total Average Monthly Number Monthly Benefits Beneficiary (thousands) Benefit (millions) Total 8,763 $1,341 $11,749 Disabled 7,534 $1,483 $11,174 Workers Spouses 89 $406 $36 Children 1,140 $472 $539 Source: SSA, Monthly Statistical Snapshot, February 2023, Table 2. Notes: Components may not sum to totals due to rounding. Initial benefits for disabled workers are based on their career-average earnings in covered employment or self- employment, indexed to reflect changes in national wage levels. The benefit formula is progressive, replacing a greater share of career-average earnings for low-wage workers than for high-wage workers. The benefit for a spouse or child of a disabled worker is up to 50% of the worker's basic benefit amount. Following entitlement, SSDI benefits are generally adjusted each year to account for inflation through cost-of-living adjustments. Benefits for dependents are subject to family maximum provisions, which limit the total amount of benefits that can be paid on a worker's record. SSDI benefits may be offset if disabled workers also receive WC or certain other public disability benefits and the combined amount of their SSDI and other disability benefits exceeds 80% of their average current earnings before they became disabled.

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