About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (April 15, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govepvi0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research S~ Informing the Iegisl9tive debate since 191 Updated April 15, 2024 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 and its payroll tax. The program's SSDI component provides benefits to insured workers who are below full retirement age and experience long-term, work-limiting disabilities (often referred to as disabled workers or SSDI worker beneficiaries). It also provides benefits to their eligible spouses and children. The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers OASDI. bty Requirements To qualify for SSDI, a worker must (1) be below Social Security's full retirement age (FRA), which is 65-67, depending on year of birth; (2) be insured in the event of disability; (3) meet the statutory definition of disability; and (4) have filed an application for benefits. To be insured in the event of disability, workers must have worked in Social Security-covered jobs for about a quarter of their adult lives and for at least five of the 10 years before disability onset. However, younger workers may qualify with less work experience based on their age. In 2023, about 160 million workers 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 2024 is $1,550 per month for most workers and $2,590 per month for blind workers. These amounts are generally adjusted annually for average wage growth. In general, workers must have severe impairments that prevent them from doing any 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 veterans' disability compensation, SSDI does not pay benefits for partial or short-term disabilities. Spouses of disabled workers qualify for SSDI benefits if they are (1) age 62 or older, or (2) any age and care for eligible children who are under age 16 or have qualifying disabilities. Children of disabled workers generally qualify for SSDI benefits if they are unmarried and (1) under age 18, (2) age 18 to 19 and full-time students in grade 12 or below, or (3) age 18 or older and have qualifying disabilities that began before age 22. Cash and Med ca enef ts In February 2024, Social Security provided $11.8 billion in benefits to about 8.4 million SSDI beneficiaries, including 7.3 million disabled workers, 86,000 spouses of disabled workers, and 1.1 million children of disabled workers (Table 1). The average monthly SSDI benefit was about $1,537 for workers, $419 for spouses, and $493 for dependent children. Table I. SSDI Beneficiaries, February 2024 Total Number Average Monthly (Thousands Monthly Benefits Beneficiary ) Benefit (Millions) Total 8,445 $1,395 $11,781 Workers 7,303 $1,537 $11,224 Spouses 86 $419 $36 Children 1,056 $493 $521 Source: SSA, Monthly Statistical Snapshot, February 2024, Table 2. Notes: Components may not sum to totals due to rounding. Workers' initial SSDI benefits are based on their career- average earnings in covered jobs, 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 an SSDI worker beneficiary 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. SSDI dependent benefits are subject to family maximum provisions, which limit the total amount of benefits that can be paid on a worker's earnings 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 their disabilities began. SSDI benefits begin five full consecutive months after a worker's disability onset date. This requirement is known as thefive-month waiting period and does not apply to workers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Disabled workers also qualify for Medicare after 24 months of entitlement to SSDI (29 full consecutive months after their

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most